Melissa & Doug Gleeful Garden Bead Set
PRODUCT: Melissa & Doug Gleeful Garden Bead Set (www.gltc.co.uk)
DESCRIPTION: A craft set of over 150 coloured shaped wooden beads for young children to make their own jewellery, presented in a wooden storage box with lid. Includes 5 x coloured thread cords. Suitable for children aged 4 years upwards.
GOOD POINTS: This little set of garden themed beads from the Melissa & Doug range makes a great gift for young girls and is the perfect way for them to try their hand at some fun homemade jewellery.
The set is of wonderful quality, and comes in a lovely sturdy wooden presentation box with a separate Perspex lid that slides on for handy storage of the beads.
The kit consists of a generous array of beads, all wooden and in a variety of bright fresh colours and attractive shapes. These include regular round and oval shaped beads, as well as a number of pretty garden-inspired designs including flowers, ladybirds, butterflies, dragonflies and a smiling sun. Several lengths of different coloured lace are also included to enable your child to create all sorts of colourful mix-and-match jewellery pieces, such as bracelets, necklaces and anklets, that they can enjoy wearing themselves or give to friends and family.
Each bead has a large hole through the centre to accommodate the width of the lace, and each lace has plastic tips to ensure young children can easily thread them through even the biggest beads. The lace can simply be cut (under supervision) to the required size and knotted or tied to fasten, and if your child fancies a change they can simply unthread the beads and start again!
In our opinion, the Melissa & Doug Gleeful Garden bead Set is a lovely craft kit of excellent quality and attention to detail, and is a creative and simple way to keep young girls entertained for hours...a great activity for birthday parties and compact enough to take on holiday for some rainy day fun!
BAD POINTS: No clasps or fastenings are included.
PRICE: £10
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Vivid Imaginations Crayola 3 in 1 Picture Magic
PRODUCT: Vivid Imaginations Crayola 3 in 1 Picture Magic (www.crayola.co.uk)
DESCRIPTION: A 3-in-1 creative drawing machine to make spirals, trace stencils and create patterns. Contains 1 x drawing machine, 10 x sheets of paper, 1 x writing pen, 6 x coloured pencils, 1 x spiral frame, 7 x spiral gears, 6 x magic animal stencils and 1 x dial-a-pattern template. Suitable for children aged 4 years upwards.
GOOD POINTS: This Crayola Picture Magic is a fantastic drawing set that is perfect for young children to experiment with their creative side, and contains not one but three different drawing activities.
The set consists of a coloured plastic 'drawing machine' with cog and gear frame which is used for all three creative activities. This frame flips up to enable a piece of paper to be inserted onto the base underneath, onto which the pictures are drawn - the set comes with ten sheets of paper to start you off.
The first activity involves stencil tracing, and the set includes a number of 'magic' cardboard stencils, each of which attaches to (or rather 'sits in') the middle of the frame. Each stencil must be moved round the frame using the adjustment knob, so that it can be traced section by section (colour coded) to reveal a mystery animal picture that your child will have great fun trying to guess along the way (and then colouring in afterwards).
The second activity involves using the spiral art maker to create some amazing spiral patterns (similar to the classic spirograph) which they can then colour in. The set includes an orange plastic insert which fits into the frame, and several different sized blue spiral 'gears' (i.e. wheels with pencil hole inserts). Both the gears and the orange insert have cut teeth (or cogs) round the outside, enabling the two to mesh together. This allows your child to move the gears round and round the template with their pencil, drawing swirly spiral patterns as they go.
The last activity enables your child to use the special dial-a-pattern template to create their own wonderfully unique patterns to colour. This consists of a clear plastic template with lots of cut-out shapes, which again is placed in the centre of the drawing machine frame, and which your child can draw around and then rotate as they wish (using the adjustment knob) to produce some original designs.
The wonderful added feature of the drawing machine is that the main frame has equidistant numbers marked around the outside, which enables your child to draw repeat patterns with precision, i.e. they can draw their chosen shapes leaving exactly the same amount of space or overlap between each.
In our opinion, the Crayola 3 in 1 Picture Magic set is a really well designed and multifunctional product, which offers any little boy or girl a great variety of drawing activities to enable them to practice, explore and improve their creative skills.
BAD POINTS: There are only ten sheets of paper included, after which you will need to cut your own to size.
PRICE: Approx. £14.99
Available from Amazon: Crayola 3 In 1 Picture Magic
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Usborne - First Stencil Cards: Christmas
PRODUCT: Usborne - First Stencil Cards: Christmas (www.usborne.com)
DESCRIPTION: A box of 12 simple card stencils with a festive theme. Each card measures 175 x 114mm. Suitable for children aged 3 years upwards.
GOOD POINTS: This set of Christmas stencils from Usborne is a fantastic buy for young preschoolers, and one which will stimulate their creative side in a simple but very effective way!
The box contains twelve robust and durable cards, each with a different shape cut out of its centre. Each shape is different, but all are simple designs of Christmas related objects that young children will know and recognise. These include a Christmas tree, stocking, bell, snowman, crown, Santa hat, present, candy cane, angel, snowflake, decoration and star.
Each stencil card is in a bright striking colour, with a corresponding colour picture of the cut-out shape in the top left corner, and a one-word description of the picture next to it (e.g. snowman). The back of each stencil has a fun pattern of either stripes, dots, stars or snowflakes.
The stencils are really easy for your child to use, and ideal for developing children's motor skills, coordination and object recognition: simply lay the stencil on some paper, draw inside the shape, and then add detail and colour - perfect for making homemade Christmas cards, gift tags, wrapping paper and decorations for friends and family!
BAD POINTS: The cards may inevitably become bent, worn and drawn-on with repeated use.
PRICE: £5.99
Available from Amazon: First Stencil Cards Christmas
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Clinica Tissue Oil
PRODUCT: Clinica Tissue Oil (www.clinica-uk.com)
DESCRIPTION: A bottle of body oil to soothe, nourish and firm skin, for use on dry, damaged and ageing skin, blemished
skin, scars and stretch marks. Available in 60ml and 200ml bottles.
GOOD POINTS: The Clinica Tissue Oil is a specially formulated cosmetic product which is designed to effectively relieve a number of skin complaints and conditions.
The Tissue Oil contains a blend of natural oils, including Sweet Almond, Evening Primrose and Coconut.
Massaging the oil regularly into the skin using a slow circular rubbing technique allows it to soothe, moisturise and return elasticity to skin as well as nourish nails. This makes it ideal for applying to ageing or wrinkled skin, blemished skin, dry and dehydrated skin, sun exposed skin, and scar tissue.
In addition, the oil is great for use by pregnant women to treat and prevent the formation of stretch marks, and makes a great massage oil simply for relieving aches and pains during and after pregnancy.
As well as being directly applied, the oil can also be used as a bath oil (simply added to water) to enable you to soak and soothe larger affected areas of skin, and is gentle enough to apply to children and adults alike.
The oil comes in a squeezy plastic bottle for easy application (recommended for use on the affected areas twice a day), and is orangy in colour, with a pleasant aroma. It has a surprisingly non-greasy consistency and does not appear to stain despite its bright appearance.
In our opinion, the Tissue Oil is a versatile and pleasant smelling 'treatment' for use on a good number of skin-related complaints. It is incredibly easy to apply without leaving a greasy residue on the skin, and makes a great gift particularly for mums-to-be. Note that we cannot comment at this stage on any long term results or outcomes of using the oil.
BAD POINTS: None that we could find during the time of testing.
PRICE: 60ml bottle £5.40; 200ml bottle £10.80
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Clinica Vitamin E Cream 100g
PRODUCT: Clinica Vitamin E Cream 100g (www.clinica-uk.com)
DESCRIPTION: A 100g tube of unfragranced hypo-allergic moisturising formulation containing Vitamin E for applying on the body to dry, damaged and
ageing skin, scars and stretch marks. Also B5 and Evening Primrose enriched.
GOOD POINTS: The Vitamin E Cream by Clinica makes a very reasonably priced addition to your bathroom cabinet, and is an effective moisturising cream for use by all ages on a number of skin-related conditions.
One of the main ingredients of the body cream is Vitamin E which has known benefits for repairing damaged skin and enhancing elasticity of skin. It is therefore an ideal cream for use on dry skin, sun damaged skin, ageing skin, wrinkles, and scars, as well as making a great maternity cosmetic for applying to stretch marks caused by pregnancy. In addition to this, Vitamin E also acts as a potent natural anti-oxidant, so using the cream regularly will apparently also give your skin protection from free radical 'pollution' damage!
The cream is a good thick, smooth consistency and is easy to apply to the affected areas (it is recommended that two to three applications should be made per day), rubbing in quickly and easily without leaving a greasy residue.
This is, in our opinion, an affordable cream which (as far as we could test) is effective to use on targeted skin complaints and leaves the skin feeling soft and improved...we even found it gentle enough to use on young children too! Note that we cannot comment at this stage on any long term results or outcomes of using the cream.
BAD POINTS: Disappointingly, the cream does not have any aroma.
PRICE: £3
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