ColourMazing Fairy Tale Review
Reviewed by Louise Totton
One of the things that younger children can find particularly frustrating with either painting or colouring in is their struggle to keep their work within the lines. I always thought there wasn’t a great deal you could do about this other than choosing simple designs for them to colour or paint, as well as constantly telling them to slow down and take their time. We have also tried the painting with water sets, but they are somehow a little unsatisfying as you can’t choose your own colours and designs.
This week though, we were sent a brand new product to try out – ColourMazing. These are available in a number of different theme packs, so there are designs to suit all kids, but my two love fairies and unicorns, so we chose the Fairy Tale pack. The idea of ColourMazing is a cool one – the set comes with 4 special pens and 4 designs to colour in. The colours of the pens can be mixed or blended, and most importantly, the box claims you won’t go out of the lines.
When the set arrived, the kids were really keen to get going with it, so we cracked on with it almost as soon as the postman had given it to us! The designs in our pack were a unicorn, a princess, a flower picture and a set of patterns. They actually feel like a cross between thick card and balsa wood, and the image isn’t just drawn on the sheet, it’s etched onto it. The pens are clear, and they have the special ink visible inside. The idea is that you squeeze the pen lightly to paint the ink onto the image. The nibs of the pens are very fine, but the ink is also very thin, so the trick is to not squeeze too hard.
These say they are suitable for ages 6+ – my 7-year-old coped fine with them but I don’t think they would be great for younger kids, whereas my 10-year-old was able to use them much better and was able to get some of the cool blending effects to work as well. We didn’t find that the ink magically stopped at the lines, if I’m honest. There is a definite skill to using them, and even when I tried them, getting the pressure and the placement just right wasn’t easy, and the ink was prone to bleeding and doing through the lines.
That being said, the kids really enjoyed using it and were really pleased with the end results, especially my eldest who had been able to get some nice colour effects by mixing the inks. I think some of the detail on the images was possibly a little too fine, and a plain practice sheet would have been really helpful, to get the kids used to how the pens works and how much ink would come out.
For the price that they are, I thought they were a good way to fill up some time in the school holidays and the girls are looking forward to doing the other two sheets.
Rating: 4/5
RRP: £9.99
Available to buy from Amazon here.
