Saturday, April 26, 2014

Project in a Box

 This week I'm revisiting craft kits, and encouraging YOU to review your favorites. While there is no better source of crafting materials than the contents of your recycling bin, there is also nothing like a fabulous craft kit to inspire and encourage your child to make something creative. A craft kit can provide you with everything you need to "bling" up your own upcycling or other crafty project, or it can provide a complete craft in a box, giving you all the materials you need to make a particular craft (which, despite being most fond of spontaneous crafting, I do love for those times when you just want a quick craft with little or no set-up, or a handy themed craft that is ready to go without lots of prep!) 

project in a box

This week saw us celebrating St George's Day on the 23rd April, the feast day of the patron saint of England. To mark the occasion, I set up an activity table of St George and the Dragon crafts, puzzles and coloring for my daughter to delve into. 

catapult craft with St George decor and a castle
The main project featured the kits pictured - a catapult craft with St George decor (left), and a castle made from a box (below), all from the marvelous UK company ToucanBox, who post out lovely little parcels filled with everything you need in one box to complete a craft project from start to finish.  

This is an ace idea to get you creating, without having to hunt down individual bits and bobs, and then not be able to do a craft because you don't have any blue ribbon or green foam shapes or the right kind of googley eyes.
box castle

making a box castle
The thing I love most about craft kits is that I can pull one out of a drawer and give it to my daughter knowing that she is going to enjoy some independent creative play time. She LOVES new craft kits, big or small, and often raids her art drawers to see if there are any lurking about that she hasn't done yet! She is craft mad and would happily craft every day if she could, and I don't always have the time to prepare a craft on the spot when she wants to do one, so I keep a stock of little kits ready! 

stringing beads kit
We also have a few "bigger" kits on hand, usually ones given as birthday and Christmas gifts, and these are always a great source of excitement when broken open! One such kit, received this past Christmas, was the Melissa and Doug Wooden Stringing Beads, which I've just reviewed. A combination of fun crafting (creating jewellery and other objects with the wood beads and laces) and fine motor skill practice

What craft kits do your children love? Share a review with us! Review one of the many wonderful kits on this selection of Kids Craft Kits for Under-Fives, or if you can't see your fave, tell us about it anyway! Or perhaps you like to make your own kits, or have a fabulous DIY craft tutorial to share? If so, pop it into Squidoo's How-To format and share your ideas with the world. The more we share with each other to benefit the growth and creativity of children, the better! 

So, what constitutes a good craft review? I've already shared one of mine, now here are some more by talented lensmasters on Squidoo. 

Mosaics provide super fun pattern crafts that preschoolers will love, and sweetheart8148 shares her experience with the fabulous Sticky Mosaic sets.

Play-Doh is always an instant winner with little ones, and you can have all kinds of fun and creative exploration using it. Seahorse60 has a few great ideas about ways you can use it in her review of the Play-Doh Mega Pack.

Finally, craft kits don't have to all be about cards and sparkles and foam shapes... they can come in the form of DIY gifts and objects for the home, too. ComfortsOfHome reviews this sweet Build a Birdhouse Kit, which is ideal for getting kids involved in gardening and wildlife as well as being creative! 

Squidoo is the perfect platform to share your craft reviews, tutorials and ideas - not only are you getting your creativity out there to inspire other parents and teachers, but you have the potential to earn some money for yourself or charity, too! 

8 comments:

  1. Excellent post that is full of useful information. I have a "craft drawer" at work for the kids. But sometimes it is overwhelming (for both me and them). Putting items into a few different boxes would make things more manageable.

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  2. I so agree with you that the more we share our knowledge with children the better educated they will be and what fun they will have learning through crafts - kits or DIY! Off to visit all of the delightful sounding articles you've shared--Thank you, Louise!

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  3. What a totally awesome craft kit! I truly do love craft kits that have everything needed to create a project, but I absolutely love your daughter's educational craft kit! How awesome to learn while crafting.

    I do agree with you about Squidoo being the best place to write a review or tutorial. The new review formats make it really easy, but even on the standard formats, tutorials are easy to write. Squidoo has been fabulous over the years about adding tools for our lenses and for giving us an awesome place to share our crafts.

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  4. I love craft kits! Keep those hands and minds busy!

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  5. Craft kits can definitely add to the fun of the all those recycled and upcycled projects. I have to laugh at all the craft kits that I get, never get the item completed, but still use the pieces for so many other projects. The grandkids and I often make up our Funny Fred characters from left-overs.

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  6. I didn't know you had this blog, what a great idea. I love this project in a box, fabulous!

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  7. Projects-in-a-BOX - love that concept. Craft kits these days are so varied -- there's an area for every interest and, as you pointed out, they make great 'teaching tools' for concepts and improving motor skills, as well as sparking the wonderful imagination of children.

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  8. I bought a BabbaBox craft box and reviewed it on Squidoo. It was a cool box and came very well packaged. I love the idea of themed craft kits.

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