Review: Gel-a-Peel Accessory Kits - Pearly Pastels and Glow In The Dark

This weekend my 9 year old twin girls have been having some crafting fun with a couple of Gel-a-Peel accessory kits. Gel-a-Peel isn't something we have used before and nor heard of to be honest but as soon as I showed the girls the packages they knew it would be something they would enjoy.

One of my twins is far more crafty than the other and she was really looking forward to the act of making the silicon jewellery. The other one is a real fashionista and the part she was really looking forward to was wearing the jewellery and making sure of the cute shapes and charms.

Each accessory kit of Gel-a-Peel has an RRP of £14.99 and for this price you get 3 different coloured tubes of gel, 5 different shaped tips for applying your gel, 16 different design templates, a clear application board, cleaning and spreading tools and one set of hardware to make some hanging pierced earrings. We received the Pearly Pastel and Glow In The Dark its but there is also Neon and Sparkle accessory kits.

There are many more different kits too, large deluxe ones with beads included or a full design station which retails for around £29.99. You can also buy small starter sets for £4.99 with just one tube of gel and all the bits you need to get started. This is probably a good idea for a new user to see if they enjoy this craft. I was really pleased to see that you can buy replacement tubes of gel for just £2.99 each.

Using our Gel-a-Peel for the fist time
The instructions that come with the kit are very good and easy to use. First up you have to remove the protective cap on the tube and add the tip that you wish to use. You can choose the template design you want and place the clear application board over it. It is best to use masking tape to keep both in one place on the table so the design comes out perfect.

The gel tubes are very easy to use and the gel flows well, not too much and you don't need excess effort, which is very good for kids. You do need to make sure that you use a good amount of gel to give a thick and even coverage or it can break and be too fragile once dry. Once you finish with one colour you can move onto the next and get your design completed.

As well as making bracelets, cuffs, bookmarks, necklets and rings using the templates you can also use the gel tray, which has gems, flowers, letters, number, emojis etc on them. With these you just apply the gel into the cavity, use the little grey tool to make sure there are no air bubbles and the mould is full of the gel and then use the pink squeegee to go over the top and flatten the back. These small charms can then either be attached to a piece of Gel-a-Peel jewellery by using a bit of the gel as the glue or stuck onto anything else you fancy using a hot glue gun. In our house they have gone onto jewellery boxes, roller boots, pencil cases and buttons!

Once you have finished your design session, you do need to take the application caps off the tubes and clear out any excess gel left in them. I used the grey tool provided to do that and it wasn't difficult. I was also pleased that not much gel was lost doing this. Pop the protective cap back in and the lid and the gels will stay fresh for the next session.

The design templates tell you how long you need to leave the item to dry before you can use it. Simple designs with just one line of Gel-a-Peel are around an hour and the more complex bracelets and cuffs with multiple lines and layers of Gel-a-Peel can be around 5 hours. We left ours overnight.

You then carefully need to peel them off the clear application sheet once dry and you can then enjoy and wear them.  One of Miss E's bracelets broke as she took it off the sheet as she had left the gel a little thin in one place. This is easily fixed by putting some new gel over where it has snapped and waiting for it to dry.

What did we think?
Thanks a lot Gel-a-Peel, my girls had a lot of fun and they were both talking about getting more for their birthday. At nearly 10 years old they found this easy to do without me having to be involved. I think the older the child the easier they will find it and the more time and care they will take. Younger ones could do it, with supervision but it is recommend for 8+  years.

Why not have a watch of this video where you can see the Gel-a-Peel being used and see for yourself just how simple it is.



Disclosure: We received two Gel-a-Peel sets free of charge for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest. 

Review: Magic Dip Design Art Centre

Miss E was super pleased to receive the Magic Dip Design Art Centre from character. It retails for £29.99 and is available from most good toy stores and online at places like Amazon. The best price I found it for was at John Lewis where it is currently £24.99.

We've made a video with Miss E using the design art centre and talking about how she enjoys it and if she finds it easy, have a watch -



Here are the pros and cons that we found -

Pro's -

• It was easy enough for a 9 year old to set up and use alone (whilst under my beady eye)
• The marbled items look fabulous if you use a light hand to dip them
• You get unique items every time
• You can dip and marble most anything you fancy - candles, ceramic, silicon, plastics, wood, paper, card, glass and textiles
• It dries quickly and the spay sets the paint
• Once you have dipped your item, you can clear the water really easily to mix fresh paints and dip something else
• Any messes are easily cleared up with simple nail polish remover
• it is great fun and keeps the kids happy

Points to think about -

• Don't forget to protect your work area (we use an old oil cloth on the table) and use an apron (we forgot!)
• Make sure the water is room temp, it makes the world of difference
• You have to be quick, once the paint is on the water it is starting to set already
• Dip paper or card based products quickly as too much time in the water and they start to soak it up
• Only one glove supplied and ours was ruined after one session
• The paint contains irritants, is toxic to aquatic life and is highly flammable, so it needed to be used carefully and under supervision. We found our dining room was quite smelly after a while and I had to open the window and finish our session.

In all we think the Magic Dip Design Art Centre is great and would make a super Christmas present for a young boy or girl who likes to craft. Due to the ingredients of the paints the child needs to be 8+ years and work under supervision in a well ventilated room.

You can also buy a starter kit with 4 paints, glossy spray, glitter, gems and a few things to dip for just £10, as well as replacement paints, which are £5 for 5 colours and I think that is reasonable.

Disclosure: We received this set free of charge for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Fun Preparations for Easter

My family really enjoys Easter. It is the biggest event in the Christian calendar and as such we throw ourselves into it. Yes, there are some of the more modern, or some might say commercial activities such as giving and receiving chocolate eggs and Easter egg hunts but there is also a lot of activity around the real meaning of Easter and why we celebrate it.

One of the activities that we tend to do each year is create an Easter garden from natural materials. The girls love collecting moss, stones, twigs and such to create the scene of the three crosses where Jesus died and the tomb which he rose again from.

We also enjoy making hot cross buns and this year we have bought some Easter biscuit cutters, so I think gingerbread might be on the agenda too. I seriously cannot wait for school to break up so we can have the time to do some of these activities, its going to be a bit of a squeeze though as Good Friday is the first day of their holiday, so that will be a day for the kids and I to get busy. I pray for some nice weather.

The girls have also enjoyed some Easter crafts, they have made Easter bonnets, decorated eggs and painted decorations and we will go and search out a branch that we can make an Easter celebration tree with.

Many thanks for the chocolate eggs and craft kits that have been provided courtesy of Ollie and Leila who make divine personalised beds for children.

Review - Aqua Beads Jewel Starter Kit

Aquabeads have been a firm favourite for some time now, much like the more established Hama beads in that you can make little designs, keyrings, photo frames, 3D boxes etc but the massive plus point with Aquabeads is that they just need a spray of water and about an hour to fix solid and thus the children can do it themselves.  No more having to get the ironing board out and buying expensive backing paper to iron the beads and make their designs.

When we first got Aquabeads a couple of years back I did wonder if the designs might fall apart after a while but actually as long as you spray them and allow them to dry and then spray the other side they last an age. We still have some that have been hanging around way in excess of a year now.

The set we were sent to review is the new Aquabeads jewel starter set and this means the beads are not round and opaque they are jewel shaped and translucent and sparkly.  My twins really loved them and it is a nice twist on something which is popular with them already.

You make the designs in the same way as always. Open up your 800 beads (sounds a lot but actually they will be gone in a flash) and put them in the little plastic dish that you get to keep the colours separate. This has a very flimsy plastic lid for storing your beads but I would recommend getting a better storage box if you intend to build on your collection or use these a lot.

You then place a template sheet between the base tray and the layout tray and start to use the bead pen to delicately place your bead over the relevant space to start making the pattern shown in the template.  Of course you can also free style if you like to but my girls tend to like to follow the pattern.  Miss E actually finds it easier to use her fingers than the bead pen as she has a steady hand and lots of patience but Miss M uses the bead pen as she tends to knock all the other beads she has already placed otherwise!

The Aquabeads jewel starter set is recommended for age 4 years and upwards and I think it is worth every penny of its £10.99 price tag as it provides a lot of fun and some nice creative items at the end to keep. Miss E is currently making a rainbow with one bead missing at the top so she can thread a silver chain through it and wear it as a necklace.

For more inspiration you can follow Aquabeads on Facebook , Instagram and Pinterest and brilliantly you can also download new templates so your children can make even more designs.

Disclosure:  We were provided with this set free of charge for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

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.