Klutz - Watercolor Crush product reviews

This Klutz kit looks amazing, the cover with its rainbow zebra draws people in and calls to them to unleash their artistic side. The side of the book, has seven water colour paints, and a brush, all ready to go. The creater of this kit had practicality in mind, and the pages are durable, and 'semi' waterproof. The book details how to make the most of this book, giving practical advice on how to set up before you embark on your master pieces, and different painting techniques.

There is a two page spread, on how to acheive the different variations of colour, and how to mix your colours to create the shades you want. Again practical advice is given, such as "your paint will lighten as it dries, so mix your colours a little darker than you want to get the shade just right'. I learnt a lot reading the instructions to my children! Every instructional page is bright and attractive, encouraging the reader to engage with the page. As I have stated before, the instructions are clear, and easy to follow, my children's water colour techniques developed substantially, and I think all childrens (and adults) would too with these practical and easy hints.

One of my favourite pages in the book, is one which shows the same picture painted two very different ways, and there is a bold statement that says, "theres no wrong way to colour your art". I think this is so empowering for children as often they can be their own worst critics.

The water colour pages are made of thick cartridge paper, and the designs are varied, in style and images, but they are all clear beautiful and inviting. Every page is perforated, so that it can be removed and displayed. So far through this review I have said children would benifit from the instructions, but after watching my children engage with this, I am heading out to buy my own. To me it was the next step up from the colouring books for adults. There were a couple of pages that are aimed at younger people, but they would be practice pages for me. I think this is a fantastic kit and definitely value for money.

My 3 year old daughter loves absolutely anything to do with arts and crafts, and while at daycare she spends the majority of her time painting. For ages now she has been begging me to buy her some paints for home, which I have found every possible excuse not to do as I know how messy paints can be! When I saw this book available for review I decided to request it for Miss 3, I loved the idea of the paints being water colours as I felt that there would be much less risk of her making a huge mess with these, and I also loved the little palette in which the paints were held as I felt these would help keeps the paints together nicely.

Miss 3 was over the moon when I showed her what I had got for her, and immediately she was begging me to let her paint, after flicking through the book she came across a beautiful picture of a tea party set up which she wanted to do. I carefully removed it from the book by tearing it out across the perforated lines. I was most impressed by the lovely quality of the paper which felt more like a strong type of thin cardboard. The lines on the image were rather thick which I thought was great for young children as it enables them to stay in the lines more. Miss 3 who has done painting with watercolours at daycare before new exactly what to do, I filled her up a small jar with water and handed her the paint brush and she set straight to work, dipping the brush into the water, onto her choice of paint colour and then onto the picture. The colours were rich and vibrant and looked beautifully and I just loved the way in which they were able to be blended together, Miss 3 had a great time mixing up 'new' colours. The end result was a gorgeous picture, which didn't take long at all to dry and which didn't leak through the back of the paper or create holes in the page from the water.

The book itself is beautifully presented, it has clear instructions on how to paint and what other materials are needed to be prepared before starting on your work. The book also features some great tips such as how to create different line thicknesses and how to mix the colours. If you are wanting to be even more creative there is a list of ideas you can try out for example tie-dying and painting using stamps. I love the choices the book provides in regards of the pictures to paint there is a wide array of things to choose from with 18 pages of various animals and other items to colour, some pages also feature 2 pictures per page which are designed to make postcards. The watercolour paints come in 7 colours, all which are of high quality materials and of course a paint brush is included to.

This is such a great little all round set for any little budding artist, it is generally tidy and so easy to work with. This is something I would recommend as a great Christmas gift, and something I certainly I am considering buying for my nieces this year.