Review - Aquabeads Disney Princess Cinderella Set

As an Aquabeads blogger, the latest set that I received to review was the Aquabeads Cinderella Set (affiliate link).

The Cinderella Set comes with three template sheets. With the first two sheets you can make Cinderella's head, and a glass slipper and carriage. Then the set also comes with a large plastic Glass Slipper Ring Holder, two ring bodies, and the beads to make two rings, which can be stored and displayed in the ring holder. There is one layout tray and a sprayer in the set, along with all the beads that you need and full instructions.

The beads come in a range of Cinderella colours and there were plenty of beads in the set to complete the designs. The set includes both plain beads and jewelled beads, which look really pretty in the finished designs as when they are fused together with the water they become really shiny.

When you have placed the beads on the board, you need to spray them with water which makes the beads stick together. You need to use quite a bit of water, and then tilt the board slightly so that the excess water can drain off. Leave to dry for several hours and the finished piece will be nice and sturdy.

Mia really loved the idea of the glass slipper ring holder, and the fact that the set made two rings that she could wear and then store in the holder. The ring pieces were simple to make and stuck together well, and she was really pleased with it.

Unfortunately we didn't have as much success with the Cinderella head. I sprayed with water and left overnight, and when I came down in the morning it had curled up and come apart. I tried my best to rescue it but it was too fiddly and so I had to give up. We've made similar sized pieces before with the Frozen Playset so I'm not sure what I did wrong this time, I think that perhaps I should have placed something over the design to flatten it while it dried.

The shoe and the carriage worked really well and made some nice little pieces to play with.

As we've found before, the Aquabead designs can be quite fiddly, and even though the packet suggests suitable for children aged 4+ I think that older children will have much more success with Aquabeads. Mia at 5 still finds them quite frustrating, especially larger designs, whereas Harry at 8 enjoys using them much more. The trouble is that if you knock one bead it can push all the others out of place, and as you can no longer see the design underneath you effectively need to start again. I personally find it much easier to use a bead dropping tool to place the beads (available to purchase separately or included in some of the larger sets).

The big advantage that Aquabeads have over other similar bead crafts is that the beads are stuck together with water so even young children can complete them by themselves. There are also plenty of different character options available so you can find a theme to suit any child.

I received this Aquabeads set in exchange for a review, Amazon link is affiliate.

Review - Aquabeads Frozen Playset

I am an Aquabeads blogger, and I was recently sent a new Aquabeads set to try out with the children - the Aquabeads Frozen Playset (affiliate link). This set contains the beads to make six different Frozen designs and comes with a snowflake themed bead tray to store the beads and keep them easily accessible. Among the beads are several different colours of jewelled beads for some extra sparkle.

The set contains one square layout tray, two double sided design sheets, a bead dropper tool, spray bottle, enough beads to complete the designs, and a snowflake themed storage box with a lid that you can also use as a base when creating your design and to prop up your design for drying.

To make your designs, you insert the design sheet into the back of the layout tray and make sure that it is all lined up correctly. Then you place the beads into the dimples on the layout tray, copying the design underneath. You can either use your fingers or you can use the bead dropper tool provided which gives you a bit more precision with the placement.

The beads come packaged in individual little bags which you can empty into the storage box to keep the colours separate. There are not very many extra beads, and in many cases you only receive just the right number of beads to complete the designs, so you need to be careful not to drop any as you go along or else you won't have enough (there aren't as many as it shows on the box). In this particular set some of the colours are quite similar and it wasn't always obvious from the template which one to use, so you need to make sure that you are using the right colour for each part of the design.

Placing the beads on the tray is easy, but if you put one in the wrong dimple it is very difficult to correct it as you can easily end up nudging lots of beads into the wrong position. This means that you then you can't see the template underneath to correct it, so I found myself several times rescuing the children's designs by referring to the pictures on the box. When your design is finished you need to spray it liberally with water and then leave to dry for a couple of hours. This part is great because even little ones can do it by themselves.

The lid of the box has a groove in it that you can use to rest the template tray in while it dries. (Please note that in the photograph below we are using a second layout tray for Olaf that we had left over from a previous set to work on two designs at once, this set only comes with the one tray).

After a couple of hours you can remove the design from the tray and turn it over to spray on the back. The finished project will be dry in another couple of hours but will still be quite soft, if you wait a few days it will harden up completely and feel much more sturdy. I loved the finished designs, the colours work really well together and the jewelled beads really do make them sparkle. There weren't many beads left at the end, but the storage container is really useful if you have beads left over from other kits like the 3D Animal Refill Kit that I also reviewed recently.

I found that the children (they are aged 5 and 7) did need quite a bit of help when completing these Aquabeads projects, but they made a really nice finished product which is fun and colourful.

I was sent this product in exchange for a review. Amazon link is affiliate.

Review - Aquabeads 3D Animal Set

As an Aquabeads blogger I was recently set an Aquabeads kit to review -the Aquabeads 3D Animal Set (affiliate link). This set comes with a special 3D layout tray that allows you to make the 3D animals, as well as over 500 beads in a variety of colours and four template sheets. This is a refill pack, so in order to complete it you will also need a flat Aquabeads tray and a sprayer, and a pen for placing the beads is also helpful.

The set comes with enough beads to make five different animals - a panda, lion, a bird in a nest, tortoise and a ladybird. The ladybird is made entirely using the 3D template so doesn't have a flat template sheet but there is a picture that you can copy. For the other animals, the template sheet is inserted underneath the transparent flat layout tray meaning that you can easily see where the beads need to be placed.

Mia chose to start with the bird in a nest. The patterns are simple to follow and she managed to place the beads with her fingers, although it was a bit fiddly.

When you've finished placing your beads you need to spray them with water and wait a few hours for the individual pieces to dry, then you can use more water to stick the different parts together. We found that you need to use plenty of water to really saturate the beads to make sure that they stick properly.

Because they need to be left to dry for several hours you can only make one animal at a time as the 3D template will be in use. When fully dry we found that the finished product was very sturdy and held its shape well. Some of the beads in the set are jewel beads which make a nice contrast. I thought that this 3D set made a much nicer finished product than a previous set that we have tried out.

The set does contain only just enough beads to make all the animals with a couple in each colour left over, so you need to make sure that you don't drop any! The children were able to make the separate pieces quite easily, although they did struggle with the ladybird as it needs to be assembled entirely in the 3D layout tray, so I made that one (I'm not sure that I got it quite right though as it was quite difficult to follow the picture!). It was also tricky to remove the beads from the 3D template, and I found that you needed to wash it thoroughly between uses to prevent a build up of stickiness. The beads do take quite a while to dry, so it's best if you can to place them in the sun or over a radiator to speed it up a bit. When fully dry the finished animals are very solid and can be played with without breaking.

We had a lot of fun with this set, it was nice that the children could both complete a lot of it on their own and they really loved the animals that they made.

I was sent this product in exchange for a review. Amazon link is affiliate.