Klutz - Pom Pom Monster Salon product reviews

This year my 10 year old daughter learned how to make pompoms at school for an art project her teacher had designed. It became a regular thing with a lot of wool being bought and all my cereal boxes being cut into the small circles to make the pompoms. After getting sick of seeing pompoms all over the place I saw this kit on an online store and thought it looked cool so I bought it.

It wasn't cheap I think I paid around $25 but it did have a lot of nice little pieces to decorate the pompoms to look like like monsters which made up for the price. The instructions were easy to follow and had great pictures to illustrate the instructions so it would be easy to use for younger children. It also contained everything you would need to create them which is great as some sets I have bought in the past haven't included the glue which is really annoying when you sit down to do it and realise you need to go out and buy glue.

It has definetly made use of all the pompoms that my girl has created and I am thinking of buying another copy for my 5 year old niece as it is a great little activity for school holidays or rainy days.

I won this from KIWIreviews and it has been in the 'rainyday' pile for awhile. I new that my son who is 3 1/2 would love this, but it would require my full attention and skills to help him to make these. So the day arrived, its wet outside and I remembered about this, he was so excited! Loved the bright colourful pictures and the comb was a real hit!

The instructions are really well laid out, the paper quality is great and its easy to wipe anything off the pages (big bonus when glue is involved!) What i didn't know is that we had to provide the scissors - it does say this, but i think it should be on the cover! We only have large and relatively blunt kitchen scissors, so when it came to cutting, things got a bit messy. I tried a sharp knife, but it put too much pressure on the wool and it started to come out. I really think for $25.00 they should include scissors that are appropriate for the task - I see other reviewers have had similar issues.

Overall this was a fun task, and some one around the age of 5 would be able to do this well on their own once shown what and how it all works! Making pompoms takes me back to primary school days! So was fun for me, and Ollie loved helping pick colours, wind the wool on and decorate it!

The Klutz Pom Pom Monster Salon arrived and was immediately hugged by my very excited daughter. Let's face it, when you are a kid, something super bright and exciting looking arrives in your hot little hands and you are unlikely to unhook your fingers anytime soon. I managed to get it off her after she had poured her way through the bright instruction pages, the styles of pompom monsters you could style and the cool press out accessories in the back of the book, ohhh and had asked at least 20 times if she could open it yet.

I took the book back and carefully read through all the instructions. I am suffering a little from baby brain, but the measurements in the book really took me a long while to come to grips with. In the end I was able to understand that 1 yd was three wraps around the very handy measuring ruler at the back of the kit, and that 8 yd were 24 wraps. And we could get started.

I opened everything out, then passed the book back to Leandra to first pick a style of monster she wanted to do. Fantastic instructions are included, which were super easy to follow. Each monster style tells you exactly what you need in terms of measurements of yarn, and when to change colour if you want a mohawk in a different colour or whatever. Following the instructions very diligently (I mentioned baby brain right?) we put together the pompom makers, I made a piece of wool 24 wraps long and handed that to my daughter. She started wrapping it around the first pompom maker piece but got really bored of that quite quickly. Because we cut off so much yarn in one go it also tangled. So I ended up doing the grunt work. The yarn was easy enough to untangle and I wrapped it successfully before starting the process again for the second piece of the pompom maker. To make that particular monster took a full ball of yarn. When it came to cutting into the yarn to make the pompom though, my scissors were all too big and blunt. It would have been good to know I needed proper fabric scissors. Eventually my kitchen scissors came through, but it was hard work. By this time my daughter was getting fairly bored with the whole thing.

But then it was time to decorate the monster. This bit she loved. She combed its hair, picked its eyes, teeth, wings, shoes and a nice bow. The glue was really good and easy to use (a bit fast flowing). She was so proud of it she wanted to show everyone in our house (had a gathering in the other room). She then wanted to make even more. For a child her age, I would say consult on the colour combos, give them a chance to try making the pompoms but I would have been better off pre-making them and letting her do the decorating which is the part she loved the most. For an older child, 7 or 8 they would be able to do the whole thing themselves.

Overall I liked the kit. It wasnt as user friendly as I hoped, and I got stuck doing the hard work. But the outcome was some really cute pompom monsters. The accessories were top notch, and the only thing I needed that wasnt supplied was the scissors. Of course, if I had had better scissors I might have also enjoyed the pompom making part too. I do like that I can re-use the pompom maker again and again even after we run out of the yarn in the packet, by using other balls I have lying around. I would buy this again, but for an older child.

Great for a rainy day activity with my 6 year old girl.

Santa delivered this for her and she just loves it. It is challenging enough to keep her mind going yet easy enough for her to do by herself. There are plenty of pictures for children to follow, she did have trouble with the knots and cutting the yarn but with perseverance and some encouragement she did this by herself.

She has made herself a few poms now, and they have now become part of her play routine, each have names and she is proud of herself.

I have also added to her container with bits pieces from spotlight and will continue to buy more wool once hers is finished.

There were enough products included with the book to keep her busy for hours, as well as share with friends. Great product and will definitely be recommending to friends.

I really enjoyed doing this with my 5 year old daughter. I remember doing similar when i was younger.

Downside was trying to find scissors that would fit and that were sharp enough, It is quite a hard yarn. I also found that the amount of yarn needed wasn't quite enough, so next time we do this i would use a different type of yarn and also make it wound thicker.

I didnt have any trouble with the glue sticking which was good, but it is hard to position the eyes and accessories correctly.

Overall though we loved doing this and i would definitely recommend this for purchase or gift.

This kit contains an instruction book with lots of pictures of pom pom creatures and step by step instructions as to how to create your desired "look". It pays to read the entire book cover to cover first and then ensure that your youngster/s look/s at all the examples before they decide on what pom pom creature they are going to design. Whilst 85 yards seems like a lot you will only be able to make about 4/5 pom poms with the included yarn. There are enough accessories in the pack to decorate more than five so if you are planning a serious pom pom making session get some more yarn before you start, to avoid an emergency trip to Spotlight or grandmas house!!

Also ensure you have some sharp thin bladed scissors on hand as the blade on kitchen scissors will be too wide to slip between the pom pom makers "snap gap" to cut the yarn. The glue included isn't great and we had difficulty getting the accessories to adhere so used some of our own craft glue.

The above aside, this is a very cool little kit. Miss Three and Miss Four kept themselves busy for quite a few hours on our first session which I was stoked with! They didn't require much assistance from me and were able to measure the yarn and wind it themselves. Once we had the right scissors Miss Four was able to cut the yarn but Miss Three needed help.

They both had a great time combing out the yarn and adding their features and, as to be expected with Miss Three, she was then off for the rest of the afternoon in make believe world with her newly created friends!!

This is a fantastic little kit to start you off and although the book recommends you order any extra product off the Klutz website this is an American product and you can just as easily make up your own looks out of bits and pieces from your sewing kit and a trip to Spotlight or a raid of Grandma's craft room!!

I think this makes a great Christmas or birthday gift for children (probably more likely girls) from about the age of three years. I really enjoyed using this kit and, now we have stocked up on more yarn, am looking forward to getting it out of the cupboard on another rainy afternoon.

This product is actually quite a difficult one to explain, now that I've come to rating it, so hopefully my review will clarify the ratings I've chosen.

I sat down and did this with Miss 5. Something that I loved with this is that it was very clearly laid out and instructions were excellent. It took very little guidance from me and Miss 5 had quickly learned to make her own pompoms. The 4 part snap together pompom maker made this incredibly easy and I thought was one of the best parts of the kit! There is also a wide range of accessories with which to decorate and style the monsters and Miss 5 had fun picking out what she wanted and making up the design. I also love that the instructions and pompom maker guide you in how to make different kinds of pompoms, ideas I had never thought of.

The downside for me and where I marked this down, is that I am an avid knitter and therefore know my yarns. I found this acrylic very hard to work with and had to cut the pompom for Miss 5. I actually struggled with it myself so not sure how others would cope. We also found the glue an issue in that it didn't hold very well and it took quite a bit to get things to stay where they should!

With that said, that book does give some fantastic ideas and Miss 5 has been keen to make more monsters. A raid of my own softer acrylic yarns and craft glue remedied our issues and produced a happy youngster. So while this doesn't get a higher rating, I do still recommend it, lots of awesome ideas and lots of fun to be had.