Craft kits make a great Christmas gift! I love giving my own kids at least one craft kit each year–it’s fun to have a project to complete. Craft kits are also a great gift for those kids in your life that you really aren’t sure what to buy. You know, those nieces and nephews that you see infrequently and can’t be sure of their tastes. Girls in particular seem really drawn to crafts.
This year the folks at Cool Brands sent me the Text Cool and the Knit’s Cool craft kits to try out. (Last year I tried their Sew Cool)
Text Cool
Do you remember those old label makers with the plastic tape and the dial you turned? When you pressed the button, a letter was imprinted in the plastic, and where it pressed through it turned white. Well, the Text Cool bracelet maker works on the same principle. Kids can turn their “texts” into fashion statement bracelets. It comes with over 60 letters and emoticons to use, and 35 different colored bracelets.
Creativity and crafts go hand in hand, Text Cool™ lets you get your creative messages on your wrists for the world to see! Show your creativity with Text Cool.
The Text Cool comes with 2 easily interchangeable dials–one with the letters, another with “Emoticons”. You feed your bracelet blank through, turn the dial to the desired letter or symbol, and then press firmly on the lever. This will imprint the bracelet with your choice and move it forward one space so it’s all lined up for the next letter. If you want a bland space, just turn the dial to the open/blank space (seen a few to the left of the chosen emoticon above).
Princess is 14, but she still had fun goofing around with this and making bracelets for her friends. I’d say the perfect age range for this gift would be 8-12 rs. Text Cool™ is available at Target, Walmart, Amazon and Toys R’ Us.
Knit’s Cool
I’m a knitter, and I would love it if Princess (or Buddy–men knit too!) learned to knit. Over the years I’ve pulled out extra needle sets to teach them, but manipulating everything necessary seemed to frustrate them and we never really got anywhere with it.
The Knit’s Cool was made to make knitting super easy and less frustrating. You can design your own simple items–scarvs, headbands, small purses etc. You aren’t going to make a sweater or a hat–but it’s an interesting way to get a child interested in knitting.
The kit comes with everything you need to get started including yarn for three projects and three different post (aka needle) sizes. Instead of knitting back and forth on needles, you are manipulating the yarn from one post to another.
I’ll be honest–I had a hard time following the written directions. My mind was trying to turn it into the knitting I know so well and I just was stumped. So I went online and found a great little video from the Cool Brands folks that made it very clear:
This again would be a good project for girls ages 8-12. Don’t forget, you can use any yarn you like, you don’t have to stop making things when the fiber that came with the kit runs out. Hopefully this will get a young lady in your life interested in knitting and you can eventually move them up to the standard needles.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
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