get crafty (Berol Fabric Pens & Markers)

Member Name: juicy_lucy

Product:	Berol Fabric Pens & Markers
Date:	21/07/06 (442 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good craft activity-design your own clothes

Disadvantages: make sure the tops are on

Berol fluorescent colour fabric marker

With sports day looming and no green t shirt ( little miss doesn’t tend to o green), we decided that rather than buy a t shirt w would customize our own.

So…out came the fabric pens.

WHAT DO I GET?

Inside the pack there are 6 pens in pink (vibrant), green (lime), orange, blue, yellow, and one colour which is neither pink nor orange.

The pens are nice and chunky, like the fat marker pens, so they are easy for little hands to hold.

The lid of each pen is just pull off, and the tips of the pens are chiselled to an angle; this means that the pens can be used more easily to draw outlines and for adding detail, but can also be used to fill larger areas.

USING THE PENS

The pens are incredibly easy to use- just like normal pens. Little miss wasn’t actually aware that they were any different to normal fibre marker pens. This makes it easy to encourage children to just go ahead and draw their picture.

Once the picture or design has been drawn, then it should be left for 5 minutes, or until it dries. We left it for longer, so I think it’s probably a minimum of 5 minutes but do make sure that it is completely dry.

Once dry, the fabric should be covered with a dry cloth and ironed for 1-2 minutes on a cotton setting.

After this treatment, then the fabric can be washed as you would unpainted fabric.

OTHER BITS OF INFORMATION

Not suitable for children under the age of 3 years, although the cap is ventilated, so should the worst happen and it be swallowed, there is at least a safety measure in place. There are no further safety warnings, so I assume they are not horribly poisonous.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

The pens are easily available from newsagents, and cost £7.99 for 6, but I have seen them on the website and it’s cheaper to buy 2 packs…not cheaper per pack but actually cheaper!

WEBSITE

Check out www.berol.co.uk fo information on other products, and there are lots of them!

WHAT I THOUGHT

Great stuff. Children tend to love the idea of decorating their own clothes, and whilst the finished result may not be what you had in mind, they will feel very proud of their efforts, and will have fun on the way.

The pens are easy to use, and even young children can get the design they had in mind because of the chiselled tip.

The colours are not especially vibrant, so it’s probably best to stick to drawing on white fabrics. They are, however, bright enough to be seen, and really are fluorescent, which is a big plus with children- they will have you turning off the lights to find them.

The instructions are very simple, and all you need is an iron, and once ironed on, the item can be worn ad washed as you would any other item of clothing. The one thing I would advise is that the temperature of the iron really is at cotton setting (hot) because I think this seals the whole thing. We have now washed this favourite home made t shirt several times, and the colours show no signs of fading or giving up the fight.

I have decided that it’s not only clothes with can be customized, but over the holiday am going to get her to use her pens for all kinds of things…a new table cloth being my most recent thought. The pens are quite expensive, so it’s probably best not to leave them to dry out, but to get drawing!

For a fun and practical activity, this is a good idea, and will keep children amused, whilst introducing them to another type of craft activity.

Thanks for reading

Daniela xx

Summary: good crafty idea for all ages