Gearhead Mom

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Be Crafty Makes It Easy to Be Crafty, Even If You Are All Thumbs

Posted by Missy W. @ 8:38 AM

I always imagine myself to be the Martha Stewart of my family. Except that really, I never have time, inclination or mad skillz to pull any of it off. What I really do is clip pages from MS Living and other magazines, file them neatly away (or shove them in folders) and rarely complete a crafty task. So when Julene Montgomery of Be Crafty sent me a sample craft, I was stoked. Cute craft, items already assembled in handy paper bag, shipped straight to my doorstep and easy to make with my kid. Watch out, Martha, Missy’s on your ass now.

Be Crafty is a unique craft store that enables adults and kids to easily create uncommon homemade gifts and crafts. They sell homemade craft kits that include all the supplies you need- and nothing you don’t—so that you can quickly get to the fun part of craft-making. We got to try out the Chalkboard Napkin Rings Set. It comes with four unpainted wood napkin rings, black acrylic paint, a foam paintbrush and a piece of chalk wrapped up in tissues to avoid breakage during shipping (it did not break!). The whole set arrived in a little brown paper bag sealed with a sticker. The instructions suggest using the bag again as a work surface, which we did. Sy and I sat down to do it today, and at 3 1/4 years old, it was a little much for her fine motor skills. The recommended age is 5+ and that’s probably pretty accurate. Sy enjoyed painting the ring, but had no interest in painting all of it, just some shapes on it. So I did it and had fun! I painted all four rings (two coats) and then Sy and I wrote names on them. We then put our napkins through them and set the table. Sy was pleased with the end result and couldn’t wait to show her pa her handiwork.

Here’s what I liked about this task:
It’s self-contained. Everything I needed was right there.
It was easy, with simple instructions.
It was not hokey; I actually think they are cute and will use them.
You can easily erase the chalk with a damp cloth. We use cloth napkins all the time, so I look forward to spelling Sy’s pal’s names out for Kiddo Dinner Parties.
What a great gift idea; it’s definitely worth seven bucks. I’d like to have a whole selection of these on hand for gifts. (Not all the crafts are this inexpensive.)
A superb idea for those of us who like to do crafty things with our kids, but don’t have the brain power to figure one out, or the stamina to hit the craft store to collect all the necessary items.

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