UPDATE:  This giveaway has ended.  The two winners chosen via random.org were Secret Mommy and Bridget.

************************************

It's summer and we are all looking for ways to entertain our little ones over this long vacation time. I'll be bringing you lots of fabulous ideas over the coming weeks, that are not only practical but are sure to keep those little fingers and minds busy.

First up, I was asked to review and host a giveaway for the Creativity For Kids Classic Wood Crafts kit.  I'm sure you all know of my love for Creativity For Kids products, they are of great quality and each of the kits I've received from them has been put to great practical use, as opposed to some other craft kits, which are just that … crafts.  You know the ones, you wonder what on earth you are going to do with them once the kids have made them. 

Anyway, I immediately agreed to do the review and giveaway because, well it's wood and I love wood crafts (my dad is a woodcarver by trade – did you know that?).   I knew that I had already received the kit from them previously though when I was working as a Creativity For Kids Ambassador, but with moving, it had been packed up into boxes and was already at the new house when they had contacted me, so I had them send another thinking it could take me weeks to find the first kit.  Well low and behold, whilst I was rummaging in boxes to find my box of clay to use for one of the ideas I'd had, I came across the original kit.  So then my ideas broadened and the kids and I set to work making a variety of projects.  I think that this has been one of their favorite kits so far as there are endless possibilities.

While I was working at my computer one morning, I found Flynn doing this:

learning with popsicle sticks

Without any instruction or direction from me, my alphabet obsessed boy decided to turn the various popsicle sticks into letters of the alphabet.  Imagine using this as a learning tool.  Give your child words to spell, or even simple math problems.  What a great homeschooling tool.

I wanted my ideas for this kit to be 'out of the box', because when you look at the packaging there really are a ton of ideas on there already, so I wanted to come up with something a little different to show you how many more ideas are out there.

Marisol came up with the next craft project.  She saw the beads in the box and immediately wanted to make jewelry. So I set her up with the eco-friendly paints and a handful of beads and she got to work painting them.

handpainted beads

jewelry making for kids
Next, it was my turn to come up with a craft project.

When we moved into our house last week we discovered that AT&T U-Verse has a Barbie Channel.  Marisol was hooked.  They have a memory matching game on there where you have to turn over 2 matching game pieces and it eventually makes a puzzle.   So naturally I decided to make a matching game for the kids.  They are at the perfect age for games and puzzles and do them every day at home.  Marisol is the Bingo champion.  She really is.  Of course though I don't have my box of stamps here to stamp the little wooden discs I wanted to use (they are arriving on the next truck with more of my craft room supplies).  So I decided to make stamps first. 

My idea was to glue some clay to the top of the wooden blocks and imprint an image in each which when stamped would re-create it.  I couldn't find my box of clay though, but did have packets of Model Magic on hand, so willing to try anything out, I gave it a whirl.  Keep in mind that Model Magic takes 72 hours to air dry, but it makes for a fun little project.

handmade stamps

To make these stamps, roll a small ball of Model Magic and attach it with a little of the glue provided in the Classic Wood Crafts kit onto the wood block.  Then very gently with your finger, flatten the ball out, the glue will spread across the block at the same time to ensure that it attaches evenly.   Next, imprint each one with an image, words or numbers.  I used a number of different items to make the imprints – small items from my daughters dolls house, lego pieces, buttons, fondant cutters and I even bought a little $1 stamp kit from Michaels to make a cute bird imprint on one.

I put these aside to harden and then purchased a few assorted $1 mini stamp pads from Michaels.  Once they were firm, I stamped each of the wooden discs to make matching game pieces.  You can keep building on this collection to make the game harder for the kids.  The Classic Wood Crafts kit also comes with a black marker, so I used this to add detail to a couple of the discs (a leaf for the apple and a eye for the bird).

model magic ideas

handmade games for kids

And the game?  Was a big hit with the kids.  They even took it in turns to turn over and re-arrange the discs for the other one to play the game.

matching games for kids

Again, in keeping with my theme of making practical crafts that we could use, and Marisol seeing that we could make flowers (there's a picture on the box), I suggested to her that we make a banner for her bedroom.  She loved this idea.  So I asked her to choose a few colors and then paint each of the petals and center circles.  Of course she decided that she wanted to paint some of her flowers orange, and there was no orange in the paint supplied, but that was easily fixed as I mixed a little red and white into the yellow tub.  She was thrilled.

flower crafts for kids

Once the paint was dry, I glued the flowers together and again set them aside to dry.  Now I had to figure out how to turn these into a banner.  There was a lovely green cord in the box so I knew I wanted to use that (you know, as if it were a stem for the flowers), but after a couple of failed attempts, I finally realized I could re-use the corrugated cardboard from the box, so I cut circles out of it and then glued them to the back of each flower with the cord running through the center.  It worked perfectly.

wood flower crafts

Then once set completely, we hung her pretty banner onto her bed.  She loves it.

flower banner

AND NOW I HAVE A GIVEAWAY TO SHARE

Would you like your own Classic Wood Crafts kit?   ClassicWoodCrafts Classic Wood Craft contents

  • As you can see, from wood bits to glue, you will have everything you need for hours of creative crafting (contents may vary slightly) … plus, there's a great storage bag to keep all of your small pieces secure 
  • Go green! The lid becomes a mess free crafting solution and the box can be reused to display your creative creations.
  • Eco-Paint…this special formula is earth-friendly and kid approved.
  • Teacher’s Pick Award Winner
  • Ages 5 and up
  • $29.99

It's simple to enter.  Answer this question in the comments:

What would you like to make with this kit?

This giveaway is open to all residents of the US over the age of 18 and ends on Monday June 13th at 10pm PST.   TWO winners will be drawn via random.org.

Creativity For Kids are on Facebook and Twitter.  Follow them to keep up with all the latest news.

 

Disclosure: I received a Classic Wood Crafts kit to review.

You Might Also Like These Too

25 comments

Steph at Modern Parents Messy Kids June 7, 2011 - 2:26 pm

Fun! I’d like to make little wood cabins with the boy 🙂

Reply
Kimberly N June 7, 2011 - 3:27 pm

I love that little flower garland you made – I would love to make that with my daughter. And maybe some little wooden fairies with the beads for the head and those petal shaped pieces for the wings. What fun!

Reply
Secret Mommy June 7, 2011 - 5:03 pm

Oh how fun! I’m sure my 3 yr. old would want to make abstract structures and 3D creations as is his “thing” lately. I might like to try helping the baby paint some of the larger pieces or practice sorting or stacking them. What a terrific kit.

Reply
Jenn Vaughn June 7, 2011 - 9:59 pm

I would love to make that flower garland with my daughter she would love that! My two boys love to build so we’d probably build some cabins or a castle with some of the others bits. Make some lovely bracelets for grammie with the beads and who knows what else. Seems there is a ton of things you could come up with with that box of goodies!!

Reply
Glenda Embree June 8, 2011 - 11:28 am

My nine-year-old daughter fell in love with your flower banner. That would definitely be the first thing we would make with the kit. Thanks for sharing such fun ideas and products. It’s my first time at your site and I LOVE it!

Reply
pye squire June 8, 2011 - 8:52 am

wow cool kit I would like to make my granddaughter a stamping kit
thanks

Reply
Helen Potts June 8, 2011 - 10:51 am

We’re moving next month and my almost 5 year old is getting her first “girly” room… Orange and pink are her favorite colors (although she’s now up to five, those are her “first favorites”), so a similar flower garland would be great. She also saw some decorative beads at one house we looked at and has been talking about them ever since… I’d like to make something dangly to hang from the ceiling to give that same feel.

Reply
mom taxi julie June 8, 2011 - 9:41 pm

I would like to make my kids be busy, mostly my 8 year old, for at least an hour 🙂

Reply
Lisa June 10, 2011 - 9:16 am

The memory game and flower garland are super cute. I think my girls would love both of those. I’d love to make a collage that we could press tin foil over to paint (what is that called). Anyhow, love this kit and I will have to start looking for one locally…just in case. Thanks!

Reply
Lisa O'Donnell June 11, 2011 - 8:38 pm

I would love to just turn them loose and see what they come up with. One child is a minimalist, and the other, his big sister’s polar opposite, is what we like to call a maxamist! It’s fun to see how different their finished products are.

Reply
Modul Holzhaeuser June 12, 2011 - 1:41 am

Hi,

nice blog, goog themes. I have also a nice blog about cheap modular timber house, good for the nature, it is eco.

Cuuuu Rudolv

Reply
Jeannette Fender June 12, 2011 - 12:26 am

I have no idea what my son would make but he is so creative he would probably end up building an entires house or a spaceship or something like that! THis looks like hours of fun for him and hours of peace for me:-)

[email protected]

Reply
Shannon June 12, 2011 - 9:44 am

It would be a great craft time activity for Isaac when is Asthma is acting up and running around outside is out of the question.

Shannon

Reply
samantha June 12, 2011 - 6:15 pm

i would like to let my son pick what he wanted to make- and my guess would be a dog or robot, lol

Reply
elizabeth June 13, 2011 - 12:09 pm

Oh we would spend hours making things…i love the stamps and the garland..

Reply
Bridget June 13, 2011 - 12:57 pm

those wooden flowers would be sweet and the little clay stamps too. My daughter would have a blast with this.

Reply
kailani June 13, 2011 - 5:11 pm

We have this same kit to review and I know our projects won’t turn out even close to as cool as yours! Yours belongs in a craft magazine! What a great job everyone did!

Reply
Genia June 14, 2011 - 4:08 am

Such great ideas! I really love the mini stamps and would make those for sure!!!

Reply
Elizabeth June 16, 2011 - 5:21 pm

Tonya,

Awesome! Your so gifted! I would love to have this! My 4 year old can’t stop painting. I am so thrilled about this because I have no girls. My oldest is lacking with motor skills-I love doing projects to use this stuff because I know it helps him.

Reply
Becky June 17, 2011 - 10:06 am

We would make lots of things with this!

Reply
debt consolidation July 22, 2011 - 11:16 pm

Wow… Is amazing. What an excellent wood craft for kids. It looking so fantastic. I am so excited for make these all craft for my kids. It looking wonderful.

Reply
seo solution December 6, 2011 - 5:41 am

Hey you had made really wonderful things from material which we often found at our home. I had great fun while making some items which i’ad learn from your blog.

Reply
Elizabeth Beeney Freville July 6, 2012 - 11:48 am

I would love to win that kit because I am in the middle of making furniture and stuff for the dollhouse that I made out of cardboard and popsicle sticks for my granddaughter, and I need more supplies like this that you have here. I would probably use some of this to make jewelry as well! Good Luck to all who enter! <3 Dig <3

Reply
What is Paleo Diet July 30, 2012 - 2:24 am

Keep up the good work – i will definitely read more posts.
Thank you for sharing it.

Reply
Pat S. April 25, 2015 - 1:28 pm

i would love to try the wood pieces kit out in my art room. I teach 900 students, K-5 in three buildings! Thanks!

Reply

Leave a Comment

* By using this form you agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More