When I was little, I loved doing crafts. I have some really fond memories of sitting in my room cutting out paper plates, plastic cups and tissues to make my masterpieces. I also remember one occasion where I used some feminine hygiene products as part of a creation. I’m sure that one was a surprise for my parents!
As I got older, I also gained access to my mother’s craft supplies storage area – although, looking back, I think I just started helping myself. I wonder how pleased she actually was about that…hmmm. I was also regularly chastised for the kitchen scissors being missing (to be fair, that probably was my fault).
These days, I don’t do a lot of crafting, but I believe that my creativity has a lot to with the fact that I was given liberty to cut, glue, sculpt, colour and paint pretty much whenever (and to some extent, whatever) I wanted. I do hope I can give Pumpkin the same freedom when she’s a bit older.
Subscription boxes have become a pretty popular thing lately and I’ve been wanting to try one for ages – but most seemed expensive and I wasn’t convinced that any of them were actually worth the money for me.
However, when I heard about Toucan Box, I got pretty excited. A children’s craft project every month with all the supplies you need – sounds pretty good! Plus, they’re affordable and the first one is free.
I signed up to give it a try, even though Pumpkin is much younger than the three-year-old minimum age posted on the company’s website.
When the box arrived, I was impressed from the moment I saw it. The packaging is bright and cheerful and the project – a paper jack-o’lantern – was perfectly timed for its Halloween theme.
The box contained various papers, a bit of foam, double-sided tape, a glow stick, a pipe cleaner and even some glue. In addition, there were the instructions and another sheet that explained the lessons being learned and possible follow-up activities.
When it came time to doing the project, I knew Pumpkin was far too young for any of it. So I let her supervise. She sat in her Bumbo Seat and watched as I put everything together.
She also enjoyed looking at the instructions and playing with the larger scraps of paper as I finished with them.
The jack-o’lantern was pretty simple to make. I started by folding the orange card in half, making some slits, opening it up, glueing the tissue paper on and trimming the excess. Then I rolled it into a tube and glued the ends in place.
Next, I added the green trim and handle.
Finally, the facial features were added using the double-sided tape and the glow stick was hooked over the edge using the pipe cleaner (which I twisted up to look like pumpkin vines).
The baby and I were both pleased with the finished project and it’s sitting on the television stand waiting to be lit up tonight.
Oh, and that lollipop? One of the follow-up activities was to make ghosts with lollipops and tissue paper. (Please excuse the Andrex puppy print on the ghost)
Overall, I thought the Toucan Box was fantastic with its high-quality materials, great instructions and a project with a seasonal theme.
My only critique – and this is being very nit-picky – is that I felt this project required an awful lot of cutting. Probably a bit too much for kids at the younger end of the approved age range. What I’d probably do is go through the box before craft time began and prepare any cut pieces ahead of time. That way, all a younger child would have to do is gluing and assembly.
I’m really looking forward to being able to enjoy projects like this with Pumpkin when she’s a little older. And while I will provide her with plenty of supplies, I think we’ll also have a subscription with Toucan Box for a bit of variety.
Meanwhile, I know there are many mums out there who struggle with craft time. Lack of ideas or confidence, worry about mess, not having supplies – whatever the problem, I think Toucan Box does a good job at solving it.
What’s more, there are a three different box sizes to choose from and you can tell Toucan Box what your child’s interests are – this should help ensure you receive projects that will light up his or her imagination.
Disclaimer: I requested a free first box from the Toucan Box website. This is an offer available to anyone. I received no compensation for this blog post, but if anyone uses my link to subscribe to the service, I get a discount on my next box. All opinions are my own.
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Great little crafts. I have always been into crafts, too! Your little one looks like she is loving that lantern.
She was really interested in it – poked at it for a while, but I had to take it away when she decided to try to eat it. I’m pretty sure tissue paper can be digested fairly easily, but I didn’t want to have to explain that one to hubby. 🙂