We have a fun arts and crafts project to tell you about today.
We have been trying to find ways to involve the whole family, the older kids and the younger kids, in arts and crafts projects more often. Sometimes you just want a break from the usual school studies. We were thrilled when our family was offered to try Super Beads by Zirrly for some fun arts and crafts projects and write an honest review of our experience.
Zirrly is a craft supply company that has been providing fun engaging arts and crafts projects for families to create since 1956. Their craft kits and supplies are both creative and educational. They have many different kinds of craft kits and supplies. These can be used for enjoyment and used in a variety of ways in various settings that help develop fine motor skills and creativity for kids and adults, rehabilitation, special needs, and the elderly too.
Super Beads are:
- Fun, Educational and Creative Fun For All Ages
- Portable
- No Mess
- Safe and Non-Toxic
- Flexible and Won’t Crack
- No Ironing
- No Gluing
- Super Beads Fit Snugly Onto Board so They Won’t Move Around While You’re Working
- Simply Spray With Water and the Super Beads Fuse Together
The Homeschool Review Crew had the opportunity to review a Super Beads project of their choosing. There were several great options to choose from:
Super Beads: Mega Pack
For the past few weeks, we were able to incorporate using Super Beads Mega Pack for arts and craft projects in our homeschool, and each of our six kids have been able to spend time creating something affordable and fun.
Super Beads: Mega Pack
- 4500 Super Beads in large bag
- 2 Spray Bottles
- 1 Design Tool
- Instructions
- 4 Different Design Templates: Apple, Turtle, Elephant, Cupcake
- 5 Copies of each Design Template (if you have multiple students working on same design)
- 4 Design Boards
The kids were so excited when our package of Super Beads arrived.
We received a large bag of beads with several colors (white, yellow, brown, red, blue, green, pink) and two small packs of beads with colors (black and orange) that were not part of the larger pack.
Everything you need to complete each design is included.
I put the kit into a dishpan to contain everything until we were ready to begin.
I had a feeling it wouldn’t be a good idea for 4500 plastic beads to spill.
When it was time to work on our crafts, we took some time to sort the colors into an ice cube tray that had 10 dividers.
I dumped about half the bag of beads into a pie plate for sorting.
This step was tedious and took a lot longer than we expected. Thankfully we had lots of hands helping out.
It was quite a pretty sight when they had the beads sorted and the tray filled. However, our tray wasn’t nearly large enough to hold very many at one time.
Four of our kids could work with the beads at the same time. They each received a design tray. The trays can be used one at a time, or they can be combined to make larger projects.
Next they inserted their design of choice onto the back of the tray.
The tray is see through so you can see the design from the top side.
Next they got busy adding beads to their design tray.
Here is what their designs looked like once they had added all of the beads onto their design trays.
Once they had their designs complete. It was time to spray them with water. The kit comes with two spray bottles to share. Just fill them with water and they are ready to use. One of our bottles leaked slightly, so that reinforced the idea that we should empty out the water and dry the spray bottles before storing them away, especially if you plan to store them with your extra beads.
On the back of the design instructions, is a “Tips and Tricks” helpsheet to help you understand the best method for spraying the design.
You want to be sure to get just enough water to make the beads fuse together, but not to much water and not too little either.
We set our designs out to dry. It takes as little as 60 minutes for them to be removable from the design tray. We removed one design after an hour and let the other designs alone to dry overnight.
Completed designs are supposed to be flexible and won’t crack. If they do come apart, it is likely because they didn’t receive enough water in that spot to fuse to the next bead, so just simply place them back on the design board and spray with water again and let it dry. We had no trouble with removing ours from the boards and they held together very well.
You can find additional designs online or “think outside the box” and create your own designs. Besides doing the regular designs, my kids enjoyed making their own creations.
Final Thoughts:
We really enjoyed making crafts with Super Beads: Mega Pack. We would also like to try out the 3D Car and Truck set. My kids are very interested in making cars and trucks. My daughter and oldest son would like to try out the Jewelry Set.
These beads and templates would be a lot of fun to take the nursing home and do as a project with some of the residents the next time we go. I would like to take them the Jungle Animals, Birds, and the Mega Pack. It might remind them of fond memories from their visits to see animals at a zoo, and with the mega pack they could get creative with their own designs too. It would make a nice keepsake of the time they spent with the kids creating a project.
In our homeschool, as the three big boys get older, and their school work gets harder and takes more time to complete, we noticed there is less time for them to enjoy doing fun crafts, especially if they are complicated or have expensive ingredients. We still have three younger kids in the house too, so less complicated arts and crafts such as coloring, gluing, and painting are still important part in their learning. Now we can add Super Beads as an affordable craft they can all enjoy designing and creating.
Arts and crafts are an important part of learning to be creative, learning to follow directions, and learning how to think and create outside the box. These skills are important and enjoyable and they will benefit the person who learned them most likely through out their life.
Social Media
Be sure to check out Zirrly on their social media links for all the latest news, products, and great tips on using arts and crafts.
Blog (with lots of crafts ideas)
Homeschool Review Crew
Be sure to check out what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about using these products in their homes.
These are so cute! You can use them for just about anything you need to organize. Kids could use them for their Thin Stix and art supplies, Legos, crayons, etc. You could use them in your drawers to hold socks or miscellaneous items. You could use them to hold fruit (or candy) on the counter. It could hold napkins on the table as a cute centerpiece too. 
The kids had a lot of fun cutting out their petals, painting them with Thin Stix colors like Metalix Purple and Classic Purple, and hot glueing the petals together to create lovely flowers. 
