I have always fancied myself as an arts & crafts kind of momma, but the truth be told, I think I've been more of an arts & crafts wanna-be. In my head, I always envisioned us sitting around the table and creating all kinds of wonderful things, but in reality that
may or may not have always been the way it happened. My heart says "let's have fun," but finding time to pull together the supplies to actually start AND finish something sometimes eludes me. Until now. We've been enjoying some hands-on creativity at our house with the
Zirrly Super Beads Mega Pack and that has even meant sitting around the table working
alongside one another. In a good way. Without fighting. These beads might just be the coolest things we've had a chance to "play" with in a while and they've allowed us a chance to be together and chat about life in an easy, relaxed way. My heart is happy.
We received the
Mega Pack of
Super Beads and this means we had exactly what we needed to create, create, create. The only thing that I had to add from home was water. Wait, what?
Water? Yes
! The
Zirrly Super Beads are a "just add water" creation that will change the way you look at fun.
The
Zirrly Super Beads Mega Pack comes with everything you see below so it is ready to open up and begin. Seriously, there is no need for anything else except for water -- that's "right out of the tap, nothing special, and no specific temperature" water. Add a flat workspace (we used our kitchen table), a few hands, an imagination, and you are ready to get started.
The
Super Beads Mega Pack contains 4 clear plastic puzzle trays, 2 spray bottles, 1 plastic tool for pressing beads into place and removing your completed design so that you can start a new one, 20 pattern cards (5 each of 4 different patterns), an instruction manual, AND over 4500 beads. Yes, you read that correctly
! The
Mega Pack contains over 4500 beads in a variety of colors: red, yellow, orange, brown, purple, green, white, black, and yellow. The only limit to what you can make is found in your imagination.
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| Mega Pack |
We decided to start off with something a little easy, so we fitted the patterns given to us inside the little plastic puzzle trays. [I will admit here that I was a bit challenged in this "fitting" area, so my Occupational Therapy daughter helped me out. She actually recommended that I work with the
Super Beads as much as possible as they would give much aid with fine motor skills and perception and suggested the same to the MainMost.] After the patterns were set into the trays, we began placing the beads on the correct pegs so that our design would appear. The entire peg placement process reminded me of a childhood toy with lights and colored pegs. It was one of my favorites, so I'm glad to have the
Zirrly Super Beads in my life now. I found that utilizing the help of a pair of tweezers made the placement of the beads a little easier for me -- not because I'm OLD (as suggested a time or two by a certain child), but because my fingernails are long. Although the
Super Beads recommended age level is for those 5 and older, I think that younger children would enjoy using them with supervision and a pair of tweezers might help them as well.
Once all the colored beads were in place, we used the green plastic tool
(pictured above) to press down all of the beads. Once they were all pressed down and even, we removed the pattern card so that it could be used again and gently sprayed water over the entire creation. And that's where the super cool factor comes in to making these
Super Beads work.
The unique thing about the Super Beads is that they have glue built right into them. The water "loosens" it up so that the beads become one. No hot iron needed to make your design a reality. This makes it safe for everyone in the family. You simply have to spray and wait. The instructions say to let your beads dry for about an hour, but we left ours on the counter overnight. The next morning we were ready to use the flat end of the plastic tool to gently pry them off of the puzzle tray. Neat, huh?
We have tried out the patterns
(the apple below is another one) and we have tried some straight-from-our-imaginations designs as well. You do want to make sure and follow the directions so that your "glue" is all in the same area. There is a small line or lip at the top of the beads. We learned that placing the beads incorrectly will still work, but it takes a little longer to fuse and dry.
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| Drying together |
The finished products are just plain fun and the elephant can even "stand" once he's put together (check it out in the picture below). How cool is that? You can find him in another
Zirrly Super Beads kit called
Jungle Animals that provides templates for 6 different animals that will stand alone. Can you imagine how much creative play FUN kids can have with that? It makes my heart smile.
I like all of the things we've made so far, but I do believe the cross is my very favorite. The completed designs are flexible so the cross made the perfect addition to my keychain. It reminds me to keep my focus always.
And knowing that it is durable enough for my keychain, I'm thinking that we might want to try out the
Jewelry Set and see what else we can come up with. There are some really neat kits to work with -- something to peak everyone's interest -- and the best part is they arrive at your house with everything all packaged together, ready to begin. The clean up is easy (put the beads away, wipe your work area with a damp cloth, and rinse the plastic puzzle trays with soap and water) and the finished product will put a smile on your face, but the conversation you will have with your kids is simply out of this world. In my opinion THIS is what it's really all about anyway.
Go ahead, mom. Give it a try. You, too, can move from a "wanna-be" to a "let's have fun" mom. You know you want to. You can find more information about the fun
Super Beads sets offered by
Zirrly by visiting the following Social Media sites:
You are going to love all the neat ways you can "design your world."
I was given the opportunity to review the Super Beads Mega Pack from Zirrly as a member of the Homeschool Review Crew. You can check out the Crew Review and see what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew thought of these fun beads and how they used them (or just click on the banner below.)
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You guys did a fantastic job reviewing and presenting our Super Beads. We’re super impressed. Thanks so much!!!
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