As ever, Autumn brings the rain and Cornwall is officially, probably feels like the rainiest place on earth at the moment. No more trips to the beach and long coastal walks to burn off a bit of energy – am I the only one or you do feel a bit desperate at the beginning of autumn when the poor weather sets in? What on earth are we going to DO ALL WINTER?
And so it was with deep joy that we unwrapped a new craft kit from our friends at Hobbycraft to review on behalf of mums everywhere with bored kids and a bit of a panicky feeling. It was the luck of the draw and we got lucky indeed. The Klutz Sticker Design Studio was greeted with rapturous excitement. Small girls (aged 5 and 8) adore stickers. It’s a no-brainer.
When it comes to craft kits, what usually happens in our house, is that the girls tear into them without reading the instructions, often rip the box or some crucial component and the craft project at hand turns into a bit of a disaster. Hence, over time, I have become a little, ok, a lot fiercely over-controlling when it comes to art sessions. This time, I decided to sit back, watch and let the mess unfold.
What happened next is testament to the ease-of-use of the Sticker Design Studio kit. Essentially, it’s a ring-bound book with a collection of sticker sheets and a set of good quality felt-tip pens. The stickers are largely blank, with simple outlines and some extra glittery shapes for decoration. The kit also shows lots of ideas to inspire you to create your own sticker collages.
Amazingly, nothing got ripped within the first 5 minutes. The girls paged through the book looking for ideas before starting to grab stickers and pens. After clarifying where they could stick the stickers (On the table? No. On the wall? No. etc), they sensibly requested some blank pages and set about creating some pretty nifty sticker collages, using the pens to decorate the paper behind too, to create more complex designs.
I left them to it and didn’t hear a peep for at least an hour. An historic moment in the history of Love family home crafting. And the results were great. Cute and colorful sets of sticker collages. The end result is fairly small scale – these are just stickers after all. But as an activity to keep children busy on a wet day, I can’t praise it highly enough. Our mammoth sticker session barely made a dent in the collection and a week later, the sticker-decorating is still going strong. Most Klutz products come in around the £10 mark, which can seem a bit pricey when the activity is over in an hour. But in this case, the Sticker Design Factory is the craft activity that keeps on giving. Lasts ages and requires minimal supervision – I love it!
[stextbox id=”tmk-box”]Stock up on rainy day craft ideas at Hobbycraft RIGHT HERE[/stextbox]
