DIY Disco Decor Kit from STMT!

 

Horizon Group USA is company that has several different craft kit brands under it's umbrella, one of those brands is called Simple Trendy Modern Touch or STMT for short. Once a quarter I get sent a fun box of kits to try out with my kids & review here on my blog. Today I will be sharing the DIY Sparkling Disco Décor set with you that can be purchased on Amazon. The kit is recommended for ages eight and older due to small ingestible pieces.

This DIY kit has a lot of potential but it fell a little flat for us & I will go into why we felt that way about this kit. The kit comes with three décor items to decorate - a heart, a ice cream cone & an actual disco ball. Along with the foam pieces to decorate you will also receive some chains, key chain hooks, and several sheets of the small shiny plastic squares you will use to create your disco look. 

The first issue we ran into with this set is the plastic squares, each one has a tiny protective sheet on it that needs to be removed. It takes a very long time to get all of the little plastic pieces off! After they end up all over your work space & like to stick to your hands. The instruction sheet mentioned you can apply a piece of tape to the top & peel to get them all off at once, we tried it with two different types of tape and neither worked. My daughter ended up giving up trying to peel all of them off even with my help so her project still has them attached to a good portion of the squares. The second issue my daughter ran into was the shape of the pieces, because the little plastic pieces are all square & do not have any kind of bend to them it was hard to get them to sit properly on the decorative pieces without there being large gaps between many of the pieces that were easy to see when viewing the finished project. 

My daughter is still going to keep the one she did to hang up in her room & we are going to try to figure out a way to do almost a mosaic style on the other two in order to fill in the gaps. Normally we are big fans of the various Horizon Group lines & the kits they have, this one was just an oddball that didn't quite work out. I feel like with a few minor adjustments this kit would be so much better. They have tons of other great craft kits for a wide range of ages & all of them are quite affordable, you can check out what they have to offer on Amazon or local stores such as Walmart, Target, Michaels & more.

Disclaimer- Horizon Group USA provided the product above for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Circuit Mess DIY STEM for kids!

My kids have always loved hands-on crafts, activities & projects that they can either do by themselves or with their dad & I. So when I was offered the chance to check out one of the DIY STEM projects from a brand called Circuit Mess, I couldn't refuse. We were sent Spencer to put together & do a review on, Spencer is a personal voice assistant that you are able to build & code on your own. Something that is good to know before hand is that some of the kits they have require the use of a soldering tool, if you do not have one they can be picked up at a number of stores locally & for younger children they may need assistance with the project. This specific kit is recommended for ages 11+. We were also gifted one of their shirts which features their Batmobile that you can put together. 

Everything you will need for this project aside from the soldering tool & a screwdriver are included in this building kit. It was well packaged so everything arrived safely for us to start working on. There is quite a bit of information packed into the building guide, so you won't find the guide inside of your building box. Instead you will need access to the internet on a phone, tablet or laptop that can be placed near you & is easy to look at during the build. The building guide not only has instructions on how to build Spencer, but it also includes information on all of the tools you will need for this, links to helpful guides and tips on soldering incase you've never had to solder before & more. I found the build guide to be quite detailed & very helpful, they even have plenty of photos in full color for the visual learners. 

I think that these kits are great not just for teaching your children practical skills such as coding or using the various tools you will need, but also life skills like patients and staying calm & collected while working with small detailed parts. You can purchase a one time box, or subscribe & you will get a new project to work on every one to three months (depends on your plan). Spencer is part of the STEM box which is for ages 11+, but if that is a little too advanced for your child they also have the Wacky Robots line which is for ages 9+ along with working on two other lines that are for younger children as well. The STEM box is $80 per box & is a once per every three months subscription, the Wacky Robots are $28 a box and are delivery once a month. They also sell bundles which have set prices and show you exactly which buildable you will receive, so if you've had your eye on a particular build of theirs then the bundles might be the right place to look for you.

My husband & Son enjoyed doing this project together, this fun to do together and the end results are something your child will be able to work on, adjust and play with for quite some time to come. They have a number of apps and more available on their websites and guides that will allow you to update and create your Spencer how you would like. With summer coming up these kits are a great way to keep your child's mind engaged & entertained over the summer break. My son is looking forward to checking out all of the various apps Circuit Mess has & playing with his voice assistant more. I think this would be a great subscription as well for adults who want to know more about coding.

Is this something you think your kids will enjoy as well?

Disclaimer- Circuit Mess provided the product above for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

STMT jewelry making kit review!

Making your own jewelry can be a lot of fun, because you can make exactly what you want & how you'd like it. It can also be a great craft for kids as it keeps their hands & minds busy and focused, so if you are looking for a inexpensive & fun craft kit for your kids for the summer Horizon Group USA has plenty of them. Under their STMT (Simple Trendy Modern Touch) line they have several jewelry kits under $20, along with a jewelry stamping kit for under $25. The particular jewelry kit we were gifted to review, I do not see on amazon however they have similar kits & their products can also be found at stores such as Walmart, Target & Craft stores. 

This kit has everything you need to make ten different pieces of jewelry. Included in the kit is an assortment of chain & string types, clasps, rings, small pliers and several different types of beads and charms. There are not only earring hooks, but if you pick some up then you can use this kit to make earrings as well. For the price it comes with an awesome amount of beads & supplies, I like the assortment of letter beads that are included. The kit can be for an individual or you can make a jewelry party out of it. 

My daughter enjoyed using this kit to make some jewelry with her favorite bands names on them as some of the bands are hard to find merchandise for. I enjoyed being able to show her a few ways of closing the clasps instead of just tying it off on the ends, and being able to come up with color combinations with her. In the future we may pick up some of their other kits as well as each one has different goodies.

What kind of jewelry would you make?

Disclaimer- Horizon Group USA provided the product above for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Pop & Color with Horizon Group USA!

 

Did you know Horizon Group USA not only sells craft kits, but they also sell other products such as fun sketchbooks for kids? We recently received a Just My Style pop & color activity sketchbook that is sure to keep your child entertained whether at home or on the go. 

The "Pop" portion of the sketchbook is a pop-it fidget toy that is secured to the inside cover of the sketchbook, it is easy to get off & you can keep the cover + piece of tape so you can put it back for storage. Inside you'll find twenty pages of various activities from writing & drawing prompts to simply coloring the page in. As a bonus there is a glitter pen attached to the front and over 100 stickers for your child to use in their book or on other notebooks they may have. You can purchase this on Amazon for $12.99 & some stores such as Walmart, Target, Michaels, etc carry their products as well. 

I think this is a great set for long road trips or activities such as waiting in a doctors office where you want to keep your child entertained. Pair this with a pack of colored pencils or pens & let their imagination run free. This is geared towards ages 6-9 however there is no real age limit on enjoying coloring, plus those fidget toys can be fun to play with if you are someone who likes popping bubble wrap. I like the variety of coloring & activity pages included, each one is different from the last. Aside from maybe adding a few more pages to this sketchbook, there isn't anything about it I would change. 

Disclaimer-  Horizon Group USA provided me with the products mentioned above for the review + giveaway free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase. 

Explore nature with the Nature Adventure Pack!

 

Horizon Group USA is a well known name in our house, we love the craft kits & other products they sell. There are a number of lines that Horizon Group creates & one of those is the Young Scientist Club which currently has several STEAM related kits including the Nature Adventure Pack that I am going to tell you about today! This kit can be purchased on amazon for $24.99, however their products can often be found on sale & are also available in big box stores such as Target & Michaels. 

We enjoy being outdoors with our kids, whether it is hiking, camping or just spending the day at the park it is nice to learn a bit about the world around us. This adventure pack comes with some great hands on learning activities. You'll get to build your own mini bee house to stick outside & see if any fuzzy little bee wants to call it home, after you build this cute mini home you can read through their information booklet that teaches you about different bee species along with an assortment of butterflies. 

Your child will also be able to complete a scavenger hunt, there are fourteen activities in total include in this cute hard shell backpack. My nine year old son had a lot of fun completing all of these activities & was able to do them all on his own when he felt like completing an activity. The carrying case makes it nice to store everything since your child might not want to complete everything at once, it also makes it convenient for travel, you could even take it with on a camping trip to learn about nature while in the outdoors. I also think this would make a great birthday gift if you are looking for a fun & productive hands on present for a child in your life. 

Disclaimer-  Horizon Group USA provided me with the products mentioned above for the review + giveaway free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase. 

Extreme Fossil Dig Review & Giveaway!

Time for another fun Horizon Group USA Review & Giveaway! This one is for the kids who enjoy hunting for buried treasures and getting dirty. HGUSA sells a fun "Extreme Fossil Dig" kit as part of their young scientist line that comes with a large dig that has eighteen real fossils and everything you need to get them out, storage bags, and some fun collectors cards. 

From previous experience I know that kits like this can get a bit messy so I suggest having your child do this over some newspaper or outside, I went with doing it outside this time around and I am glad I did because we made a mess! When you are using the little mallet and chisel small pieces of the mud like dig piece tend to fleck all over which is why we opted to do it outside. 

The actual dig piece is a bit hard as it is made from some type of mud/dirt so depending on the age of the child using this kit they may need a little help getting it to break open at first. My son and I used a slight bit of warm water over the top of this to help chip away at the pieces better, it helped quite a bit. My son got a little overzealous with a few of his hammer hits and ended up breaking two of the fossil pieces trying to get them out. 

They provide a fun assortment of fossils in each set ranging from fossilized clams to small tiger teeth and more. My son had a lot of fun getting all of the pieces out and then washing them off after to really get a look at everything that was in it, he has a collection of rocks and fossils already so he will be adding these to his collection. Once he was done getting everything out the kids added a bit more water to the left over mud like pieces and ended up using it as a type of sidewalk chalk/paint so none of the kit went to waste. 

The kit also has some collection cards that match a lot of the included fossils so it gives you fun information on where the fossil comes from. You can pick up this kit on amazon for $19.99 or pick it up anywhere HGUSA kits are sold (Walmart, Five Below, Target and more). I think this dig kit would make a great birthday or holiday gift for the child in your life who loves to do hands on activities. 

Prize Alert:  One winner is going to win their own sticker party set.

This is open to U.S Residents ! Please remember if you DO NOT leave a comment on this blog post as your mandatory entry into the giveaway then all of your entries will be void. Doing the Daily entries will increase your chance of winning. Winners have 72 hours to respond to the notification email! 

This giveaway ends on 11/01/2021

Giveaway entry question: Leave me a blog comment letting me know what other types of crafts or activity kits you like doing with your children or even by yourself.

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Disclaimer-  Horizon Group USA provided me with the products mentioned above for the review + giveaway free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Engage your child's mind and imagination with a subscription to Womple Box!

 

Whether you are an adult or a child getting a subscription box is always a lot of fun. I enjoy finding new subscription boxes that my children will enjoy. My favorite type of box to find are boxes that are not only fun, but are educational as well, so I was pretty happy when I found Womple Studios. Their boxes are driven using a story & STEAM based theme aiming to engage your child's imagination/brain while having fun. At the moment they have their regular Womple subscription box for ages 6-11 which runs for $29.99 a month, however like most subscriptions if you subscribe for a longer period of time you'll get a better rate for your boxes. Coming soon they will be offering a "Dino Box" for ages 3-5, which is pretty exciting for anyone with small children! They also offer camp in a box which is three boxes in one, they currently have three different options to choose from, plus other fun goodies that can be purchased along side or separate from a subscription. 

What is included in their boxes? Every box will come with a illustrated early-reader chapter book featuring their cute mascot Womple, two different hands-on STEAM projects, a fold-out map and country guide, a pen-pal bundle and a souvenir. 

The pen-pal goodies made my son happy because during covid a classmate of his became pen-pals with him and they like sending letters to each other, this will be a fun way to add another level of topics to talk about.

Our box was themed "Mexico" and was a lot of fun for my son to complete. The projects included was painting and putting together a working clock and growing our own crystals. My son started making the clock as soon as he pulled everything out of the box, he enjoyed painting them and looking at how they have the time marked. It was easy to put together, put complex enough that it wasn't a project that was picked up and put down just a moment later. He had fun painting each of the times and decorating the legs.

The crystals say an adults help is suggested, however my son was able to (and wanted to) do it on his own and was excited to see the end results. I was surprised the crystals climbed all the way up the side of the bottom and to the top on their own (we had it sitting on top of a shelf in our kitchen until it was ready). The crystals turned out really well, we all love how there are larger crystals in the bottom of the jar and smaller crystals higher up near the lid of the jar, the blue color is also quite nice. 

This kit also came with a keychain that looked like a Jaguar, I currently do not have a photo of it. My son clipped it to his backpack, took it to school and now we can't find it. However you can see what it looks like over on my unboxing reel on Instagram. 

We thought this box was entertaining, educational and put together with care. The kids enjoyed the book, stickers and looking at the map. I like that it is a mixture of activities you can complete and physical items like that book that you can keep to look back on or add to an adventure collection. This is a fantastic way to learn about new spots around the world while getting hands-on with your child (or letting them get hands-on with the box themselves). If you are looking for a great birthday or holiday gift, heck really an any time surprise gift for your child. 

Disclaimer-  WompleStudios provided the products mentioned above for the review  free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchasing the product.

Paint Your Own Llama with Horizon Group USA - Giveaway!

Horizon Group USA is one of my favorite brands to find activity kits for my kids, and it isn't just because I am a giveaway guru with them as I bought their products even before working on collaborations with them. The reason I love their products so much is because they offer a wide range of crafts and fun gift ideas for all ages. Four times a year I receive a surprise box with one or two items to test out for a review and they also send a second set for giveaways. I recently shared a fun rock painting kit with you and now I am sharing their Creative Roots Paint Your Own Llama.

The Llama is made from ceramic and measures six inches high. It has little details like a blanket, and flowers which are fun to paint vs just a plain llama. It has a little weight to it which makes it stand up by itself without any worry of it falling off the shelf. The kit itself comes with a paint brush and a five paint colors, however Horizon Group also send me a set of Primary Acrylic paints that has twelve different colors and an extra paint brush that my daughter decided to use on it instead of the paint it comes with. 

           

The llama was easy to paint, my daughter didn't have any issues with the paint not taking or applying too thickly to the statue. She had a lot of fun trying to add a little more texture to the llamas fur which you can see in the finished product below. I think the llama turned out quite well and it looks great up  Funko pop figures. If you are looking for a fun paint project for your child that will keep them entertained for ten to fifteen minutes then this kit is perfect for you! If your child isn't a big fan of llamas they also have other shapes like a fox, a unicorn, a cactus and more so there is something for all interests. Horizon Group USA sells their products on Amazon and also in select stores such as Walmart, you can pick up this llama for $9.96 over on Amazon.

Prize Alert: One lucky winner is going to win their own Llama painting kit!

This is open to US Residents! Please remember if you DO NOT leave a comment on this blog post as your mandatory entry into the giveaway then all of your entries will be void. Doing the Daily entries will increase your chance of winning. Winners have 72 hours to respond to the notification email! 

This giveaway ends on 06/16/2021

Giveaway entry question: Leave a comment telling another animal your child would enjoy painting. 

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Disclaimer-  Horizon Group USA provided me with the products mentioned above for the review + giveaway free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase. 

Rock painting with Horizon Group USA + Giveaway!

                                                    

I am very excited to say that I will be working with Horizon Group USA again this year to review some of their new craft products, and since I am a "Giveaway Guru" they also send me a second set of each item I review so I can give one away to one of you. I will get to work with them four times through out the year, this first time around I have two great products to share with you but I will break them down into two separate review/giveaway posts. 

The first product I will be sharing is a create your own rock art kit, which can be purchased on amazon for $10 and some Walmarts may carry it as well. It comes with everything you'll need to start your rock painting journey. Inside of the box you'll find 20 rocks, the packaging says they are large rocks but as you can see they range in size. It also comes with twelve different paint colors, four glitter glues, cute transfers and two type of paint brushes. 

All of the rocks are cleaned before being added to your package so you won't have to worry about them being clean before painting. The different shapes and sizes can help you come up with ideas of how you'd like to paint each one using either examples from the box or ideas you've come up with on your own. 

My kids have been having fun painting different themes on their rocks, as you can see above there is a rainbow on a cloudy day, a lava monster and a watermelon slice. When you are done painting them you can keep them for display, add them to your garden, gift them or add them to different areas of your local park for people to find and make them smile. The paint dries quickly and it seems like it will be durable so your stones will last for some time after painting them, I also like that the paint didn't have a strong scent to it. 

Prize Alert: One lucky winner is going to win their own rock painting kit!

This is open to US Residents! Please remember if you DO NOT leave a comment on this blog post as your mandatory entry into the giveaway then all of your entries will be void. Doing the Daily entries will increase your chance of winning. Winners have 72 hours to respond to the notification email! 

This giveaway ends on 05/14/2021

Giveaway entry question: Leave a comment telling me a design you or your child might end up painting on one of these rocks!

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Disclaimer-  Horizon Group USA provided me with the products mentioned above for the review + giveaway free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase. 

Gingerbread Houses at the CMOP!

The holidays are officially upon us, Thanksgiving is two weeks away and soon all of the Christmas fun will begin (that is if you haven't already started celebrating). One of my favorite holiday memories growing up was decorating cookies and making a gingerbread house at school. When I found out that the newest signature program for the holidays at the Children's Museum of Phoenix is going to be gingerbread cookie and gingerbread house decorating sessions I was very excited.

My kids and I were able to stop by the Children's Museum of Phoenix to attend an early session of the Gingerbread house program to see what it had to offer. If you and your children would like to stop by the museum and participate as well, this program officially opens up to the public on November 29th and will last until December 22nd. A Gingerbread House program cost $34.95 for members and $39.95 for non-members, it covers up to 4 people and you get one large house plus lots of candy. The Gingerbread people program is $5 per member or $6 for non-members, these programs are not included with admission to the museum so that will need to be purchased separately. The house itself is already pre-constructed so you won't need to worry about building the house itself.

When you enter into the room there will be a table set up with the main supplies you'll need along with a muffin tin. The first photo above showing the gingerbread house is everything you get in the main kit (white piping frosting, green frosting, red frosting, two gingerbread people, a door, a chimney and various candy).

What do you need a muffin tin for? They have a nice selection of different treats and candies you are able to grab to decorate your house with, the muffin tin is to hold all of your goodies. They had a pretty decent selection of treats the only thing my kids commented that they wished they were able to use was small candy canes.

The big white icing bag that is used for both decoration and getting candy to stick to the gingerbread house has two different bag tips. Before using the bag it recommends kneading the frosting for a few minutes before cutting open the tip and using the frosting, this helps warm the frosting up a bit to help is spread easier. I HIGHLY suggest following that step hahaha I did not knead it for enough time and while I was trying to help add "snow" to the roof of our gingerbread house the bag went squish and frosting started coming out the side of the bag. It made for a good laugh and we were still able to decorate the house, but having a solid bag makes your decorating job easier!

It was a lot of fun seeing the ideas the kids came up with for the gingerbread house, they each made their own idea of what a wreath looks like, my daughter made a "light rope" between to light poles and we decorated the roof with colorful Christmas lights. My kids enjoyed being able to sneak in a few pieces of candy before dinner, and over all had a great time decorating this together. When we were finished we were provided a box to take our creation home in, my daughter was pretty relieved that she didn't have to carefully hold the house the entire way home.

If you are looking to do a gingerbread house they are hosting sessions for them only on the weekends except for Friday December 20th. Gingerbread people are during the week only with the exception of Sunday December 1st. Want to make your visit to the museum extra special? On Saturday December 14th they are hosting a snow day at the museum, they will have 40 TONS of snow that you and your child can play in, plus Santa will be visiting. The best part? "Snow Much Fun Day" is included with admission into the museum.  You can learn more about the Snow Much Fun Day Here.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Children's Museum of Phoenix for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others.My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.