Review 3M Command Damage-Free Hanging

We have just moved house and this means a whole ton of rehanging things and that is not my idea of heaven if I’m honest. We arrived at the new house on 30^th July and within a week all the boxes were gone and the house was looking shipshape. But here I am now 6 weeks in and my walls are still practically bare. I detest trying to hang pictures, especially large ones.

I get all worried that the nail will go into a pipe or electric cable and then I’ll have trouble. I don’t have one of these gadgets to check and I don’t want to go out and buy one. I also don’t like using a drill for the bigger mirrors and pictures. Luckily my brother will be up in a week or so and I’ll get him to do all the heavy jobs for me.

3M have come to my rescue for the small jobs, and the best bit is there is no hammer nor nails involved. They have a range of hooks and picture hanging strips that can be stuck to the wall and they do not fall off! It sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? And I have to say if I just saw them in the shops I’d be dubious but let me assure you they really do work.

We first used command strips about three years ago when JJ had a hot wheels track on his wall. This wall mounted car track stayed firm even when played with by my rough 3 year olds and when we decided to remove it about two years later, true to their promise there was not even a tiny amount of damage to the walls, they still looked as good as the day they had been plastered and painted two years before.

After my move 3M sent me some new products to try out and I am so pleased they did. They have sorted out a number of problems for me. I have the keys hung up so I know where they are and they are out of reach of the children. I bought myself a notice board earlier this week and literally the minute I walked in the door I was able to put up one of my small clear mini hooks and hang it without it looking unsightly. I know that if I had to go to the shed for the hammer and a nail this would have taken me days.

Easy to use hooks

Nothing could be simpler than using these hooks. You literally take one out the packet and tear off a strip. The instructions tell you which side to remove the cover first and you stick the strip to the hook. You then remove the other side and stick your hook to the wall. Wait an hour for the adhesive to really adhere and there you go, start to use your hook and it looks great. I really like the fact that these hooks come with clear sticky strips, I have only seen white previously.

What I really like

*  It is really clear on the front of each packet what weight the product can hold safely

*  You can place the strips on most wall surfaces as long as they are clean

*  You can buy water resistant hooks and strips too, so even on tiles in a humid bathroom the strips hold fast

*  With the hooks you get at least 2 extra strips in each pack, so if you make a mistake or want to take something down and move it you have the option to do so

*  You can buy further packs of strips, without having to replace the hooks

*  There is a wide selection of hooks, you do not have to be satisfied with white or clear plastic there are metal finishes too

*  and of course they are super easy to apply and even to take off too, leaving a damage-free wall!

Picture hanging

I was sent picture hanging strips, which are like two pieces of sticky backed Velcro that you attach one directly to the picture frame and the other one to the wall. There are also products available to hang pictures with a sawtooth fitting and those hung with a wire.

I like the fact that you can use more than 1 pair of large strips to hold bigger/ heaver pictures or mirrors:
1 Set = 1.8Kg (4lbs)
2 Sets = 3.6Kg (8lbs)
4 Sets = 7.2Kg (16lbs)

Take a look at this quick demo video, it shows you how you can hang a picture and remove the strips easily. They show you far better than I ever could -

There is a really wide selection of Command damage-free hanging products available, go and take a peek on their website and you can purchase direct there as well or I have seen them in many major retailers and supermarkets.

Disclosure: I received a selection of hooks and wall hangers for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Review – All Stars kids DVD

Last week my kids were sent the All Stars DVD to review and I can honestly tell you it has been on numerous times in our house. It has also been watched by quite a few kids, we have had some friends over and they have all sat down to watch this whilst Miss M showed them her street dance moves!

All Stars is a sweet story about a group of unlikely kids coming together to try and save their local youth club. They all join up for a street dance crew for various reasons – from trying to impress a girl, to dancing because they love it to being part of a gang. There is nothing particularly complex about this storyline and that makes it really good for my 6 year old girls but we had kids from ages 5 through to 10 watch this and they all seemed to enjoy it.

What I liked about All Stars is that it does not appear to just be marketed at girls, there are both male and female lead characters and they are all strong and learn something along their journey to come together as a slick dance act. The music and dancing in the film was enough to get me toe tapping and wishing I could do some of their moves, it sort of reminded me of a kids version of one of the ‘Step Up’ films.

I felt it was well acted and the characters are likable and go on a journey. There is a good message in it for the kids watching and that makes it a hit with me. Take a peek at the trailer -

Starring: Theo Stevenson, Akai Osei-Mansfield, Ashey Jensen, Fleur Houdijk and many more

Certificate:  U

Run time: 106 minutes 

DVD Extras: loads available such as funny on the set scenes, dancing with Akai, BMXing with Keelan, Dancing with Sapney etc

All Stars is out on DVD and Blu-Ray now and you can purchase it from Amazon for just £10 for the DVD

Disclosure: we were sent this DVD free of charge for the purposes of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Review: Art Attack from Disney

You know what it is like during the long summer holidays, you need to lots of fill up those endless days, so when I was asked if I wanted to review some Art Attack goodies I of course jumped at the chance. I had assumed these would be the craft kits that I have seen in the shops before with craft bits to make up a specific item but I was mistaken, it seems that Disney are now doing some Art Attack goodies of their own.

We were sent a nice selection of items which all said they were suitable from age 3 upwards. The girls got to work with the starter kit quickly and painting was the first thing they wanted to do. As well as the three colours that came with the kit we added some colours from our paints and they had fun. Above is Miss M’s creation, which I am really quite proud of as she is my energetic one and never sits down to paint, colour or such, she would normally much rather be jumping around on the trampoline.

For painting you get three different heads that screw onto a plastic handle to paint with and I loved the look of these, such fun to mess about with a mini-mop head I thought but in truth it just took loads of paint and did not create that much on the page. I think these might be much better for younger kids with less dexterity that my 6 year olds. 

The starter kit retails for £15 normally and contains all you see here –

I see all the Disney Art Attack products are on special at HobbyCraft at the moment though and the starter kit is just £5.00, that's a great price!

We also received some pens and pencils and these are good quality but again I think are aimed at the younger kids. The pencils are really chunky, bigger than an average pencil and thus you need a bigger sharpener for them.

The one thing that the girls really adored was the paper embosser. I can honestly say this has been used every day we have been at home since it was opener. You cut a strip of paper to size, feed it in and it gets embossed with stars and they think this is fabulous, we have had embossed pictures, postcards, bookmarks, leaflets – you name it!

Disclosure: We were sent these craft supplies free of charge for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Review: Imaginabox

Recently my girls received a parcel each from Imaginabox and they were super excited to open them. It is a nice touch that the parcel comes addressed to the child. The plastic bag is durable and would last being left out in the rain and then the inside is colourful and the boxes sturdy to protect your crafts.

Imaginabox is a monthly crafting kit aimed at children aged 4 - 8 years. Each kit contains everything you need to make four good craft projects and it comes with a really easy to follow instruction booklet that explains how the crafts should be done. Miss M is just 6 and she could mostly read the instructions herself. The kits are aimed at parent and child time though and it is nice to get involved and help your child make something.

I think these kits are perfect if you are not crafty yourself but your child is pestering you to get involved in some projects or if you just know it would be a good idea to help them develop skills in this area. Each kit has been designed to be fun and educational and the projects sit nicely alongside the foundation and KS1 teaching curriculum. Imaginabox say that they have designed the kits to help develop communication and socialisation skills, motor skills, numeracy, problem solving and imagination.

When your child opens the box they are greeted with a number of pastel bags all clearly numbered and each one represents a different craft and then in your first kit you receive a starter bag with scissors, spreader, glue and paintbrush. With each kit of you will receive the tools you need to do those tasks and you will receive different tools or paints with each kit so you can build up your craft box. The only things it is assumed you will have are pens and pencils.

Miss E is my crafty twin and she obviously loved this but I was super surprised at Miss M who normally only has a moments concentration as she enjoyed the Imaginabox too, I think this was because it was very prescriptive and she liked to follow the instructions and have something at the end she could play with rather than just a picture or ornament. We left the box on the table for quite a few days and the girls kept coming back to it for 1/2 or so at a time.

If you wish to buy a taster box the price is £19.95 including P&P or you can sign up for a monthly subscription an the price reduces to £16.95 per month ongoing and I was pleased to see there is no minimum term or tie-in clauses.  You can also save by paying for 6 or 12 months upfront, check out the pricing options here - http://imaginabox.co.uk/about/.

The box we received is a holiday themes box and you can see the crafts the girls made here, their favourite was creating a suitcase and holiday money, tickets, passport etc for their teddies. This has given them a lot of fun.

I like the fact that on the website there are lots of free extras that you can download and use. This month there is i-spy bingo for the car, making a holiday journal, holiday postcards and lots more. It is worth taking a peek at these great free printables.

Disclosure: We were sent two imaginabox for the purposes of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Clarks 100 things to do - Paint like a famous artist

As you'll know my children and I are working our way through the Clarks new initiative '100 things to do before you are 10'. The first 50 things have been launched for summer and the next 50 will follow in the autumn.

So far we have - Played water wars and written to a penpal.

This week Miss E tackled the task number 6 - paint like a famous artist.

She was lucky enough to have a unique and personalised work of art sent through to her from the artist Dermot Flynn who is known for his work painting with food. He did the art pieces for the Marmits love it or hate it campaign. Miss E had a picture of herself panted onto a T-shirt using household stain products! A little different but she was chuffed. Here he is doing the art work -

Miss E had fun the other day creating a masterpiece t-shirt for herself. She also used some food products to make her artwork, this is what she created -

Disclosure: I was provided with Clarks vouchers to take part in this initiative. I have not been told what to write and I remain honest.