Ever just need a break -- some fun to interject in your homeschool day, week, month? Then you will love our newest review of Super Beads and
arts and craft medium produced by
Zirrly. We had a few to choose from so I let my artsy daughter pick and she immediately chose their
Mega Pack. I liked it since it was an artsy craft like product that I knew ALL my kiddos would like but seemed it would have very low mess and clean up AND not as much interaction from me for the set up or clean up -- perfect for me!
So what comes in the
Mega Pack? Over 4,500 of these cute little beads, 4 color-coded designs x 4 (so 4 people can make the same design [or a different one] at the same time), 4 clear pegboards, 2 small spray bottles (to be filled with water), instructions sheets, and 1 green plastic design tool.
The premise is to make the design by putting the template under your board and then pull the template out and spray your design with water (not drown, but fully wet) and the let dry for an hour. Then use the design tool to help pop the design off of the pegboard to be displayed or played. If it breaks while coming off the board then place it back down and respray with water and let it dry again. This was one of the good things because all you had to do is respray. No complex steps and you don't have to throw the whole thing away.
We did have some that didn't want to 'pop' right off so we just put them back down resprayed and waited. They all eventually came off. Each of my kids chose a different design. But first I had them do a little set up. One of the BIG notes sent from
Zirrly was to make sure your hands were CLEAN and DRY. So I made them each wash their hands, dry them, and then wait to be sure they were fully dry. If your hands were wet it would make the bead unusable because it would be in its fused state. While they were doing that I took a prep photo. Then I had them get some little bowls and containers so they could get the colors they'd need for their particular project.
They chose an apple, a cupcake, and an elephant (
ROLL TIDE!) I wanted to do the turtle so they saved it for me ... just haven't done it yet. We noticed right away there is a clear right way and wrong way to put the beads on. We also noticed some of them (very few out of all the ones we sorted through) that were what my son called 'duds'. Once we got them all separated and ready I let them go at their own pace. Once they were done I reminded them to remove the template below the board and we went to the sink to spray (so that my table wouldn't get all wet and to keep the overspray off of the other beads.) Then it was time to let it dry. That was the hard part. They did not want to wait.
But once the waiting was over (which we did leave for longer then an hour ... I think it was more humid in our house then we thought) they were all super excited to get their project up. However with one tool (I think for the mega pack 4 tools would be better) they still had to have patience - so we did it in the order of who was done first with their spraying. We did get them all popped off. Here they are! Aren't they so cute??
I know that they are ready to make some of their own creations. Plus they were eyeing some of the other kits that they saw some of our Review Crew got that was different from their packet (which you can check out too by clicking the link below) ... like the
Jungle Animals or
Spinning Tops. Maybe they will get them for a surprise fun gift over the summer. ;) Be sure to check out all the other
Super Beads and other items
Zirrly has to offer. You can also find them on
Facebook,
Pinterest,
Instagram, and
YouTube.
