Craft Toys

These are great. You usually buy foil art as craft kits. Depending on the set you get it will include several colours of foiled paper (some plain and some patterned), sheets of pre-cut foam stickers and some rubbing sticks.

The idea is simple. Each sticker shape has a preprinted design on it. And each section of the design will peel off separately to reveal a a sticky section of the design. So to make your shiny sticker, remove a section of the front of the sticker, choose a colour of foil, place it on the exposed sticky section, rub the foil with the special tool provided and Hey Presto! The coloured foil has stuck to the sticker. This continues, removing sections of the sticker design and applying the foil until the design is complete. One particulat thing I like about this, is that I often have trouble finding good crafts for boys, as my son doesn't always like what the girls like. But in these craft kits he has found plenty of stickers like cars, sharks, lions, etc that he's happy to get stuck into. Great for a rainy Sunday afternoon!

In the US you look out for Create Fantastic FOIL art or Fun Foil Art . And in the UK look out for Sticker Scratcherz by Rainbow Art.

Rainbow Art Sticker Scratcherz

Disney Princess Sticker Scratcherz

My kids absolutely love these and it keeps them occupied for hours. Hama Beads are very small tubular beads that when ironed under a special paper stick together. Your kids can make an infinite number of patterns and designs using peg boards that come in various shapes and sizes. The beads come in loads of different colours and now there are even glow-in-the-dark colours. You can also buy kits with larger beads for younger children.

Sometimes my girls just use the beads to make necklaces. These craft kits also meet the needs of good crafts for boys! My son loves making designs of trucks and cars or just random patterns. These kits have kept my kids happy (and quiet!) for hours at a time.

You would normally start off with Hama Beads by buying a craft kit that comes with beads, pegboard and suggested patterns and designs. However, you can buy separate bead refill packs and additional, different shapes and sizes peg boards.

A couple of tips for when you iron the shape to get it to stick together:

1. Be wary of the temperature of the iron. I have ruined one peg board by partially melting some of the pegs by having the iron on too hot for too long.

2. Having ironed the pegs on one side to bind them, I always flip the shape over and iron the other side too. This helps it to bind together nice and strong and also stops the shape from developing a slight curve.

There is a good lens explaining more on Hama Beads HERE.

Activity Kit
Glow Beads

The first gel window art kits I used with my kids were Born to Play Imagel kits, bought in the UK. With these craft kits you get a few plastic moulds and several colours of gel and a backing gel. Yor kids fill in the different sections of the mould using the coloured gels and then, when these have set, the backing gel is applied. A few hours later when the backing gel has set, peel the shape off the mould and your child has a piece of gel window art that will stick to a window and can be moved around the house.

There are also kits from Klutz that are suitable for slightly older kids, but it's still nice and easy. All you have to do is trace the pictures in the book and color them in any way you please. Or make up your own designs.

Klutz Window Art


Born to Play Imagel - Fifi

Born to Play Imagel - Dora