Craft Kits - Do You Buy Them?

I have to admit, I don’t really buy craft kits. That’s not to say we don’t have any in the house; others have bought them for the children, or they have spent their pocket money on them.

We are also lucky enough to have some thanks to the Toys R Us Toyologist venture where selected families are sent toys to enjoy, review and sometimes pass on.

So, why am I not keen on them? They just don’t seem very…creative to me. Some of them have complicated instructions to follow, the prescribed end result can be disappointing and they can be fiddly.

I would much rather children used their imaginations a bit more, rather than following instructions or churning out something that looks the same as the picture on the box.

However, sometimes my ideal falls short. Time is short. My patience is short. Even my energy levels are sometimes short. Which is where craft kits come into their own. They have a place.

Here are our verdicts on three craft kits we were lucky enough to receive in our Toyologist toy box:

Zubber Bands: These were not a hit, in fact two ten-year-olds and a 12-year-old found them disappointing. You have to get the mix exactly right, which they found tricky. Different colours too would have been better, apparently. The box said from five years up but I know my five-year-old wouldn’t have been able to make these trendy bands without a lot of help. They gave it 4/10.

Sticky Mosiacs Unicorns: Now I would consider this as not being really creative at all but you know what? My girls loved it. It was easy to do and I think they found it relaxing, in a “switch off your mind” kind of way. It’s like painting by numbers but with small sticky squares. You don’t even need glue, you just peel off the back and the end result is quite impressive. The only drawback they found was it wasn’t always easy to match up the correct colours of the mosiacs with the chart. But it was a hit so they gave this one 8/10.

Magic Fabric Creation Studio: This is one of those toys that I don’t really like – it has a piece of kit that makes my heart sink because usually equipment in craft kits don’t always work or are tricky to operate. But this one did what it was meant to. It was simple to use and required no batteries (yay!) and produced little fabric puffy creatures that could then be used in multiple ways, increasing the creativity. We gave this 8/10 too.

Which just goes to show – never judge a craft kit by it’s box.