Review It Wednesday ... let's get crafty

The finished product!

Kids love crafts. They especially love crafts when Mom or Dad (or even Grandma) sit down and spend the time creating something special with them. But have you ever noticed how so many craft kits contain a whole bunch of eco-nasty pieces?

Well, I have good news for you!! Moms Penny Bauder and Sue Sears got together and launched Green Kid Crafts in 2010, and let me tell you, this is a really cool subscription-based company. Penny, the company's CEO and founder, stumbled upon this blog and contacted me. She wanted to send me some crafts to try out with my 3-year-old granddaughter, Laura. Naturally, I jumped at the chance. I liked Penny's philosophy: 

"I'm a busy working mom, but nothing is more precious to me than spending quality time interacting with my two children, I want to spend my limited time engaging with them, not scrambling for ideas and shopping for safe, earth-friendly supplies."

Green Kid Crafts logo

When I received the kit in the mail, I was initially impressed with the eco-friendly packaging. Committed to the environment, the company minimizes packaging and uses recycled labels and paper envelopes for shipping. They also use plant-based sustainable and compostable clear packaging. Very cool.

Next, I was impressed by the 3 craft kits included in the package and couldn't wait to spend some time with Laura creating some 'masterpieces' and memories.

I received a kit for making Mermaid Puppets, one for making a button-ensconced wooden picture frame and another called "A Child's Hands," which included a touching poem that brought tears to my husband's eyes (softy that he is).

Adding yarn 'hair' to her stick puppet

Laura and I went to work on the mermaid puppets first. The sustainable materials in the kit included recycled felt, craft sticks, yarn, seashells, recycled shredded plastic and a template for the mermaids' tails. We needed glue, scissors and a Sharpie to complete the project.

Time for a puppet show!

Of course, I did the cutting, but Laura was able to do the gluing and she drew one of the faces while I drew the other one. One problem we ran into was that the kit only had 2 seashells instead of 4, so we had to improvise and cut out a top for one of the puppets from the leftover felt from the tails. That worked okay. We played for awhile with our stick puppets before moving on to the next craft.

The picture frame craft included the following sustainable materials: 

Exercising her creativity

• wooden craft frame
• wood mosaic squares
• salvaged buttons
• cardstock shapes
• magnet strip

Again, we needed glue. The directions suggest adding designs with paint or markers from home, but I skipped that step. There was more than enough buttons, mosaic squares and cardstock shapes to fill the frame. While Laura was gluing them onto the frame (with Grandpap's assistance), I ran up to my office and printed out a small picture of Laura to put in the frame.

Fun with Grandpap!

While the mermaid puppet craft required a more stringent adherence to the directions, this craft allowed more creativity on Laura's part.

We ran out of time to complete the third craft, so I sent it home with her mommy.

My overall opinion? Green Kid Crafts gets 2 green thumbs up! Crafting with kids creates a special opportunity for bonding. Knowing the materials are sustainable and that the company keeps the environment in mind with everything they do, is the added bonus I need to fully endorse co-founders, Penny and Sue, and their marvelous kid-friendly, eco-friendly company.

Did I get the products free from them? Of course. Did that influence this review? Not at all.

Here is what sets Green Kid Crafts apart:

• they are the only carbon neutral, craft subscription service in the nation
• they offset 100% of the carbon dioxide generated by business activities and helps fun the development of renewable energy projects across the U.S. (in 2011, they offset 36 tons of CO2, and in 2012, they pledged to do the same)
• their green craft kits are an inexpensive tool for parents, grandparents, and teachers to use to educate children about recycling, reducing waste, and protecting the environment
• their goal is to infuse in kids a sense of wonder and creativity, while cultivating respect and love for the environment
• they aim to inspire others with a mission of sustainability, responsibility, and goodness
• they infuse eco-awareness into their craft themes wherever possible

 Monthly memberships are available for $14.99 and gift subscriptions are also available for 3, 6, or 12 months. Members receive 3 different craft kits each month, containing unique, multicultural, fun and sustainable do-it-yourself craft kits for kids. While they advertise that everything you need is included in the kits, I found that not to be true. We needed pens, scissors and glue for ours.

After crafts, it was time for bubbles!!

Laura and I enjoyed our day of crafting with Grandpap, and one of you can enjoy the same with your little one, because Green Kid Crafts has graciously offered to send a one-month kit to one lucky winner! Just follow the instructions on Rafflecopter for a chance to win.

Also, if you decide to order a monthly subscription or a gift subscription, use the code SUMMER and get $10 off your purchase!

a Rafflecopter giveaway