I came upon scrapbooking while looking for crafts to do with my kids. I had tried scrapbooking before, when Michaela was first born, but quickly discovered that I neither had the time nor the talent to dedicate to it. Still, it seemed like the sort of thing that kids would like, so I figure we should give it a try.
As usual, I went looking for a kit. After seriously considering Alex My Scrapbook
Given that I didn’t get the Alex kit, I can’t really compare the two. The Toys R Us one is pretty nice, very pinkish and girl oriented, and it comes with a variety of frames, stickers and so forth (read this review for a complete list of contents). I wish there were more sizable stickers (the ones they have are mostly tiny ones), but all in all I think it was a good buy. I started scrapbooking with Camila (my 4.5 yo), and she was quite happy with it.
Today, I was at Michaels shopping for beading needles
The kit (which does not appear in the Creativity Inc. website and must have been discontinued as soon as it hit the stores) includes a 12″ x 12″ album with 50 page protector pages and 100 thick pieces of paper. We’ll get bored of scrapbooking much before we finish this album. But the album is your standard ugly, brown, photo album. While the Toys R Us ones is red (or is it pink?) and lets you put a picture on the cover, this one is definitely austere. Mika (my 7.5 yo) was quite disappointed.
The stuff that comes with it is also very disappointing. They didn’t have any of the stickers and punchouts taht were featured in the box, and instead they had a bunch of individually-wrapped packages of boring images in muted colors that are just boring for a little girl. What’s worst is that they included several packages of the same images – why not offer some variety? Clearly, this kit was not put together with any care whatsoever. And indeed, it was put together with no thought. The largest picture frames they include are 3 x 5 – who gets 3 x 5 prints anymore? Everywhere you go they give you 4 x 6, so the frames (all 80 of them) are just useless.
Oh well, live and learn.
Category: Crafts (Page 8 of 9)
Browsing through Amazon
I got Crafty Girl: Fun and Games: Things to Make and Do
I still haven’t put any of their ideas to work, but I’ve read through both of them and I love many of the ideas there – they are not things I would have thought of on my own (but then again, I’m not very “crafty”). My favorite idea, from the fun & games book, is to make your own board game. You make connected squares in a large piece of cardboard or poster paper and write funny instructions on each of them. For example, if you land on square 6, you have to wear a shower cup until you roll a 2. Or if you land in square 10, you have to wear socks on your hands until someone else rolls a 5. Other cool ideas is to make your own rocks and hide little things inside them and to fortune tell with tea leaves.
The slumber party book gives you several “theme” ideas. It’s geared to girls a little bit older than Mika (who is 7), but she loved the idea of having a “fashion” slumber party that will include the suggested games/crafts. We’ll be scheduling one soon.
In all, I’m quite happy with the books and I’m thinking of getting more 🙂
It’s been a couple of years since Camila stopped wearing diapers, and even longer since I used her changing table. Still, I never got around to getting rid of it (though I did remove the changing platform from the top) and I have finally found a use for it: as my craft-kit cabinet. Well, I also keep the science kits I’ve gotten for the kids there. As you can see, it’s pretty full – which hopefully will deter me from buying more 🙂
I’m always looking for things to do with my daughters, specially things that are crafty but pathetically easy to do. I am not a crafty person myself. When I came across this kit for Alex Toys Silkscreen Factory
The kit is quite simple. It comes with a plastic screen, several pieces of “silk” (in reality some plastic mesh), six or so stencils (some with multiple images), an applicator and a few sheets of paper to practice on and to cover a specific image if you are using a multi-image stencil. The kit also comes with 4 1-oz tubes of color paint: green, yellow, blue and red and a bandana for you to decorate. As far as I can tell, each tube should be enough to cover four full-size stencils. As usual with Alex products, the kit seems expensive for the price (I paid $24 for it), BUT if you want to try silk screening for cheap, there don’tt seem to be too many other options out there.
In all, I think the kit works pretty well. You have to be careful to not move the cloth or the frame when you are silk screening it, otherwise the paint will smear. You also have to be sure to cover the whole screen with paint, perhaps with more than one layer, to make sure that it all makes it through the silk. And you have to be careful to apply the paint both firmly and gently, lest the silk bunch up. It’s held pretty tight, but this has happened a couple of times when my 7-yo was screening.
One thing I must say is that this is not a kit for perfectionists (such as my 7yo) – it’s easy to make one of the mistakes above and end up with a less-than-perfect silk screening (see below). But personally I think it’s a really cool way to decorate a shirt or a bag or whatever. My kids, so far, have enjoyed using it.
As I mentioned, the kit comes just with a bandana, but you can buy 50% cotton – 50% polyester t-shirts at Michaels or Joann for $2 on sale. These silk screen beautifully. The bandana also went well, though we were less lucky with an apron. All this said, this hobby can get expensive. I think that I’ll take advantage of future sales to stock up on cheap t-shirts, aprons and bags – and then take the silk screening kit out when we can make something for someone’s birthday.
By the way, Alex sells a refill
One thing to remember: wash the screen, the stencil, the silk (which is reusable) and the squeegee as soon as you are done – if the paint dries, it stays there forever.
Here is a very useful youtube video showing you exactly how you use this kit.
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