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Great Gizmos Paint Your Own Cow Bank
by jimmychoogirl
This was bought by me, for my niece and nephew to have a go at when I look after them and yesterday, whilst the sun was out shining and the kids were moaning because 'there was nothing to do' I decided to get these out.
I bought them from this gadget shop, where they cost £7.50 each, or at the time were on offer for two for ... £10, although I have seen other animals/ designs of them cheaper online.
In the box there is the cow, a paintbrush and 5 little paint pots, in colour of red, yellow, blue, white and green.
The cow itself is probably just a little smaller than a normal piggy bank size, which is most likely due to the fact it is made for children.
When it came to painting it, we did this outside to avoid too much mess! To paint the cow itself, seemed quite easy, the paint was very thin and runny, so went on the cow very easily, however did tend to run a little because it was quite runny.
Though the paint brush is what caused the main problem as it was very hard, so could only really use the end of it to paint, I tried to wet it, however it was very fixed into its shape and even when trying to pull the bristles apart, it didn't really do much, so they just had to work around this!
The paints looked nice on the cow, they came out nice, bright and vibrant and once left outside in the sun took about 35-40 minutes to dry completley, which is quick, especially good if you have two nagging children asking 'has my cow dried yet?' every minute!
I think this is a lovely item for young children and allows children to take an interest in colour and creativity, rather than sitting on a games console!
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Great Gizmos Create Your Own Spin Art
by kingfisher111
I was in Hobbycraft at the weekend and thought I would look out for a couple of small craft kits that my daughters would enjoy but I did not want to spend too much either. After browsing for a while I came across a kit entitled Create your own Spin Art which looked like it might be a bit of fun. Also, at £5.99 it was well within my ... budget. On the box it states that you can create beautiful patterns with a spinning top and that it's amazing! It also shows lots of pictures of completed designs that look very bright and colourful.
The box contains just a few items. These are a spinning top with a 9.5cm diameter (you have to put this together), 20 paper discs, three squeezable tubes of paint and some instructions. It is also important to keep hold of the box as well as you will need the inside of this as a spinning area.
The instructions say that this art kit is suitable for children aged five and above. However, they do recommend adult assistance and supervision and I would agree that this is probably necessary - at least to get them started!
The idea is that you place a paper disc on top of the spinner (there is a convenient hole to keep it in place). You then spin the top round inside the box and as it spins around you hold one of the paint tubes above it and squeeze just a few drops onto the spinning paper. The movement of the spinner helps to make a coloured pattern that does not look too different to a spider's web. It all sounds reasonably straightforward but my daughter has found it quite tricky. It is very important to get a good even spin before dripping the paint and she does find this quite difficult. Also, it does not take too much pressure to drop more paint than you want on the discs and then you soon have a soggy mess. This is why it is best that an adult is helping even though fiercely independent six year olds might not welcome them doing so!
Having said that though, my daughter is delighted with her snazzy artwork, even though we can't say that hers looks anything like the examples on the box! The main thing is that they are her own work and she is very proud of them! She has now made enough to turn them into a mobile to hang in her bedroom which is one of the ideas suggested for the completed discs. Other suggestions include bookmarks, photo frames or greetings cards. I like these ideas as they provide something tangible after the fun of making!
Spin art is quite a quick art activity as you can produce one disc in just about a minute but you do need to wait for it to dry. There is also the minimal amount of mess particularly as any paint that sprays off goes inside the bow. I would suggest working on a newspaper or old cloth though - just in case! Also a good idea would be to decide on a project and to paint the number of discs that you need in one go, wait for them to dry and then finish it off.
Overall I think that this is quite a reasonable art kit especially as it is quite inexpensive. It is also easy for children to produce something successfully in just a short time. Do be prepared to keep an eye on them though!
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