When you’re looking for activities for little kids to do, craft kits can be a good choice. They come with the supplies that you need, and they usually have enough supplies in them to make at least a few of the thing the kit makes. Since I’ve been looking for ideas for crafts for kids for a series of articles I’m doing, I asked the company who make this kit if they would send me a sample to review, so I got to try it out. It’s a fun and easy craft that little kids ages 4 and over can make on their own, or with just a little help.
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What’s included in this kit?
This kit of Magic Puffy Paint shapes is basically flat cellulose shapes that have printed images on them. This is the Princesses and Cupcakes set, but if you have boys and girls, there are enough gender-neutral things in here that you could have a group of kids do this kit together, and they could each choose a couple to do.
This set has 16 shapes in it, and they have other sets that have additional drawings if you want to get a different assortment.
How they work.
These are really easy to do because it’s just coloring, then you puff them up after the child has colored the drawings in. The set comes with acrylic markers (they’re just regular ink, not paint) but you can also use any non-water-based pens. If you use water-soluble ink the colors can run when you add the water later.
Let the kids choose the pieces that they want to color, then use the pens to color them all in. Once they’re colored, you’ll move on to the water pens part of the activity.
Puff them up with water.
To get the puffed effect, you’ll take the water pens and dip the brush into a glass of water. Squeeze the pen and release it to suck some water up into the pen, then drip the water onto the colored piece.
The colored drawing will puff up, and when it gets wet enough it will basically be a little colored sponge. The pieces are made from cellulose, so the final piece has a little sponge texture.
I turned the piece over and dripped water onto the back, too, so that it would puff up evenly. When it was totally rehydrated, I let them sit and dry out so that I could add a string to them.
Add the hangers.
This kit comes with gold strings and little beaded chains that can be attached to the puffed-up pieces after they dry. The strings can be cut into pieces to shorten them, and you can clip the little chains on. You can use them as a hanging ornament to put on things. I can see using them on a rearview mirror or on a Christmas tree as an ornament.
If you want to keep them as a Christmas ornament, or give them to people as a gift, you can write on the back before puffing them up. Add the date and year, or write a little greeting. Remember that the texture is an actual sponge with holes when they rehydrate, so really delicate writing might be hard to read once they’re puffy!
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What age range would this be good for?
This is marked as good for ages 4 years old and up, but this is the kind of thing that kids up to ages 10 or so would probably like because of the puffiness. My kids used to like anything that did this, so it’s a fun craft to use for a group of kids ages 4-11 or so.
Younger kids might need help with the water pens, but if they can do that part themselves let them try. That’s the part of this activity that they’ll think is the most fun, because watching the shapes puff up is what really intrigues little kids! They need to get enough water on them to get puffed up, but you can’t put too much water on them, so if they add a lot that’s okay.
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