today I was part of a great Twitter Party with The Toy Insider and SpinMaster all around their DIY line of products. These are the Cool Maker products and I received a KumiKreator which is a friendship bracelet maker. I received it for free in order to participate in the Twitter party. Normally, folks, I do a feature prior to that party but unfortunately I was unable to do it this time because we were on the Cape and the KumiKreator was here at home.

It is amazing. You load up to 12 spools of thread into the device. Then you turn the crank clockwise and the machine automatically weaves the friendship bracelet for you. It is so simple. It does take a little bit of time to load in all the spools.

the whole process takes about 15 minutes and kids can do this all on their own. I worked with Eva on heres because I was taking the photos and such. I know, that left to her own devices she can easily follow the extensive and detailed Playbook (Instructions) that is included. Also, there are a number of YouTube videos that can guide her if she gets stuck.

The kit includes 88 spools of thread, enough to make up to 10 bracelets. There are stickers to clasp the ends of each bracelet before you attach an end cap and a clasp to the bracelet. The easy to follow instructions make it simple to size out your bracelet. There are also refill packs available so you can make bracelets for all of your friends.

After Eva made her bracelets I made one with Andrew. He used the KumiKreator design booklet but changed each of the colors to something that he preferred. While I thought they would be mostly purples, blues and yellows I was surprised that he wanted to add in light pink. This kid always comes up with his own thing. I like how he looked at the design and decided, nope, I’m going to do what I want and make my very own.

The nice thing about these DIY crafts is that it inspires the kids to do much more than what the kits include. It is a great jumping off point for even more crafting in the house.

You can pick up the KumiKreator and refill packs from Amazon.com. If you are so inclined, I’d appreciate you ordering through our Amazon.com affiliate links. they get money, we get money and you get stuff. It is a win win.

And, if you have the time and inclination you could probably use embroidery floss that you already have to reload the spools and make any designs that you’d like.