Arts and Crafts Reviews

I don't mean to sound grumpy........ but!

This project was done by my 6yr old granddaughter with my supervision. She did NOT put the paint on heavy. We ran out of several colors. I had to varnish it for her so as to try and stretch the varnish. I just made it. It would have been shinier
with a little more paint. We couldn't use the glaze on all of it. Too little.

You have a great product here. At least fill up the paint cups.

Sarah's beautiful butterfly is finished. It held her interest and she enjoyed doing it.

I have purchased 10 other Imaginarium Kits. I HOPE they have more paint.

My daughter (8) liked making this. Drawbacks... it says it's wood and it's really fiber board. She painted the inside of the cover and now the cover is really too tight for her to take it off herself. Use the paint very sparingly, the company is rather stingey with the ammount given.

The box is adorable but a bit small. My daughter loves the jewelry items it comes with.

I bought this toy for my daughter's 5th birthday. She loves it because she is a huge Hello Kitty fan. It comes with crayons and colored pencils with holders for each of them. The best part is that there is a roll of pictures that you pull out to color. The problem with this toy is that the pages do not line up well when it is time to tear them off. Also, the colored pencils break constantly--much more so than other colored pencils that we use. Overall, it is a fun toy and she does love playing with it, but it does not seem to be very well designed.

my girls got this toy from a friend and they love it. They like playing "house" with all the magnetic parts. There are a lot of parts with this toy that can get lost. Some magnets are small, but over all I like this toy a lot. In fact I think I'll buy some to keep and give them as gifts for birthdays, etc

When I ordered this item, I was ordering for my daughter. She loves Strawberry Shortcake. However, in the photo, I didn't realize that the jewelry box had the "vintage" version. The vintage version is from my childhood when Strawberry looked like Holly Hobbie. My daughter only knows the new stlye one. Now I don't know if I should give this item for Christmas or not.

My daughter received not one but two of these kits for birthday gifts. They held her attention just about long enough for her to figure out that she was never going to get something that actually looks like a candle. The powdered wax is, I suppose, a safer alternative to melting wax in a double boiler but these things just DON'T resemble real candles at all. Besides, the wax powder is quite sticky, gets everywhere, doesn't stay in the glass candle holders, and burns unevenly. I'm afraid this is one of those examples of something which looks like fun just because it's in a "kit", but the stuff inside is pretty cheap. I'd recommend buying real candle-making supplies and just have parental supervision when heating the wax..this kit labeled "ages 9 and up", and most kids that age can use the stove easily when supervised.

I went to toysrus and bought it with my allowance money! I was so excited to use it, that, as soon as i got home i opened it up to try. I was so dissapointed to see that everything was melted. The wax and all. Boohoo. I once, last year did get one that didnt melt, i was very pleased with it. Very!

My daughter received this as a gift and was really excited to try it. The product is made with little wax balls that stick to everything. It was difficult to get them into the little votives without spilling and they're hard to clean up. If you get this, make sure your table is well covered with newspaper. I was also disappointed because you have to keep the little votive in a container of water whenever you light it because it gets too hot. It could just be used as a decoration and not a candle, but you'd want to put it somewhere where it won't get knocked over because the wax would be a big mess.

This toy is nothing but trouble for a two year and his parents. The crayons come in this plastic tube that is impossible for a small child to control. My son would use all the crayon and then scream to have more. When you "clicked" the crayon up, he would push to hard and the crayon would disappear again. After many tears I gave up and threw the whole thing out. We did keep the bucket for the sandbox however. It was a very expensive bucket!!!<(...)

My 4 year old loved the crayons (perhaps a little too much; they were gone within a week) but he and I were both disappointed with the paint- it doesn't show up very well on him or the tile, and is heavily perfumed. The foam "stickers" were fun, but tore fairly easily. Great for starters, and the hand-shaped palette will stay in the bath toy basket, but I think next time, we'll just stick with the soap crayons.

I bought this bath set for my son (1 1/2 yrs old) because he gets bored with bath toys so easily. He absolutley loves to draw, and has recently started coloring in his books, so he has lost his "pen" privileges. This toy has completely made up for it. He loves the crayons. They work great for him (we haven't had a problem with the holders like some reviews have mentioned). He can color all over the tub, and on the tiles. However, the paints are very hard to see. Maybe, when he is older, he will be more interested in them, but for the time being, we only use the crayons (which can be ordered seperately), the "stickers" and the duck "loofa".

This has been the best money we've spent on bath-time entertainment!

My only reservation about purchasing these as a gift, is they colors do not immediately wash out of grout. I'm not sure if they'll fade away with time, but we now have a few little blue stains on our grout inbetween tiles!

This is a great toy. My 4-year-old loves it. The first day he had it, he played with it for over 2 hours straight! There are watercolors, markers, colored pencils - enough to keep their imagination going. This was a great buy.

I had high hopes for this toy. My daughter fancies herself as an artist, so I thought this would be great. I WAS WRONG! This toy is very flimsy. The pieces fell apart almost immediately. It is definitely not worth the money. It never stood upright as an easel. I was very disappointed.

not loaded with supplies, broke after the first day, plastic very flimsy

Well, my daughter LOVED the thought of painting in the tub. This product looked like just the ticket. Cute colors, sponge to clean up, what more could you ask? Well, the only problem is that you can't really see the colors! I'm sure if she used half of the small bottles of paint, it might show up as a darker color, however with the small amount of paint used to fill the holder, you can barely make a mark. Cute idea, but disappointing in reality.

My daughter likes to play with this, but she often gets frustrated that the colors don't show up well. As other reviewers have said, the colors are runny and very soapy, so they don't stick well to the wall unless it is totally dry, and they don't show up as bright colors. The palatte idea is nice because the child has a place to store the colors while she's painting, but the space to put the colors is so small, that there's a need to refill often. My daughter usually ends up painting on herself more than on the wall, which I guess is ok, but she's not really drawing, just smearing colors all over herself. This means there's a lot of rinsing off time needed. If the colors were brighter and stuck on better, she could actually draw a picture and get into the pretend play more. This was a gift that came with extra paints, and I'm just happy to use it up so I can try something else. The bath crayons, for example, are much more satisfying for a child to use.

Good idea, but it doesn't work. The "paint" was lightly tinted shampoo, it didn't show up at all. Don't these people test this stuff before they sell it. Another big waste of $$.

My 8th Grade Middle School Science Classes used this Rock Tumbler Machine and achieved great success and , I hope, knowledge. For the unit on rocks and minerals we did a science experiment with 1/2 of a rock sample for the Variable in a tumbler and 1/2 for a Control not in the tumbler. Students ran the entire lab for the month. The final results were great both as a science lab and an enjoyable activity. The use of the diatomaceous earth becomes another lesson. I recommend that you keep some of the same types of rock out of the tumbler just to compare after the tumbling is done even if you are not doing it as a lab in a classroom.
There is a lot of noise connected with this piece of equipment. I could leave it in a storage room. Also I recommend that you tape it onto a board or on the table as the vibrations may cause it to move. Make sure that the seal is tight so no water leaks out. This is noticed at the very beginning if it should occur and can be easily fixed.
Some students went ahead and ordered their own Rock Tumbler. I warned the parents about the noise!!!

My 8 yr. old daughter bought this item herself and loves it! She understood from the beginning that it would take a long time since it was doing nature's job of "thousands of years" in just one month. In a world of toys that offer instant gratification for our youth, this one teaches them that nature just doesn't work that way! Yes, it's noisy (we put ours under a styrofoam cooler & put a rock on top & that helped A LOT), yes, it's takes time, and yes, it is a bit messy, but look what you get in the end. Through all three steps, your child (and probably you too) learn the process and see how nature can turn a seemingly ugly rock into a beautiful gem. If you don't like noise, waiting or a little mess, this isn't for you. If you do like cause and effect, you will love this product. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day!!
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We bought this for our 8-year-old son as a project. We knew ahead of time that it would take at least 3 weeks. (It should state this on the box though.) Rocks are hard! Nature can take thousands of years to do what this does in weeks! However, it is quite noisy and can leak a little. Put it in a garage or follow the suggestion of the other reviewer about a cooler. Vaseline does stop the leaks. Your patience with this will definitely pay off! The rocks were beautiful! There were quite a few big ones, plenty of medium size and lots of small ones. My son, the budding scientist that he is, was absolutely thrilled! I was so impressed and fasinated by each rock! I could not wait to do another batch! A great long-term project that teaches not only about nature, but about how rewarding a little patience can be. I highly recommend this to all people, (adults as well) who are interested in rocks and crystals.