Having five children with 20 years between the oldest and the youngest, you get to see lots of toys, games, and crafts come and go. Our older kids always enjoyed the little beads that were placed on a tray to make a picture and fused together with the iron. Although I liked to see the kids being creative with these beads, it was always such a pain getting out the iron, and this was actually the only time the iron was dug out of the back of the cupboard in our house. So, when we were offered the opportunity to review Beado’s, and I discovered they fused with water and not the iron, I didn’t hesitate to say yes.
The regular Beados sets are great fun and provide you with templates, beads, and other items to make pictures, but even better for older kids is the Beado’z Teeneez Style ‘n’ Go Studio. This portable unit with a six colour bead dispenser provides everything you to make necklaces, bracelets, key-rings, and much more in one compact unit. The beads are set in place with a simple mist of water from the included spray bottle, and as soon as they are dry, you have beautiful handmade jewelry for you and your friends.
Evey found the dispenser pen easy to use, although I wouldn’t recommend the Beados Teeneez for children under four because the beads are quite small. The pen is connected to the unit by a tube, and this enables you to use any one of the six bead colours instead of needing to change the beads in the pen or to have a number of pens, each with its own colour.
The most significant learning curve was in finding out how much water to use to set your masterpiece. Too little and your creation will not hold together, too much and you will be waiting for an age for it to dry out before you can take it off of the bead tray. Evey and I worked out between us just how much to use for a successful end piece without losing patience with a soggy item!
Inside the box you will find:
- The portable designer studio unit
- 10 design templates
- 1 locket
- 1 necklace & clip
- 6 eyelet beads
- 2 rings
- 2 creation plugs
- 2 jelly bracelets
- 2 bead trays
- 1 water sprayer
Extra beads to refill your unit or to expand your colour range are easy to buy so you do not have to worry about being left with an empty design studio, and we used other jewelry fixings to continue with our creations. You can also purchase:
- Teeneez Theme Packs – Create cute party necklaces, or Teeneez Bag Tags for you and your Bestie or create tiny sweet charms you can wear on your arms. $12.99,
- Teeneez 4 Colour Pen Starter Pack – Just load your pen with Teeneez beads, select the colour you need and pop it onto your template! Then magically join them with water. $19.99,
- Teeneez Style ‘N’ Go Designer Studio – Make all types of cool jewelry from rings, bracelets, lockets, and necklaces! So much fun to make, wear and share.
Visit http://beados.ca/ or www.facebook.com/BeadosCanada for more information.
Beadoz Teeneez Design ‘n’ Go Studio can be found at Toys ‘R’ Us, Walmart, and Chapters/Indigo for $34.99 but Redheaded Patti readers can enter here for a chance to win one.
