Affiliate link may be included. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.
My little ones both seem to have a growing interest in crafts and other such artistic projects. I have mixed feelings about this, as my heart swells with pride, while my self-esteem also shudders in horror, on account of the fact that all things arts and crafts are challenging for yours truly. The craft gene totally skipped me, friends. I once drew something as a young teenager that someone else asked if my 3-year-old sister had drawn. Their question was totally serious, and also totally fair.
Ok, so since I break out into hives at the thought of spending time in Michael’s, I absolutely love craft subscription boxes, because they bring the supplies and the detailed instructions to me so that I can’t possibly mess up.
Of course I can still mess up! Don’t be fooled! But they do make it quite a bit more difficult for me to make major errors, and that’s a good thing!
Peekapak
Our latest box came to us courtesy of Peekapak. Inside every month’s Peekapak you’ll find a storybook and crafts that relate to that story. We were sent a special Peekapak that goes along with the new movie, The Hero of Color City.
I was concerned that we would be confused about the contents since we haven’t seen the movie, but the book that came with the kit laid out the story so that everyone understood what we were doing with the crafts. I think that relating the crafts back to a story is a unique element that I haven’t seen in any other craft subscription service.
The activity the kids wanted to do involved creating the color river and the lighthouse that were both featured in the story. The concept was simple: we covered a board with a sheet of aluminum foil (all included in the kit) and then used the crayons they provided to make gorgeous swirls of color on the river.
Such a great idea in theory! In practice, it looked like this:
I actually had to ditch the crayons that were provided and use our own crayons just to get this much color on the foil. I have to say, I thought it was a huge miss to have a craft box all about crayons and then to send really poor quality crayons in the kit. Talk about a missed opportunity!
Now as for this particular craft, it may be the case that I should have used the other side of the foil. I’m honestly not sure, but the directions didn’t specify one way or the other. In any case, our vibrant color river looked sort of sad, but the girls didn’t seem too fazed by it, and pressed on.
The next step was to color the windows for the light house. They took some creative license with their color choice, as well as with the light placement, which is totally fine. They both really liked the flameless candle that came in the set to make the top of the lighthouse. But I think the idea here was to create something that might inspire imaginative play after the creating process was over. As soon as the girls finished the lighthouse, they promptly left the table. So I’m sorry to say that it didn’t hold their interest after they were done creating.
Was I wowed by Peekapak after just one box? Not really. But would I try it again? I honestly would, and that’s largely because I like the combination of story time and craft time. It gives some context to the projects, and I think there’s a lot of potential there, though based on my experience with the crafts, definitely some kinks left to work out.
If you like the idea behind Peekapak, too, you might want to give it a try for a month. Use coupon code SPECIAL10 at checkout and you’ll get $10 0ff your first box. I think the discount definitely makes it worth the risk, friends. Pricing varies for each Peekapak depending on how many you pay for up front, but if you just go for one, they are $19.50 and that includes your shipping.