Being Mrs C

Review and Competition - Red Ted Art: The Book

I know I'm not the only person who let out a small squeal of delight when I heard that there was going to be a book version of Red Ted Art. Maggy Woodley's popular children's craft blog, Red Ted Art, has won awards and for many parents it is the first place they go when they are looking for craft projects to do with their children. Maggy's projects have also appeared elsewhere, both online and in print, and for her readers it seemed natural that the next step would be a book and finally the waiting is over.

The subtitle of Red Ted Art the book is Cute and Easy Crafts for Kids and this really does sum up the book perfectly. Not only are all the projects easy to do with your children - thanks to the clear concise instructions - but when you look through the book the photography is so stunning and the end results so adorable that you'll struggle to decide what to make first.

In Maggy's true style she tries to use as many recycled and natural materials as possible in her projects. There's a whole section of projects using toilet roll tubes and another on stones. If I had to find one "complaint" it would be that we can't do all the nut projects, in particular the peanut finger puppets, due to a peanut allergy in the family. A big shame as they're super cute, but I can't exactly blame Maggy for that one!

We decided to start Little Miss C off with one of the simpler projects in the book - apple and potato prints. I'm quite ashamed to say that we've not done printing like this before. I've no idea why not as it's incredibly simple and she really enjoyed doing it, but then sometime you just need someone to suggest something obvious and simple for you to actually do it.

We started off just making patterns with half an apple and some paint and LMC thought that it was great fun to use an apple like this. She's not a huge fruit and veg fan at all when it comes to eating them, so I'm particulary keen to make sure that she doesn't shun all fruit all the time.

After printing with the apple we moved on to the potato and this is where one of Maggy's genius ideas comes into play. A quick bit of work with a kitchen knife (not something LMC's read for yet) and rather than the usual square or star we had what LMC described as a "potato waffle" shape. The versatility of this shape is that you can use it either horizontally to make a red London bus, or vertically to make a city skyline. Combine the two and you can make a lovely London picture.

My art work is no where near the quility of Maggy's but you can see how easy it is to do.

I am just completely in love with this book and have already been recommending it to so many people. I've heard of one other mum who has bought a copy for her children's school and I'm actually considering doing the same for Little Miss C's nursery. It would also make a lovely present for a child, or their parents.

Win a copy of Red Ted Art: Cute and Easy Crafts for Kids

If you want to get your hands on a copy of the book then look no further. I have one copy to give away to a lucky reader. All you need to do to enter is to leave a comment on this blog post telling me what your favourite recycled craft material is. Fill in the Rafflecopter widget below and cross your fingers. Extra entries are available if you follow BeingMrsC on twitter, or like my Facebook page. Full T&Cs are linked below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Edited to say that this giveaway is now closed. I'm delighted to say that the winner is Karen Howe.

Disclaimer: I bought my own copy of Red Ted Art and have also purchased the second copy which I am offering as a competition prize.

 

Review and Competition - WOW Toys

With two and a half years experience under her belt Little Miss C is becoming rather adept at reviewing toys now. Whenever she gets something new she will actually tell me what's good and bad about it without me having to prompt her and is quite happy for Mummy to get her to pose for pictures with things too - it might slow things down a bit on Christmas Day, but it's super handy when we're asked to review new things, and no one is quite as honest as a toddler!

This time round I was asked by the lovely people at Cuthberts Toys to review a selection of toys from the WOW Toys range. Stood in their St Albans store in front of the complete WOW range I was amazed at how much choice there is. Rather than a standard collection of cars, trucks, buses and associated buildings all of their toys have real characters and there's a huge amount of choice of vehicles too. I'm sure that if Master C is a "typical" boy and into all things wheeled then things like the street sweeper, combine harvester and a tow truck - or as they are better known Street Sweeper Stanley, Harvey Harvester and Tow Truck Tim & Rolling Ray - will be big hits!

I was a bit spoilt for choice as to what to review, but in the end I went for Ronnie Rocket (to fit in with LMC's current rocket obsession), Arctic Archie (as she loves penguins) and Mario's Pizzeria (for something a bit different). What's great is that the people that come with all these toys are fully interchangeable meaning that we've now had a penguin flying a rocket and an eskimo delivering pizza!

The toys are all packaged in a really attractive manner with the boxes including great background scenes for the toys. I did become slightly apprehensive though as I started to unpack the pizzeria though as it took nearly 20 minutes to get it all out and by the end my fingers really hurt. All the toys are fastened on to the scenery with bits of plastic covered wire which you need to untwist to be able to pull out of the small holes that many of the toys have in them. This seemed to take forever. LMC was really starting to get impatient at this stage and I was left wondering quite why it was necessary to have everything fastened on so securely.

Once out of the packaging the toys really are good quality. The plastic is nice and tough and very tactile too. The rocket has rubber bits on the base of its feet and on the "leg" bits which is a really nice touch. The little pin bit on the back of the pizza delivery bike on which to fix the pizza is another nice detail, and it was good to see this replicated on the sledge too - although I note that this isn't seen in some of the pictures of it on their publicity material, so I wonder if it's a later addition. 

There were a few things though which I just thought needed a little more thought. The arctic sledge can be "driven" by any of the characters, but if you put Penelope the Penguin in there she has a strange hunchback which means that you can no longer put a pizza on the back. I know it probably wasn't originally designed to carry pizza, but it seems a shame that this is the case as I can't see why the penguin needed to have a hunchback. The rocket has a flip up lid so that the astronaut can go in there and there's a cut out window too so that you can see what he's doing. But, unfortunately he doesn't sit very securely in there and if you're flying the rocket around the living room it may well at some point go upside down in such a way that he can fall out of the window. LMC was a bit put out when this happened!

The pizzeria also has a "feature" where the chef can be stood on the roof and as you turn him round it turns round a pizza shape at the bottom so that different toppings are displayed. The only thing is that the recess that you sit the man in isn't all that deep, so for little hands he easily slips out as you try to turn him - hence a fair bit of frustration before giving up and instead just turning the pizza bit itself. It's not a major flaw, but does make me question the usability testing with little hands.

These toys have been a huge hit with LMC and she loves playing with them and also introducing other toys to her games. The pizza delivery man for instance spent most of yesterday afternoon delivering pizzas on a sledge to a load of Schleich toys who were at the time climbing a wall made of wooden blocks! If you want children to role play and make the most of their imaginations then these are fantastic. I'm also "pleased" to report that LMC has taken her testing role incredibly seriously and all the toys have at points been thrown across the living room without any damage to the toys at all. With Master C also here I'm happy that none of them contain very small pieces, meaning that they'll be safe once he's on the move and at the stage of putting everything he finds in his mouth.

The WOW range is all designed here in the UK and as well as making sure all their toys are tough enough to stand up to the demands of toddlers they also don't require batteries - something that many parents will be grateful for when it comes to Christmas Day. One lovely surprise inside the box was the fact that the fold out poster showing all the toys in the range turns over to reveal a colouring sheet. LMC was thrilled to be able to colour in a picture of her rocket.

20% off WOW Toys at Cuthberts Toys

If you want to add some WOW toys to your children's Christmas presents then Cuthberts Toys are offering 20% off to blog readers. If you enter the code WOW2CUTH at checkout to receive the discount. This is valid until 15th December 2012 and all orders received by this date should be dispatched in time for Christmas if you're in the UK.

Win a Bundle of WOW Toys from Cuthberts Toys

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!

The lovely people at Cuthberts Toys have also got an identical bundle of WOW toys to give away here on the blog. To try to win Ronnie Rocket, Arctic Archie and Mario's Pizzeria all you need to do is leave a comment on this post saying what you think Mario's pizza delivery driver should be called. 

For extra entries please follow @Cuthberts_Toys on Twitter or like Cuthberts Toys & Games on Facebook. You will get one extra entry to the draw for each of these, but YOU MUST leave additional comments saying that you have done so below this post. There is a maximum of three entries per person and for three entries you MUST leave three separate comments.

Please ensure that I can contact you by either entering your email address when you leave the comment (it will not be published online) or include your Twitter ID in your comment. Entries without contact details will be invalid.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!

The winner selected at Random is Judy Kennedy - congratulations.

Terms and Conditions 

• Competition will run until 12 noon GMT on Tuesday 11 December 2012.
• The winner will be drawn at random from all valid entries.
• All reasonable efforts will be made to contact the winner, but if they are uncontactable after 2 working days a second winner will be drawn.
• The competition is open to all residents of the United Kingdom.
• There is no cash alternative to the prize.
• The prize can be collected from Cuthberts Toy in St Albans, or will be posted out by them. As long as address details are provided by 15 December it should be received in time for Christmas.

Disclaimer:  For the purposes of this review I received these WOW Toys from Cuthberts Toys. Cuthberts are also providing the prize outlined above.

Creative Steps Magazine

You know that feeling you get when you find something that you just completely "get" straight away? When a smile spreads across your face and you just can't stop it? Where the more you discover the more you smile? Well that's exactly what happened when I discovered Creative Steps magazine.

Aimed at anyone who has anything to do with children, Creative Steps is just packed full of inspiration, project ideas, reviews and useful tips. Whether you be a teacher, nursery assistant, Guide or Brownie leader, nanny, childminder, parent or grandparent then this is the magazine for you.

Each edition (4 a year) is split into three age ranges (0-5, 5-7 and 7-11 years) and for each group there are instructions for things that you can make along with a clear list of what you need in the store cupboard to be able to do so. For some of the projects relevant activities based around what you have made are also suggested, along with tips about how to adapt things if you have a group of children of different ages. Little Miss C and I have had great fun so far making both hedgehogs and chicks from the Spring 2012 edition. The Reading Corner pages (again split into the three age ranges) contain reviews of new books and are an ideal starting place for if you are looking for new reads for your little ones.

Since finding Creative Steps I have to say that it has made me think much more carefully about the craft activities that I do with Little Miss C. Yes, sometimes just having out crayons and pens and drawing free-form is the right thing to do, but at other times it's good to make a specific thing (like a hedgehog for example) and then talk a bit about what you've made, possibly play some games involving it, and if relevant reading together a book about something similar. This model now works really well for us and stops that slightly low patch that you can get with children when you've made something and then they want to know what to do next.

I'm definitely going to be subscribing to Creative Steps as I can clearly see just how useful it will be with a couple of children in the house. The lovely people behind the magazine also have two great offers in store for my readers. Firstly they are offering an amazing 25% off a year's subscription (either paper or digital) - all you need to go is go here or enter the code BMRSC25 on their website. The second thing is that one lucky UK reader can also win a year's subscription to the print edition (usually costing £29.80 inc P&P). And if all that's not enough as an added bonus, anyone who susbcribes in June or July will also receive a free sample block of FIMOair modelling clay (as used in the picnic food project on pages 62-64 of the new Summer edition).

To be in with a chance of winning this subscription all you need to do is leave a comment below.

Please ensure that I can contact you by either entering your email address when you leave the comment (it will not be published online) or include your Twitter ID in your comment. Entries without contact details will be invalid.

Please note that this competition is now CLOSED. Many thanks for your entries and I'm delighted to tell you that the winner is Charlotte. I will be in touch for your postal address.

Terms and Conditions 

• Competition will run until 5pm BST on Thursday 21 June 2012.
• The winner will be drawn at random from all valid entries.
• All reasonable efforts will be made to contact the winner, but if they are un-contactable after 5 working days a second winner will be drawn.
• The competition is open to all residents of the United Kingdom.
• There is no cash alternative to the prize.
• The prize will be posted out directly by Creative Steps magazine.

Disclaimer: I was sent a couple of copies of Creative Steps magazine to review. Creative Steps have also supplied the subscription discount code and the prize of one year's UK print subscription to the magazine.

Win a VTech Baby Sing and Soothe Mobile from Cuthberts Toys

Any parent will tell you that having something for your baby to look at in their cot and that plays nice soothing music to them to calm them down and help them get to sleep can be a godsend. Having something that also acts as a nightlight is even better!

The VTech Sing and Soothe Mobile has all this and more. Not only do the leaves spin round with the small plush animals hanging off it doing so too, but there are different play modes which give you so much music choice that there is no way that you will become bored of this one too soon. (The one song that my daughter's musical bunny plays is really beginning to wear me down after nearly two years!) The Sing and Soothe mobile has 20 mellodies, 20 lullabies and 4 sung-songs as well as a series of nature sounds. You can also set the timer so that it plays for different time periods (10, 15 or 20 minutes) depending on how long your baby takes to go to sleep.

As if this wasn't enough it also includes a sound sensor which means that it can start playing a lullaby when your baby starts making a noise. This most importantly means that you stand a good chance of not always having to get out of bed quite so quickly when your baby wakes in the night - a huge bonus for any sleep deprived new parent!

Win a Sing and Soothe Mobile!

The lovely people at St Albans' favourite toy shop Cuthberts have kindly provided me with one VTech Baby Sing and Soothe Mobile to give away to a lucky reader. To be in the draw to win all you need to do is leave me a comment below.

For extra entries please follow @Cuthberts_Toys on Twitter or like Cuthberts Toys & Games on Facebook. You will get one extra entry to the draw for each of these, but YOU MUST leave additional comments saying that you have done so below this post. There is a maximum of three entries per person and for three entries you MUST leave three separate comments.

Please ensure that I can contact you by either entering your email address when you leave the comment (it will not be published online) or include your Twitter ID in your comment. Entries without contact details will be invalid.

Terms and Conditions 

Please note that this competition is now closed. Many thanks for all your entries. A winner will be selected shortly and will be notified via email.

• Competition will run until 12 noon BST on Tuesday 1 May 2012.
• The winner will be drawn at random from all valid entries.
• All reasonable efforts will be made to contact the winner, but if they are uncontactable after 5 working days a second winner will be drawn.
• The competition is open to all residents of the United Kingdom.
• There is no cash alternative to the prize.
• The prize can be collected from Cuthberts Toy in St Albans, or will be posted out by them.

Disclaimer

This VTech Baby Sing and Soothe Mobile was provided as a prize by the lovely people at Cuthberts Toys. Cuthberts is an independent toy shop with physical shops in St Albans and Letchworth, as well as an online shop on their website.

Win a VTech Baby 3-in-1 Zebra Scooter from Cuthberts Toys

As children grow, having a toy that can grow with them is fantastic - it saves on physical space requirements in the house and also helps financially too. That's exactly the beauty of the VTech Baby 3-in-1 Zebra Scooter - it grows with the child and goes from being a push-along walker, to a sit and ride, to a scooter.

The scooter has three different interctive learning modes and, as is the way with many VTech products, encourages children to learn about colours, animals and habitats (to fit in with the safari theme) whilst they play. For the younger children, who haven't yet discovered the need for speed, there are flashing lights to accompany the sounds and buttons to keep them amused. One small feature which all children seem to love is the small basket at the front - so simple an addition, yet children love having somewhere to put those important things that they must carry around with them when going round the house!

The usual VTech build quality means that there is no doubt that this is sturdy enough to last a child all the way through the recommended age range of 18 months to three years, as well as working well if you have a second (or third!) child within that age range too.

Win a 3-in-1 Zebra Scooter!

The lovely people at St Albans' favourite toy shop Cuthberts have kindly provided me with one VTech Baby 3-in-1 Zebra Scooter to give away to a lucky reader. To be in the draw to win all you need to do is leave me a comment below.

For extra entries please follow @Cuthberts_Toys on Twitter or like Cuthberts Toys & Games on Facebook. You will get one extra entry to the draw for each of these, but YOU MUST leave additional comments saying that you have done so below this post. There is a maximum of three entries per person.

Please ensure that I can contact you by either entering your email address when you leave the comment (it will not be published online) or include your Twitter ID in your comment. Entries without contact details will be invalid.

Terms and Conditions 

• Competition will run until 12 noon BST on Tuesday 10 April 2012.
• The winner will be drawn at random from all valid entries.
• All reasonable efforts will be made to contact the winner, but if they are uncontactable after 5 working days a second winner will be drawn.
• The competition is open to all residents of the United Kingdom.
• There is no cash alternative to the prize.
• The prize can be collected from Cuthberts Toys in St Albans, or will be posted out by them.

Disclaimer

This VTech Baby 3-in-1 Zebra Scooter was provided as a prize by the lovely people at Cuthberts Toys. Cuthberts is an independent toy shop with physical shops in St Albans and Letchworth, as well as an online shop on their website.

This competition is now CLOSED. Many thanks for all your entries. I am pleased to announce that the winner is Ruth Davies.

Competition: Win a £50 Argos Gift Card

The lovely people at Argos are giving readers of Being Mrs C the opportunity to win a £50 Argos gift card. Gift cards are redeemable at any of their stores in the UK.

If you ever needed a shop that has everything under one roof then Argos is it. They have a great range of things for children from essential equipment to toys. Make sure you check out their range of fantastic-value pushchairs and also the adorable moses baskets range which contains ones for all tastes and budgets.

How to enter

All you need to do to enter this competition is leave a comment on this post and make sure that it includes a way for me to contact you if you are the lucky winner. The competition is open until 5pm (BST) on Wednesday 4 April 2012.

The winner will be selected at random from all correct entries received. The winner will be notified within 28 days of the closing date. The prize is as stated: no cash alternatives are available. This competition is open to UK entrants only.

This competition is now closed.

I am pleased to announce that the winner is Jane Willis.

Winner: VTech Counting Colours Vacuum Cleaner from Cuthberts Toys

Making use of the Random Number generator I'm pleased to announce that the winner of the VTech Counting Colours Vacuum Cleaner is number 15, which, counting from the top, makes it Richard Gillin

I'll be in touch about how to collect your prize.

Many thanks to everyone who entered and special thanks to Cuthberts Toys for providing the prize.

Win a VTech Counting Colours Vacuum Cleaner from Cuthberts Toys

There's many a joke that can be made about "training" your children to help with the housework. To be honest it's when Little Miss C is capable of making me a cup of tea in a morning that I'll be really impressed!

Joking aside though, little children do love copying what mummy and daddy are doing and they want to help with everything too. If you're parent you'll know that this "help" isn't always as useful as it could be. LMC's efforts to help me sweep up leaves in the garden resulted in the piles of leaves being spread around again with the brush instead! That's where toy versions of things that parents use around the house come in so useful. If they can do the housework just like mummy or daddy without creating more mess then you're on to a real winner.

The VTech Counting Colours Vacuum Cleaner provides your little one with their own vacuum cleaner that they can help hoover with. It makes vacuum noises as well as coming with three plastic balls that it will "hoover up". In the usual VTech way there are both learning and music modes which aim to teach the children some a-b-c and number basics - like counting the balls as the children hoover them up. There are also buttons to press and a twist switch to alternate between the two modes - all sized and shaped for little hands to use.

The Vacuum Cleaner is recommended from children aged 12 months and up, but whilst encouraging them to walk around pushing it the buttons and lights on the front mean that it can also be a play station for children who aren't fully mobile yet.

Until you can get them to do the real cleaning efficiently then the VTech Counting Colours Vacuum Cleaner is the next best thing!

Win a Vacuum Cleaner!

The lovely people at St Albans' favourite toy shop Cuthberts have kindly provided me with one VTech Counting Colour Vacuum Cleaner to give away to a lucky reader. To be in the draw to win all you need to do is leave me a comment below.

For extra entries please follow @Cuthberts_Toys on Twitter or like Cuthberts Toys & Games on Facebook. You will get one extra entry to the draw for each of these, but YOU MUST leave additional comments saying that you have done so below this post. There is a maximum of three entries per person.

Please ensure that I can contact you by either entering your email address when you leave the comment (it will not be published online) or include your Twitter ID in your comment. Entries without contact details will be invalid.

Terms and Conditions 

• Competition will run until 12 noon GMT on Tuesday 20 March 2012.
• The winner will be drawn at random from all valid entries.
• All reasonable efforts will be made to contact the winner, but if they are uncontactable after 5 working days a second winner will be drawn.
• The competition is open to all residents of the United Kingdom.
• There is no cash alternative to the prize.
• The prize can be collected from Cuthberts Toys in St Albans, or will be posted out by them.

Disclaimer

This VTech Counting Colours Vacuum Cleaner was provided as a prize by the lovely people at Cuthberts Toys. Cuthberts is an independent toy shop with physical shops in St Albans and Letchworth, as well as an online shop on their website.