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ELC Mini Artist Rubbing Art Plates
by kat1234
I purchased my son these rubbing plates when he was around 14 months and I wanted to encourage his creative side. I bought alongside the ELC Mini Artist My First Crayons (see earlier review) in the ELC sale. At full price, it is around £8 but ELC have a large number of sales throughout the year so it is always worth waiting for these. ... The toy is suitable from 18 months of age.
The toy itself is a plastic 'clipboard' in effect with plastic embossed rubbing plates that can be placed in a groove in the clipboard. Paper can then be clipped in place over this and crayons rubbed over the paper to create the picture on the paper. The toy includes the art plate tray, one large double sided stencil and three small double sided stencils. Therefore in total, there are 8 different pictures to choose from. However, no paper or crayons are included so, if buying for Christmas, make sure you have plenty of these to avoid a disappointed child.
The plates themselves 'sit' in the 'dip' in the art tray rather than being fastened in in any way. I think that this is a slight design flaw as when my son has been rubbing vigorously, they have slipped slightly and this totally ruins the effect as the picture becomes unclear. The pictures on the stencils do appeal to my so - especially the fish. The little girl and little boy pictures are somewhat less appealing to him and he never chooses the tree! I think other pictures would have appealed to him more - animals or transport would have been nice and given up more to discuss as he select which he wanted to choose.
The art board itself is light and portable so great to take with you when you want to keep your child occupied - restaurants etc. Whilst this can be an advantage in this respect, it also means that it can shift around when my son is rubbing the crayons over it - causing him much frustration. I also find that the board works well with the ELC first crayons but not so well with ordinary crayons. My son will use these as he should when drawing, scribbling over the board. This doesn't give a good effect and the crayons need to be turned on their side and 'rubbed' but I don't really want to teach my son this as this may confuse him when we do drawing/colouring in.
Overall, this was a nice idea and is certainly different to other toys he owns, but my son just doesn't seem to get a lot of use from it. He doesn't find it that interesting or engaging and it doesn't hold his interest for long either. All in all, a colouring book is a cheaper and more well received purchase in our experience.
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ELC 36 Chubby Crayons
by nayland
Although the review does state 36 crayons, the ones that I purchased from Early Learning Centre contained only 20. As these are the only ones for sale I take it that they have cut back. These crayons come in 10 colours with 2 of each colour. This is handy as you can split the pack and share it with someone else, as in my case my ... daughter.
These crayons are roughly around 2 inches tall, but are quite chunky. Perfect for those tiny chubbie fingers, I really couldn't imagine my grandson being able to break these is half. Coming with no paper wrapped around them they are really quite plain. They come in a variety of colours with some being really bright and others in the usual black, brown, green ect...
At first I was worried about him putting the crayons into his mouth, but so far the nearest it has got to a mouth is mine, when he tries to put it on my lips like a lipstick. They draw onto the paper really easy without having to press to hard, I always put the piece of paper onto a plastic oblong white tray that he does sometimes seem to draw more on than the paper. This soon wipes over with a wet wipe and is clean again.
These are in the ELC Bits and Basics section and are aimed at 2 years upwards, but I think as long as the child is being watched a much younger age (18 months) can use these with no problems. These crayons are really really sturdy and we have had them put into pots and thrown about, a Little Tykes car has driven over them and I have trodden on one on more than one occassion (ouch!) and still they stay intact all in one piece.
I did buy these a few weeks ago when Early Learning Centre was doing 20% of their toys, so when I was ordering some Christmas pressies I ordered these as well. Being priced at £2.00 I received them for £1.60, I think that the full price is excellent for these crayons, as we have had a lot of fun sitting down and scribbling away. I'm now looking to purchasing their chunky chalks ready for next spring, so that he can go and draw on the patio then I can hose it over later!!
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ELC A4 White Paper
by sandemp
With two year old Freddy's love of art we go through an inordinate amount of paper in the Sandemp house. For basic drawing we use cheap printer paper, but when it comes to painting and sticking we prefer to use a better quality paper that doesn't go quite as soggy when exposed to paint or glue. There are many different brands of white ... paper available, but ours comes from the ELC and is their "Bits & Basics" White Paper that is supplied in a pad of sixty sheets, costing £1.50. Rather than paying full price for any of our art supplies, I wait until the ELC hold one of their regular half price Arts&Crafts events to stock up, meaning that each pad cost me a very reasonable 70p.
This A4 paper is a very bright white and a good weight, certainly far thicker than printer paper, meaning that it feels far more expensive than the 2.2p per sheet that it costs (or 1.1p/sheet I paid). Rather than the sheets being loose in a package, they are supplied in a pad which means that you can either pull each sheet free before use or use the pad as a sketch book keeping the sheets together. When removing the first sheet from the pad I do find that it tends to tear a little at the top if not enough care is taken, but there again I find this with most pads of this type. Once the top sheet is removed, the following sheets are much easier to remove and far less likely to tear.
We use this paper with a variety of different drawing and painting materials (most of which we also bought from the ELC) and find it works well with most (if not all of them). When using coloured pencils, the paper picks the colour up well and is far less likely to tear or puncture when attacked a little too vigorously with a sharp pencil tip, but I must say that we don't usually waste this paper for simple pencil drawings as the far cheaper printer paper is more than acceptable for this. Crayons similarly transfer their colour to this paper well, leaving vibrant drawings, but again cheap printer paper is more than up to the job of dealing with crayons. Where we do use this paper with pencils and crayons is when the resultant picture is going to be a gift, as the slightly thicker, brighter white paper simply looks nicer.
When painting at the table, this is the paper we will use, as it is thick enough to allow the paint to sit on the surface and not soak all the way through, even when Freddy is being very over-enthusiastic. We also use this paper for when using felt tips, and while the ink does soak through to a certain extent, it doesn't soak through so badly that it marks the table beneath or turn the paper into a soggy mess. Another craft material we use only with this paper is a set of ELC Easy Painters, these self-contained painters, work a little like a felt tip but are filled with a very runny paint that tends to soak straight through cheap paper, but work well with this paper.
When using PVA glue, this paper performs similarly to when painting, the glue does soak in a little, but the paper doesn't turn into a soggy mess and anything glued to it stays stuck (depending on the quality of the glue). Although this paper isn't the best for making rubbings (it's a little too thick, meaning more pressure is needed to get a pattern), it is great for doing a colour wash over a crayon picture. This involves drawing a picture with a crayon and then washing over it with very watered down poster paint and as you can imagine this means the paper gets very wet. I must say that even when soaking wet this particular paper holds together very well, we did try this activity once with printer paper and the paper ripped as soon as it was lifted to dry, but with this paper I can move it from the art table to drying area without worrying that it is going to fall apart.
Although considerably more expensive than simply using cheap printer paper for all arts & crafts activities, the ELC White Paper, is far superior when it comes to painting or using felt tips. We have bought and used many, many of these pads, with there always being at least two in the house ready for when Freddy wants to do messy art. There are countless sheets that have been decorated with drawings, paintings and collages on walls in both our house and those of relatives and you can really tell the difference from those pictures drawn/painted on cheaper paper. We're currently laminating all of Freddy's painting, to make table mats to give at gifts as Christmas, and there's no way I would use anything other than this paper, that manages to balance quality and price perfectly. So I'm giving the ELC White Paper five stars out of five and recommending it as a staple in any arts & craft box.
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