Review and Giveaway - Creativity for Kids

Thinking back to when you were a child, what were your favorite toys?  What are your kids' favorites now?

My favorite was a toy pottery wheel--I would beg my Mom to let me go in the basement and fire up the wheel so I could create "clay" pots and vases and plates.  I loved creating things (still do!).  Luckily, my four kids also love to create, and they spend hour upon hour creating everything from crayon drawings to houses for their stuffed animals complete with tissue blankets and pillows.

When I buy gifts, or when family or friends ask what they can get the kids for birthdays, I know that anything that lets my kid's creative juices flow will be a hit.


Creativity for Kids is a company with that very goal at its heart--to provide crafts and activities that inspire children to create, to use their imaginations and have fun.

My kids recently had a blast trying out a couple of items from Creativity for Kids by Faber-Castell.  The three girls (with the help of a neighbor, too) put together and began to decorate the Recycled Cardboard Dollhouse last weekend.  This is SO much fun, and all my girls (ages 3-11) could do it together.  Everything comes in the box--markers, the dollhouse pieces, cardboard figures, tons of stickers to color, patterned paper to use for wallpaper and flooring, glue sticks and even punch-out furniture like bunk beds, table and chairs and a crib.  Even the box itself  is useful and becomes a yard and driveway for the house.  Impressive!

The directions were thorough.  My eleven year old put 90% of it together and just asked for my help in attaching a couple of parts.   The assembled house is a plain, white, blank canvas that just begs to be personalized--and did they ever!  They all took a sheet of stickers and began to color.  The stickers include dozens of common items for the rooms like plates and cups, pots, bathtub (and rubber ducky!), food, plants, lamps, etc. that can be stuck to the walls or floors of the house.   My 3 year old must have inherited my non-green thumb because she colored the plant a very pronounced black.  But I digress...

My girls' house

The girls were busy coloring, gluing, planning, and decorating for literally hours.  I love that the fun isn't over once the crafting part is complete.  We can always do MORE crafting by adding curtains and rugs from fabric scraps, or make more furniture out of bottle caps and other household bits.  Then, of course, there is the playing with the dollhouse which will be fun for months and months.

My son, although impressed with the girls' cardboard dollhouse, was much more impressed with the Drift Cars Street Team.  The set of six plastic body colored cars comes with metallic stickers, acrylic paints and paintbrush.  Kids can personalize their race cars as they like and then race them on a flat surface. My son painted the entire hood of the green car brown with red dots.  He just used stickers on the rest (I'm sure he'll want to add paint details later).   The cars have the pull-back action and these little vehicles can really go!  I got a bit of whiplash after turning my head a hundred times to watch each car whiz by as my son called "Mom-watch THIS one!"  I gotta say, these little cars zoomed dozens of times and seemed none the worse for wear.  Sturdy little things. Granted, my house is small, but these cars were going the entire width of my house and crashing into the wall (luckily they are small and lightweight)--they go really far and really fast.  And they make a very entertaining cat toy.  But again, I digress...  :)

I'm impressed with both of these products (as I have been with other Creativity for Kids crafts we've used in the past).  They are well thought out.  I love that everything needed to complete the activities is included right in the box so I didn't have to hunt for glue sticks or paintbrushes. What matters most, though, is what the kids think of the items, and they have given thumbs way up!

Giveaway

Creativity for Kids is giving away each of the items described above:  the Recycled Cardboard Doll House, and the Drift Cars Street Team.  Two winners will be chosen (each will win one of the prizes). Winners will be randomly chosen from all entries on November 22.

How to enter:

For your first entry, simply fill in your name and email address in the form below and submit.
For additional entries, do any or all of these:

Visit creativityforkids.com and find another item you like
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