Delightful Dancers! (Great Gizmos Mould & Paint Glitter Ballerina)

Member Name: kingfisher111

Product:	Great Gizmos Mould & Paint Glitter Ballerina
Date:	15/07/09 (124 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun art kit

Disadvantages: none!

This Mould and Paint Glitter Ballerina set was one of the presents my daughter received for her sixth birthday and as you would probably expect she was very keen to get on and make some. The kit contains everything that you need to make a variety of plaster fridge magnets and badges shaped and decorated as ballerinas.

There is a plastic mould sheet which has six different ballerina shapes in it. These will be filled with a plaster mix which is made by adding water to the powder that is supplied. You have to add between 50 and 70 ml of water and to stir until it becomes a smooth paste. You do have to root around your cupboards for some old bowls and mixing spoons (as you wouldn't want to use your best ones!) and luckily the mixture does wash off all right.

When the mixture is the correct consistency, the instructions suggest that you pour it from the bowl into the moulds. Well, I could imagine it going everywhere this way, so I did suggest that we scooped it in using a spoon instead. My daughter was quite happy with this and even, when she saw how tricky it was, was quite happy to let me do it for her. You do need to be careful to fill the moulds evenly and to make sure that you are keeping within the boundaries. Before you leave them to set you need to place either the magnets or the pins for the badges carefully on top of the mould - and I do mean carefully! My daughter tried the first one and almost dropped it on meaning it promptly sank into the mixture. It was Mum to the rescue again and I managed to very delicately place the other magnets and pins in place.

Once you have done all this you need to leave the moulds to set at room temperature. The instructions stated to leave them for approximately 20 to 30 minutes but we didn't think this was enough as they still felt a bit soft after that time so we actually left them for over an hour and they were fine. I was really impressed how easy it was to release the set shapes from the moulds as we literally just turned them up down, applied a slight amount of pressure and they came out totally cleanly.

Just to be on the safe side we left them a bit longer before painting. Five different runny paints are provided and one brush. As Rachel was sharing these with her younger sister we really could have done with two brushes but that wasn't really a problem as we soon found another one. Well, as you can imagine, the finished painting is only as good as the artist and my six year old definitely has much better brush control than her four year old sister. Having said that though, both efforts are absolutely delightful in their different ways!

On the box it states that the contents are sufficient for making six ballerinas. However, we have only used one packet of powder and have already made six ballerinas so we should be able to make a whole set more. Also as there were six magnets and two pins we have some of these still to use but some will have to go without. There is still plenty of paint and glitter to use as well.

The instructions are very good and easy to follow and the language used meant that my six year old was able to use them herself. They also provide a guide for mixing paint and some tips on recycling the left over material which I thought was a very good idea.

The kit is suggested for ages of five and over which I think is just about right especially as it can be quite fiddly. Also, the older the child, the more able they will be to paint all the different bits accurately.

Overall I think this was a great gift for Rachel. I have noticed that it is available on Amazon for £6.99 which seems like reasonable value to me.

Summary: A great kit for little creative fingers!