Ravensburger CreArt Paint By Numbers Review

Reviewed by Hannah Chan

I have three children, so as you can imagine entertaining them on rainy days can be tricky sometimes, especially if like recently, it has rained pretty much constantly. We have had paint by umbers sets in the past with varying results. My five year old loves doing anything his older sisters (twelve and nine) as doing which can be difficult when it comes to paint by numbers. These arrived well packaged, around ¾ f the box was just plastic wrap a little like clingfilm which I hope can be recycled as there was no note or code on it but I would assume they would be using recycling packaging by now. Other than that the items were safe and arrived perfectly.

I had two different sets. One aimed at children ages 7+ which had a picture of two puppies in the flowers, it came with a plastic frame for framing the picture afterwards. The second was aimed at children aged 9 and above, which has the picture of a horse with added glitter. The canvas board size measures 24 x 18 cm. Which is a nice size for small children.  Also in the box, were two cardboard paint pot holders, a paint brush and the acrylic paints needed (15 colours in each box) . I must say that the little tubs the paint now comes in are very robust! Sturdy and thick, they also stand up on their own which is brilliant as we often get those pots which fall over, or are connected together so they have no balance at all. These tubs were brilliant and I was impressed with the quality of both the pots and of the paint and the brush included. The board they needed to paint was also great quality. The 9+ also had a small pack of glitter and a little sachet of varnish to cover it.

On both boards, the outlines of the picture were already done along with a couple really small tricky bits, which made it really easy for them to see where they needed to paint. Although my five year old son was convinced someone had already started the picture before he had.  My five year old did the 7+ and my nine year old did the 9+, they were a little too basic for my 12 year old however after seeing the quality of these I will look into other options from the same company for her in the future. They have a few in the range aimed at 11+ but they also seem to have the pre-done portions. I know personally my eldest wouldn’t want this feature however I know many who would and it takes away some of the anxiety that comes from looking at a paint by numbers and thinking wow, that’s a lot of numbers.
Thinking of the actual pictures and painting, I couldn’t find any difference in the difficulty of the pictures really. In fact there seemed less to paint on the 9+ than on the 7+, the latter of which Mr 5 did very well and managed to keep inside the lines with the helpful outlines. This really boosted his confidence and he proudly displayed his finished picture saying that it was really for 2 years over his age group. The addition of glitter might have had something to do with the age ratings as the 9+ asked you to put glitter on certain dotted parts of the board. Heres’s where it got a little tricky as with one coat of lighter paint you can still see the numbers and dots through it so need a second coat. There is a handy reference print in the pack too with all of the numbers on, so make sure you keep it handy as this is exactly what it is for as we found out afterwards.

There is a good amount of paint, we didn’t run out at all and had quite a bit left over for other pictures. I think we would have preferred the horse without the glitter in the end as the finish was much lovelier with out it however as some children adore glitter, making the horse sparkly will be an added bonus.

These were fab for keeping the children entertained, Mr 5 especially. Miss 9 finished her picture before him but I think she could have handled a little more detailing on the picture. I assume it is health and safety standards which encouraged the age rating on the 7+ as my youngest had absolutely no problems at all figuring it out and completing the picture. As we finished it across a few sittings, I was worried about the paint becoming dry however the quality of the paint was exceptional and I would recommend it. You only need a tiny bit for decent coverage on the board.
The boxes themselves are good quality and very sturdy. They can be reused for storage because of their strength or popped into the recycling. I am unsure whether the pots can be recycled at all as I couldn’t find any information with the sets at all so had to head over to Google to check. The Ravensburger webpage wasn’t helpful at all except for providing a link to https://www.complydirect.com/the-recycling-room/ , which basically gives a broad overview of recycling and encourages you to contact your council. I think going forward, they could perhaps provide and envelope or little bag to send back the empty paint tubs for the company to recycle correctly as it is at the end of the day more plastic waste for an hour or so entertainment.

With Ravensburger being a very well known German company I am certain there will be recycling information somewhere along the line, it might not have been translated for the UK webpage though.  These would make lovely gifts and have a very fair price point. I think for everyone, not just budding artists, these sets are accessible to many and so very easy to use. Perfect too for rainy days and those summer holiday times when you just need to do something quietly at home…saying that though they are very portable and I can see us packing one or two for rainy days camping! Looking at the size, if you don’t mind having a pot of paint out, they would be good for plane journeys too and could probably all fit into a large pencil case or book wallet.

You can view items in the range here but there is no option to order the items from here. I think perhaps online Amazon is a good option, here is a link. They have an RRP of £9.99 which is a fair price point for a couple of hours entertainment on a rainy day. A little on the higher side for gifts for younger ones (thinking school friends parties) however when weighed against the quality and other options on the market I’d choose this product over the competition and so would pay the little extra knowing that I was getting the quality and durability.
I give this product 4.5 stars. I was very impressed with the concept and overall quality.

Rating: 4.5/5.