Lara and Holly have a thirst for creative crafts. Our dining room has been totally repurposed as a craft area for the girls and so I am always on the lookout for new and exciting creative activities for both my 5 year old and my 2 year old that will help them to find a channel for their artistic instincts each weekend. Recently the girls have got really in to Sand Art play.
Lara was sent a Sand Art gift pack which contained 11 different colours of really fine sand along with four postcard designs to make. The postcards have peel-off sections which are pre-glued. Each postcard has a design marked onto it so you simply peel off the next section of the picture that you want to colour.
Lara's kit contained 4 ocean-themed pictures as this is something she is particularly in to right now. She started with this dolphin design. It took her a while to be able to visualise what the picture would look like once she had completed all of the colours (which is why some of the sections run in to each other). Lara concentrated so hard on getting it right and despite spending nearly an hour (this is a long time for Lara to pay attention to anything!), once she had completed one picture she was eager to move on and do another.
Initially I was a bit concerned that there wouldn't be enough of each colour of sand to complete out the four postcards in the kit because Lara was very heavy handed when sprinkling the coloured sand on to the pictures. I showed Lara how to place the postcard over a magazine so that we could fold the magazine and pour the left-over sand carefully back into the tube between each colour. This was definitely a two-person job and not something Lara could really do on her own.
The sand worked really well! Lara would use the little plastic pick to lift the section from the postcard to reveal the sticky area and then pour the sand over. The sticky bit doesn't feel that sticky to the touch but the sand is so fine that it sticks perfectly and gives a really even colour.
My only disappointment with the Sand Art kit was the "laminating" pouches which were really just plastic bags that had to be cut and placed over the postcards to finish them off, before trimming to size. I felt that the cards could have come with a correctly-sized pouch that held the sand in place more closely and in fact Lara prefers the look of the pictures without the presentation covers.
I was really pleasantly surprised to see how much fun Holly also had using the sand art kit. Of course, being that bit younger, she needed a lot more help from me but this is her work in progress...
... Holly really enjoyed being able to choose which section to colour next, and what colour to choose. I think she wanted to be in control and very much enjoyed the feeling of being able to make a picture that looked so good (sometimes I think Holly gets frustrated at her own lack of ability to paint, draw and write... she wants to be older!)
Sand Art kits are available from www.sandartplay.co.uk
Lara was sent a Sand Art gift pack which contained 11 different colours of really fine sand along with four postcard designs to make. The postcards have peel-off sections which are pre-glued. Each postcard has a design marked onto it so you simply peel off the next section of the picture that you want to colour.
Lara's kit contained 4 ocean-themed pictures as this is something she is particularly in to right now. She started with this dolphin design. It took her a while to be able to visualise what the picture would look like once she had completed all of the colours (which is why some of the sections run in to each other). Lara concentrated so hard on getting it right and despite spending nearly an hour (this is a long time for Lara to pay attention to anything!), once she had completed one picture she was eager to move on and do another.
Initially I was a bit concerned that there wouldn't be enough of each colour of sand to complete out the four postcards in the kit because Lara was very heavy handed when sprinkling the coloured sand on to the pictures. I showed Lara how to place the postcard over a magazine so that we could fold the magazine and pour the left-over sand carefully back into the tube between each colour. This was definitely a two-person job and not something Lara could really do on her own.
The sand worked really well! Lara would use the little plastic pick to lift the section from the postcard to reveal the sticky area and then pour the sand over. The sticky bit doesn't feel that sticky to the touch but the sand is so fine that it sticks perfectly and gives a really even colour.
My only disappointment with the Sand Art kit was the "laminating" pouches which were really just plastic bags that had to be cut and placed over the postcards to finish them off, before trimming to size. I felt that the cards could have come with a correctly-sized pouch that held the sand in place more closely and in fact Lara prefers the look of the pictures without the presentation covers.
I was really pleasantly surprised to see how much fun Holly also had using the sand art kit. Of course, being that bit younger, she needed a lot more help from me but this is her work in progress...
... Holly really enjoyed being able to choose which section to colour next, and what colour to choose. I think she wanted to be in control and very much enjoyed the feeling of being able to make a picture that looked so good (sometimes I think Holly gets frustrated at her own lack of ability to paint, draw and write... she wants to be older!)
Sand Art kits are available from www.sandartplay.co.uk
