Zirrly Beads–The Latest in Arts & Crafts

Much to my dismay, my children love crafts.  They were uber excited when our Super Beads from Zirrly arrived in the mail for us to review.  We received the Birds set, which includes templates for a parrot, owl, and duck.  They quickly took to calling dibs on which bird would be the one they got to assemble.

Super Beads Bird Set
Our Zirrly kit came with Super Beads, a spray bottle, 2 puzzle trays, a plastic tool for removing the beads, 3 templates and instructions. 
 

zirrly beads


The instructions were pretty straight forward and easy to follow.  All of the items were easy to identify.  The beads were bright colored and of good quality.

One of the things that sets Zirrly apart is that it uses water, not a hot iron, to fuse the beads together.  This meant I could set my children free to assemble the kit projects themselves and not have to worry about anyone getting hurt or melting something.  Since crafts are not really my thing, I appreciate when it is something my children can do with little to no supervision.  

zirrly beads

zirrly beads

zirrly beads

zirrly beads

zirrly beads

zirrly beads

Everybody wanted to be the one to spay the finished product with water!

The Birds kit we received is rated for ages 5+.  I had my older children help my five year old, but I think she probably could have done it on her own after being shown what to do.  (Placing the beads is a great dexterity exercise to hone fine motor skills.)

craft beads


Now, removing the completed projects off of the puzzle boards was a different matter.  I found them rather difficult to remove and more than once had to re-spray a section that I had managed to break in the removal attempt.  It is possible this was just user error.  I do not know if it is something that gets easier the more you do it, but I had difficulty.  I did find that I had the most trouble on parts where I was trying to pry up one or two beads that were mostly detached from the rest of the area, such as the tips of the parrot’s wings or the owls ear tufts.  We did have some extra beads left over that my daughters used to create just a small design and those were significantly easier to pry up, so size may also play a part.  

craft beads

I also found that our birds curled inward instead of lying flat or standing straight in their little stands.  I am not sure why this occurred, but it made it so that they just fall over instead of standing up.  They didn’t curl right away, but after sitting for awhile once removed all three of them curled in.

craft beads

My children all had fun assembling the birds.  They did not appreciate the difficulty in removing them from the puzzle trays, and were a little hesitant when asked if they would do them again for this reason.  They do have some really cool other projects, like spinning tops and a 3D cars and truck set that I think might be fun to try, but most likely we would just stick to the Mega Pack and make our own creations.  

And, a little bit of random information.  In the instructions, they tell you to be careful spraying so that you do not drench the beads leaving a puddle of water.  My son, quite curious, wanted to see what would happen and sprayed some of our remaining beads until they were lying in a puddle of water.  At first I thought someone had filled the bowl with beads with water and placed it in the freezer because there was what appeared to be an ice ring and the bowl was ice cold, but when I realized the next day that it was just as cold and the ring hadn’t melted, we discovered it creates a rather interesting chemical reaction.  We didn’t have enough beads to do further experimenting with, but I completely would have if we did.
Super Beads {Zirrly Reviews}


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