Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.
Recently I was contacted by Oriental Trading to see if I would be interested in doing reviews on some of their products. Having bought from there and knowing my church uses them for Christian Education crafts, I jumped at the chance. Now for those of you who have not explored Oriental Trading yet, it is a wonderful company with party supplies as well as craft supplies and so much more and all of it is reasonably priced. To be honest I have gone through some of their craft pages just to get inspiration. I also bought several items for my wedding reception there as well as things for my classroom and parties.
Now as you know if you have been reading Crafty Moms Share for any amount of time, I am very active in my church. At church we have two major events coming up in December and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to get some of the supplies we need as well as some gifts from Hazel for our family. So I picked four different kits to review here.
The first is a DIY Scroll Kit. I have been working with a committee at church for almost a year now to plan a very special event open to the public. We are going to have a live nativity as well as a marketplace. One of our markets is a scribe and we wanted the kids to make their own scrolls to take home. Hazel and I put together a sample of it and I then found my calligraphy pens and wrote Caesar's decree to make an announcement at church. These scrolls are fun and easy to do and the perfect item for an event going back in time like we are. I know my committee was very excited to see the sample at our meeting last week. The kit makes twelve scrolls.
The second item is Nativity Earrings Craft Kit. I fell in love with these earrings and really wanted a pair, so I ordered them. The kit makes six pairs of earrings, so I thought this would be perfect for Hazel to give to the important women in her life. The kit originally makes the longer earrings, but looking at how long they were, I thought they might be long for some people (like myself) and we tried a shorter one leaving off the extra beads. We made three of each pair. Now on the other hand, my mother will love the longer ones. I did have to help Hazel quite a bit with these since it required some jewelry tools (pliers) to attach the beads and open the rings. However I am sure the people who are given them will love them.
The last two items I ordered two kits of for church. Every year the Christian Education Committee does a special Advent Workshop the first Sunday of Advent. There are different craft stations for people to do and there is a huge area where the minister has wreath making set up. Since several of the crafts often come from Oriental Trading usually, I thought this would be a perfect way to give to the church a bit more. Hazel and I kept one or two of each for samples to review and for ourselves.
The fourth kit is the DIY Nativity Ornaments. Now Hazel really wanted to paint, so we used watercolors. She found it difficult to control the paint on the wood. At our Advent Workshop we suggested using markers for the color instead. I also have not glued the pieces down or the string on it yet. Hazel has told me she is not done painting yet. She however had fun mixing the colors. She really wanted an orange for the star and painted it a dark red first. I blotted it a bit and helped her get it orange. I know this will be an ornament I treasure for some time to come. It is something she truly made how she wanted. I did help her try to get the skin color a bit better since Mary was completely blue because of the runny paint. Otherwise it is all her and that makes it very special. She really enjoyed making this one. Each kit makes twelve and each of the ornaments is individually packaged as well.
Things I love about Oriental Trading are the variety, the price, and the speed they get things to you. I have never had a problem with anything I have ordered. So if you are looking for some fun and easy crafts, party supplies and toys for this Christmas or Hanukkah or even Thanksgiving, you should check them out. Both the earrings and bracelets also came with extra parts in case you broke or lost one, which of course Hazel did. They truly make doing crafts with kids very easy and with their religious and holiday selection many of them can be meaningful as well. I should also mention how much I love going through their birthday party catalog. I always get great ideas. Now if only I could talk Hazel into one of those themes.
For some more Christmas craft ideas (including more from Oriental Trading) check out my Christmas Pinterest Board and remember to follow it so you can see more inspiration!
