Rainy day creative play with Cool Create

After just having my son over 2 weeks ago, I've found myself a little unorganised when it came to the half term holidays , especially on those rainy days.

Lucky for me we had the pleasure of having Cool Create send us some new creative fun to give a try and when we opened the parcel to find Shopkins Cool Cards and also the Sparkly Activity Pack , we were a little excited t say the least.

For a couple of months now , I have been pondering about buying my two younger daughters the Cool Cards which I have seen featured on the T.V adverts quite often but was not entirely sure if it would be a one of fun toy to have so never got round to trying it out.

The whole concept of the Cool Cards is that you design and make your own cards. Not cards which you give or receive for birthdays or Christmas but the type that you would get for joining clubs or Library's or even used for identification.

We were sent the Shopkins Cool Cards and my daughter seemed to really enjoy playing with it as well as her older sister of 11 years and her younger brother aged just 5 years too so the age limit on this is pretty accurate giving that it says aged 6 years and over.

In the box , we found that there was the Cool Cards studio which is used to laminate the cards and also used to store all of the bits and pieces inside as well as two sheets of stickers , x2 stamp rings, instruction booklet, 1 pen, 15 cards and 15 laminates.

The contents said that it included one ink pad for the two stamps but we did not have one included and was unsure if this was a miss print due to the fact we do believe the pad is in the ring with the stamp .

Once we read out the easily explained instructions , we found it very simple to use and it took no time at all for the girls and younger boy to get making some cards  for themselves and their friends.

They seemed to really enjoy the idea that they could make personalized cards for their friends but my only concern is that they seem to use them up pretty quickly and I may end up spending a small fortune for the refills which cost a price of £6.99 for just 10 more cards and laminates if you buy the orginal refill kits. To me the refills are a little too costly as I know the girls would end up using so many more than this . 

You can buy this Cool Cards set from Flairplc.co.uk for £14.99 and they also have other themes such as Frozen available.

The cards can be made easily with bits of paper but I would need to still buy the laminates and these can not be bought unless it comes as a bundle refill . I have however found that sites such as Ebay have some cheaper options which for a penny pinching parent like myself are more affordable . Because I have found the cheaper option for refills , it feels more appealing to me and the children really enjoy designing their own cards .

It says you can make invitations too which I think would be great for birthdays so I am looking into giving this a try for their birthday next year , that way they can make them as they please to suit their party theme and hand them out to whome they please.
Being laminated makes them waterproof and also harder to rip or ruin in those school bags that I always seem to lose by the time we get home.

​I love that it is so handy and able to be put away with its contents inside . Makes tidying away easier and keeps it all together.

This is the Sparkle Activity Set .
I can not actually find the price for this but it is loaded with hours of fun including-

• 4 large sheets of tattoos​
• 10 magic posters
• 1 sheet of glitter stickers
• 10 colourups
• 8 marker pens 
• 1 paint brush

This massive sparkle set includes over 600 pieces .

Our youngest boy ages 5 years loved the magic painting idea which was simply sheets of colouring posters with a colour palette at the bottom of each sheet.
All that is needed is water on the paint brush included and the magic begins. It is great fun and with no mess , makes it very appealing to us mums who have less time on our hands for wiping up mucky hands.

The other children spent quite some time in colouring in the large card pictures but the big love seems to be that of the tattoos.
I am not much a fan of tattoos but the kids love them and are literally covering each other in pretty sparkly tattoo transfers from toe to head , luckily it is easy to take these of with help of soap and water.

Cool Create literally saved me on a rainy day this half term.
Colouring, sticking and making things always keep my little ones entertained for the longest length of time and I love anything that keeps them of and away from a T.V screen.

What Cool Creates did you get up to over the holidays ?