I think I get just as excited about cool craft kits as Jacob does these days, mostly because if they’re designed for kids, then they’re designed for me too! I love trying to make stuff. The keyword there is “trying,” by the way. I particularly like kits that come with everything you need, because we’re not exactly a crafty household so we usually don’t have random crazy stuff like, oh, glue and paper on hand! Manhattan Toy’s awesome series “Imagine I Can” is a huge line of awesome crafty kits that are easy enough for crafting-challenged mommies and their kids, and they contain everything you need!

We tried out three different cool kits for this review: Imagine I Can Crafty Eraser Creations, Imagine I Can Create a Puppet (Alligator), and our favorite, Imagine I Can Pet Rock Pals.

Imagine I Can Pet Rock Pals

Like I said, this was our favorite kit. The kit comes with everything you need to create up to 4 pet rocks, depending on how big you make them.

Jacob and I each made a smaller one, then he used the rest of the stone-colored clay to make a bigger one.  The clay is really easy to work with, and Jacob enjoyed shaping it into the basis for his masterpiece.

Once our rocks were created, we dressed them up and gave them faces! The kit comes with eyes, felt pieces like mustaches and beards, and pipe cleaners to use for whatever you’re inspired to use them for. I created a cute little butterfly. Jacob opted for the very “sir-like” stone pals.

We glued the pieces on before the clay hardened, but the mustache fell off and we had to glue it again after it dried. It takes about a night to harden, but once it does, it really does feel like a rock! Just, you know, not as dangerous! Hey, my little brother ended up with stitches playing rock wars (don’t look at me like that, you KNOW you played it too when you were little!), so I kind of prefer this safer, lightweight version of rocks!

Imagine I Can Create a Puppet

Okay, I had a bit of a fail experience with this one! It still came out cute, but I realized that I am really horrible at following directions. The kit comes with double-sided tape and explicit directions on where to place them, but I had the entire puppet upside down when we made it. By we, I mean me, because Jacob decided that I would put it together and he would supervise, then play with it. Once I figured out where I started to go wrong, it was pretty easy to put together. When it’s done, your child has a fun new friend to play with!

The Imagine I Can Create a Puppet line would be perfect for birthday party activities!

Imagine I Can Crafty Eraser Creations

This was a close second for our favorite! The kit comes with some type of magical clay that becomes an eraser when you knead it, shape it, and boil it (I’m sure it’s not exactly magical, but to me, that’s as close to magic as it gets!), molds for shaping, and tools for creating more detail.

It’s super easy to make the erasers! Just knead the dough-type stuff in your hands until it becomes pliable, then mold it into the shape you want.

Jake opted to skip the mold for the first one and create his own little person-like being. That’s a smiley face there, just in case you can’t tell.

For his second one, he made a really cool, multicolored star-like object. I think it’s pretty awesome.

Once you’ve made your creations, you either boil the erasers on the stove or in the microwave. We opted for the microwave, so it only took 7 minutes to have a finished product.

We really enjoyed all three of the Imagine I Can kits, and look forward to trying out more in the future! They’re easy enough for anyone to do. The Eraser kit will keep us busy for a while, since there’s enough for several erasers (again, depending on the size. Our Rock Pals are hanging out in the living room, and Alligator will entertain us at bedtime because we can use him to tell silly stories.

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