Know & Tel: Arts and Crafts
Release your inner creativity with these classes and craft kits.
Craft Kits
Activity Box
More fun for kids, less work for you: Activity Box is a brilliant service founded in Hong Kong that creates engaging, inspirational and easy-to-use art and craft boxes for children that are delivered to your home every month. Activity Box offers age appropriate activities for toddlers (1½-3 years old) and kids (3–6 years old) that have been developed by a kindergarten teacher and test driven by kids themselves. Monthly subscriptions start from $438, activity-box.com
Baker Ross
Recommended by primary school teachers, it’s clear to see why Baker Ross is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of arts and crafts to schools and playgroups. Struggling for inspiration on what to make with the kids? Baker Ross has a craft kit for everything under the sun, from porcelain painting to candle making and everything in between. These activity packs are great value, with delivery available to Hong Kong. Bakerross.co.uk
Bizzie Bee
Bizzie Bee craft kits are exciting workshops in a box that are beautifully hand-assembled in Hong Kong and delivered straight to your door. Each box comes with quality tools and materials, including easy-to-read instructions and an extra up-cycling idea. Purchase individually or as a monthly subscription. Bizziebee.org
Papinee
Papinee is an art-slash-toy collective with a social mission to give children the gift of imagination. Fusing contemporary art with the science of play, Papinee produces storytelling “Amuse” kits to help parents inspire and bond with their child. Each kit comes complete with a soft toy, story book, cue cards and coloring postcards to cultivate imagination. With a range of different animals that go on adventures around the world, my child and I couldn’t help but fall in love with Pantha the Lion as we explored the green grasslands of Kenya. Papinee.com
Seedling
From magic mermaid wands to being the master of your own solar system, Seedling has a whole host of DIY activity kits for kids ages 3 to 12 years old. They aim to encourage a variety of interests and skills such as drawing, painting, science, imaginative play, gardening, sewing, model building and plenty more. Seedling kits start from around $229. Available from Bumps To Babes, Units 14-18, 21/F, Horizon Plaza, 2 Lee Wing St., Ap Lei Chau, 2552-5000, seedling.com.hk
Typo
Coloring books aren’t just a thing of the past. They’re becoming all the rage again, and Typo, the stationery arm of fashion retailer Cotton On, is on to this fact. Collaborating with some very talented artists from around Australia, Typo has an exclusive range of coloring books and posters to keep kids busy. That’s not all—you can find all sorts of crafty essentials from watercolors to stencils on their online store. Cottonon.com