Review: Sand Art

I had a very nice email asking me to review this product, from a lady just starting up her own business after her own little girl fell in love with a sandart product she had been sent by a relative.

I have fond memories of sand craft as a few years back JJ had sat for a quiet few hours and done some sandart pictures and I knew the concept would appeal to my little crafty one Miss E so I said yes and awaited my delivery. I did not have to wait long as the products arrived quickly and were well packaged.

As soon as Miss E saw them she started to badger me as to when she could sit down and do it, I agreed Sunday after Church would be a good time and I did not hear the end of it. In fact she was going on so much as I had a nice coffee with a friend after Church that I let her go home and start on it alone (Daddy was already there and don't forget the Church is in our back garden!).

It shows how simple this product is as Miss E got herself started and she was having a fine time applying the sand when I walked in 20 minutes later. Miss E is not big on reading so she had not looked at the instructions but she had got herself a tray to capture the sand and started to remove the sticky parts one at a time and sprinkle the sand on. She had a pile of unused sand on the tray and this seemed a shame as it was all getting mixed in colours but when I looked at the instructions. I see what we should have done is used the instruction booklet folded under the sand and then it could have been used as a funnel to get the leftover sand back into the vial with the right colour.  Doh so simple!

I also discovered that that plastic outer pack has X shaped holes in the back so you could push the sand vials (like test tubes) through and they would stand up and reduce the risk of spilling anything.  I thought this looked a good idea but personally I think it did not work that well, as one of the X shapes just crushed right through, so the kids sand vials just laid on their tray and as they all had little removable lids that was fine.

The Sand Art kits sell for £9.00 each and for that price you get 4 pictures, 12 vial of coloured sand, 4 plastic covers to laminate the finished products and a lifting tool. Each picture works out at £2.25 each and if you have the kind of child who will sit down and enjoy this for a good period of time then I think it is worth that money. If you have one like my Miss M who wants everything completed in 10 minutes and an instant fix then it probably isn't.

The actual pictures are smaller than I had imagined they would be (I put  medium pritt stick on the picture so you can gage the size) but they do make a great quality picture in the end. There is a super selection of packs available with designs to suit all children.

The lifting tools make it easy to raise the covers so that the sticky part is exposed but to be honest Miss E did not seem to have had any trouble before I showed her to use this. I also like the fact that each picture is sold with a little plastic cover so that the picture can be treasured forever.

If you want to find out more or order a Sand Art set then check out - http://www.sandart-creations.co.uk/ This is something that I'd happily buy as a gift for child.

Disclosure: I was sent three sandart kits for my children to try out. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.