Written by Jeralee, Guest Reviewer

FamilyFun Craft Kits
My girls ages 10 and 9, are both at the age that they really enjoy doing crafts and art projects.

The Create Your Own Safari Animals Cardboard Sculpture Kit is kid’s  craft project allowing you to create your own 3-dimensional safari animal.

This kit included:

  • 5 Corrugated Punch-out Sheet
  • 5 Felt Punch-out Sheets
  • 200 Tissue Paper Sheets
  • Glue Bottle
  • 10 Self-Adhesive Googly Eyes
  • Foam Brush
  • Instruction Booklet with How-To Photos & Extra Project Ideas

The best way to describe this product is découpage for kids. Both girls were excited and eager to start on the animal that they chose.  Although it is recommended for children 5 years and older, this is a project that you definitely need to be nearby to assist. Both of my girls needed just a little bit of help assembling the cardboard animal figure so it became 3-dimensional. They also both needed a little instruction and help as to the method of applying the tissue paper with glue.

Although plenty of tissue paper is included, my youngest managed to use all of the yellow paper before she had assembled the tail.

As the craft project progressed, both girls’ animals took on their own unique character.

Pros: The instructions were clear and easy to follow. The  kit came with an idea booklet and one of the ideas was to convert the box into a safe safari wildlife viewing area, by cutting two holes into the side of the box, just large enough for you to “spy” on your safari animals. My girls fully embraced this idea.  This was probably the best part, watching both of my girls and their imagination in carrying out this project idea.

Cons: The girls both definitely needed some help in applying the tissue paper to the cardboard with the glue. This was a tad frustrating, until they got the hang of it. Also, the kit only included 1 foam brush. If you want to do this project with a friend or sibling, it is useful to have more than one brush. We remedied this by finding an old paint brush for my oldest daughter to use to apply the glue.  It was also amazing just how quickly both of them went through the tissue paper color provided for their particular animal. I think a few more pieces of paper could have been included. With the manner in which the glue is in the bottle, this is definitely one of those projects that needs a bit of adult supervision, unless you want glue tipped over and all over the place.

Overall Impression
The Family Fun Create Your Own Safari Animals is pretty cute and my girls enjoyed making the animals. I think they enjoyed even more, role playing and doing pretend play with the elephant and giraffe they had created. I found both of them still playing with their art creation a couple of hours after constructing it. This is what makes this kit a good project and enjoyable.  Other great kits are available at select Walmart stores nationwide.

Price: $7

Where to Buy: Select Walmart Stores

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The product reviewed in this article was a sample provided to me by the company or PR representative. These views and opinions are my own and I was not compensated by this review.

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