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.
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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 🙂
For the last couple of weeks, we’ve had a pigeon nesting on one of the pipes coming down from our roof. She sits there for most of the day, so I assume she’s incubating some eggs. Once in a while she flies away and we see her with another pigeon (her mate?). The kids are enthralled, we can’t wait for the baby birds to be born – I hope we see them.
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