Crayola Creations - Sticky Stencils product reviews

In our house both my husband and I are quite crafty, and enjoy making, creating and discovering with our children too. When the Crayola Sticky Stencils came up on KIWIreviews, my eldest (5 year old) was super excited and could not WAIT for it to arrive, so we put our hands up to trial, even though we are younger than the recommended age.

Upon arrival we were greeted with a lovely colourful box, and simple instructions on the front for how to use these stencils. Honestly, it IS as easy as it looks, with just 3 steps to create. Opening the box was easy, and all the bits and pieces are nicely packaged together, so do not spill everywhere - yay! Pictured on the back was everything included, however inside colours differed, but other than that, perfect.

I purchased three cheap plain white tee shirts for my two girls and boy, and decided that this would be an excellent rainy day activity, and a chance for Miss Five to create something unique for herself and her siblings. We decided to plan our design first, and to trial the colouring on a piece of material, to see how hard or dark we needed to colour. The good news is, just use them like a normal felt - easy as pie! The sticky stencils are fantastic for little hands - no need to hold firmly in place, which gives the child more independence. Some help is required to remove them, so that they do not stick to the creation.

Ever the princess, Miss Five chose the crown and butterfly, but then saw the skull. She is a huge Monster High fan, and was delighted, so we opted to use that on the back of the shirt for hers. Whilst there is a good selection, it is mostly girly, so we ended up using only the swirl for her little brother's shirt and free handing the rest, still using the supplied felts.

We opted for the iron method of setting, and it was easy, and quick - though Miss Five thought it lasted FOREVER until it was done! The colours seemed to get a bit brighter after heat setting, and looked even better.

All in all - very pleased with the results! We went out and purchased more of the fabric markers after washing the shirts and finding that the ink stayed nice and visible, with no fading. We have plans to pretty up some more items of clothing, in particular dolls clothes, and Miss Three wants to try next time to make her own - so it will be a total family fun activity!

My six year old is really into stencils at the moment so when the Crayola Creations Sticky Stencils came up for review I put my hand up because although she is younger than the recommended eight plus years I thought it would be a project we could work on together. The kit arrived in the middle of tidying up her bedroom so it was offered as an incentive (bribe) to finish the chore.

She was so excited by it that when I wasn't watching she ripped open the kit and started using it herself. This provided me with the opportunity to see if the marks she had made on her sweatshirt were going to come of. I was very relieved to find that after treating them with a stain remover and then washing it in the machine the marks had disappeared.

Both my daughters don't like wearing plain tops because they are too boring so I found a top for each of them that they had a couple of months but never worn. Miss 6's top was an apricot colour. She chose a butterfly and a crown stencil. The stencils were a bit fiddly to use and having seen her attempts earlier I removed them myself. They were easy enough to apply and use on the t-shirt. Miss 6 was very pleased with the result.

Miss 4's top was a dark purple with navy pocket. The box did say that the markers worked on both light and dark fabrics so this was a good test. I didn't think the yellow marker was good on the navy but both the yellow and red looked good on the purple. I felt they were better on the lighter fabric. Miss 4 choose a butterfly (of which there were five to chose from) and the same crown her sister had. I decided to colour the outside of the crown to make the negative space stand out. We were both very pleased with the result.

The third project I did was with some grosgrain ribbon which I stenciled flowers on made into hair ties. The marker bleed right through the ribbon which I used to my advantage by making something with twists in that showed both sides as most of the printed grosgrain ribbon is only printed on a single side.

To set the design there is the option of ironing or the clothes dryer. I chose to use a clothes dryer as I thought this would be easiest and the method you would use for canvas shoes or backpacks or caps. The heat setting intensified the colour a little but I knew the true test would be after washing the tops. Both girls wore their tops the next day and Miss 6 managed to get food stains on the front so I had to treat part of the design with a stain remover. I was very pleased to see that none of the design was faded.

I really enjoyed using this kit and although my girls were too young to do it themselves they enjoyed designing their our tops. The two markers we got in our kit are different to those illustrated so it is pot luck on what colours you get. I am keen to get some more colours of the Crayola fabric markers to use with the stencils and labelling clothes.