National Geographic Kids Paper Making Kit - Make & Decorate 10 Sheets of Craft Paper with Wooden Silk Screen Mold, Paints & More, Arts & Craft Kit for Scrapbooking & Other Kids Projects

Great fun creating with my grandkids!

My daughter is having fun but it isn't as easy as it appears and you can't get a full sheet as appears in pictures per there instructions.

My 7yo with adhd loves crafting and got so excited to see this! The fact that it’s by Nat Geo makes it a great gift, also. Your kid can be proud of their creation and make handmade postcards for their teacher or friends and family. It does require supervision but so does every crafty idea. This is great for screen-free quality weekend fun.It would have been great if it included more extras for ways to use the paper like ribbon, string, frames or beads or natural items to make bookmarks, framed art or cards but use your imagination and look for ideas online to keep the fun going after the materials run out. I’m no expert but I was in Girl Scouts as a kid and my mom was an artist and I think a blender can come in handy when making paper to break up chunks and make it smoother. You don’t have to get too serious about the primitive methods.I will say that using regular food coloring may have been a missed teaching opportunity, here. Why not encourage more natural dye methods from vegetables? Just like you’ll see on Pinterest from ways to naturally dye Easter eggs, I think making natural dyes for the paper could be interesting yet set aside some time to do this on a different day, maybe.Because it contains paints and dyes you’ll want to protect your workspace with table covering, apron etc. Because red and yellow dyes can make my kiddos tics and adhd act up we used gloves when handling the dyes because I’m unsure whether dyes on the skin can be absorbed into the bloodstream.Tip: combine this with a pressed flower kit and use dried flowers to decorate your handmade paper creations and take them to the next level! Mix leaves or lavender in with the pulp or once dry, stick on with a little mod podge add some old stamps, feathers or sequins and voila! Collage. 🌸

I chose this as a project to do together with my 5 yr. old grandkids. At their ages, this is definitely an adult directed thing to do. I take nothing away from my review for that. I’ll review it for myself, since I did most of it with some help from my little assistants! I always wanted to try making paper.Either the materials were sub par or I just didn’t understand what I was doing wrong! We couldn’t get the filler to separate! It stayed in little blobs. We even found a second stick and tried actually pulling the pieces apart to make them smaller. If you look at my picture, you’ll see it ended up as a torn piece of blob!!!I am so discouraged that I’ll have to wait a while before I try again. I found it extremely tedious to try and get the stuff to spread out onto the screen. I have a lot of patience for many things. With this? I couldn’t make progress! It almost seems as though I should’ve already known how to make paper even though this is supposed to be a beginners project.The directions could have been more thorough. Plus, a trouble shooting list would have been a GIANT help!

The media could not be loaded. Plus patience (no doubt why they recommend this kit for ages 10 and up) plus a place for your paper to dry undisturbed for at least overnight.But the wait will will be worth it with this awesome National geographic paper making kitI've loved paper making for decades ever since I coordinated an adult paper-making class at the local art center where I was the adult classes coordinator. I invited a local artist from another community to do the workshop because I loved his work. Paper making is an amazing craft. And I adore the results you can get. So I was excited to try out this kit.As usual, National Geographic thought of everything to include and the booklets are amazing. Of course they can't include the hot water or the hair dryer or the place to set it or the patience 😂 haha.The contents are a lot smaller than I expected, which is usual for me 😂 but the size of the frame is good enough to make a little piece of paper which will get kids / children or adults really into the craft. And it's a good size to write a little note to a friend. Or whatever you want to do with it.I of course I'm going to make my little piece of paper artsy tie dye like. 🌈 Rainbow tie dye. You know me and rainbows!Made in China.No weird smell.Happy arts and crafts all!

This did not make anything that even resembled paper after multiple tries following the instructions

This is a wonderful gift for creative and curious children. National Geographic has done an excellent job creating an attractive package that includes everything necessary to make ten small sheets of paper. There is a package of "wood pulp" that you mix with water to create a kind of slurry. With the slurry in a rectangular pan you use the mesh screen mold to more or less pan for slurry the way goldminers used to pan a stream. When you have a good amount on the screen you smooth it out as much as possible and try to remove as much water as possible with a sponge and or cloth, and let it dry. Have some heavy books on hand to weight it down and flatten it. Theoretically, you can vary the thickness of your paper, you can dye it, you can even add things to it like flower petals.Paper making is definitely a learning process. You need to develop something of a touch for it, but that can be fun. It's also a good opportunity to teach color theory and color mixing to children as the set comes with three bottles of (red, yellow, blue) dye.I'd advise adult supervision or assistance with this for anyone under the age of 12.