Crayola

Salaams/Hello!

So I'm logging on today to give, not a product recommendation, but a product Warning...

We love Crayola products. Tried and true are those crayons and markers that our kids have been using since they could hold them. I guess my problem with Crayola these days is their veering into low-quality gimmicky product lines. We don't usually buy that sort of stuff on a day to day basis, but when we left Ottawa, my mom bought the girls a Color-Wonder set for the road. It was similar to this one:


It claims to be a MESS-FREE glitter paper colouring set. The glitter, you are told, is IN the paper and therefore no mess! My girls looooove glitter, so we thought this was a perfect choice. Well, as I opened the packaging, super-fine glitter covered my hands. The dashboard, my knitting, my lap. As I passed back the colouring pages, it covered the back of my seat and the floor. As they coloured, it covered their hands... and then everything they touched. It was what I would have expected from a product involving glitter - if Crayola hadn't already assured me on their packaging that they had (through some sort of purported miracle) removed the possibility of such a giant mess.

The customer service at Crayola, however, is stellar. The woman on the phone apologized profusely for "bedazzling" my van and sent me coupons for Crayola products. Since I had removed the glitter colouring set after just one picture each, I gave the coupons to the girls to make up for it, and this week we were at Target and they went to choose something from the arts and crafts aisle. Maymuna picked super fine tip markers - and as you would expect, they are great, with a wide variety of hues and smells. She has barely put them down.

Hafsa's tastes run a little more... splashy. She picked this:



We've had some pretty good experiences with sand art, particularly some from South Africa which was well made and fun to use. I figured when I saw this that Crayola had caught on to the trend. I was not that keen on the "non-toxic" glow-in-the-dark part, but that was the main draw for H.

There were almost too many problems with this product to count, and you'll see by the pictures what I mean. Once you mix the "sand" with the glow-in-the-dark mixture, it was not dry enough to move around easily. It stuck together in lumps:


The result being you had to shake the lumpy sand over the picture and hope that some of it stuck to the glued areas, or you had to press it down with your fingers, leaving a packed mound on your picture.




Disappointing on both counts. Plus the activity starts to take longer than it was probably intended. 30+ minutes into a project like this, and a 5 year old's attention begins to wane. Also the white areas to be "sanded" need to be covered with school glue with a brush - not the best for a young child's dexterity or attention span.

We finally finished a single picture for each kid, after which we threw the rest of the product out, save the actual picture boards that were left. We headed to the walk-in closet, where the glow-in-the-dark component at least saved Hafsa from complete disappointment.



What you can't see is that half the picture is not filled in, because it was taking too long, and in the case of Hafsa's picture, the details of the dragon were too hard to properly fill in with glue, and too difficult to get good sand coverage. They were pretty amazed.. I was terrified I was going to find neon glow-in-the-dark sand on my clothes....

On the back of the packaging, you would note that the glow-in-the-dark lasts only 4 hours. So by evening this is what we were left with:


Colours faded, with loose sand everywhere... :-(

Needless to say, I do not recommend this product!! I will remain loyal to the quality standards of Crayola art supplies... but I might actually end up calling my friend over at customer service again today....