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Review: Elmer’s Craftbond and X-acto

 
 
 Products Made for Great Creativity

PTA Reflections are due on Thursday. The Divine Miss M has been working on her Visual Arts Entry for two weeks now. The theme came to her one day while we were driving through the canyon. The car was silent and then there was a shriek of excitement as she declared the title of her project! It was a joyous moment.

Then slowly she started bringing home things like sticks, dirt, and confessing each morning that “my Reflections project kept me awake thinking about all the things I can do!” Wow! She’s six! She had piles of stuff and a notebook filled with “test runs”.

Day by day I watched as she brought her imagination into the real world and was ready to embark on her entry.

The Divine Miss M set out to work on her project. She used a pair of the decorative edge scissors to cut her landscape. She used the Elmer’s CraftBond Permanent Tape Runner to secure blue and brown construction paper onto a 12’x12″ card-stock paper.We received a care package from Elmer’s and X-acto that was absolutely perfect. It included:


2 pairs of X-ACTO Decorative Edge Scissors
1  X-ACTO Corner Rounder Punch
1 Elmer’s CraftBond Permanent Tape Runner
1 Elmer’s CraftBond No-Wrinkle Glue Pen
1 Elmer’s CraftBond All-Purpose Glue Stick
1 Package Elmer’s CraftBond All-Purpose glue spots
I was impressed because I’m tired of having glue everywhere. My kiddos love the squeeze and the gooey stuff. A sparkle of glitter requires a blog of glue just to be sure it is secure. Now we had glue options!

Then she smeared the page with the Elmer’s CraftBond All-Purpose Glue Stick and dumped mounds of dirt on top. After lots and lots of pressing she shook the paper and the dirt that didn’t find itself some glue fell to the table….and the floor. The Divine Miss M is going for actuality in this Visual Arts Masterpiece, so she used the glue stick to fill in where she had missed. More dirt, more shaking, more on the floor.

She said it needed to dry. I agreed.

 
 

I set to cleaning up dirt and she set to making tree trunks from small twigs she had been collecting. Using the Elmer’s CraftBond Permanent Tape Runner she fastened these to her page. Something inspired me to read through the “rules” and let her know they were too thick and it would make her project not able to participate.  She cried, “Bummer!” and set off to find something for trees.

When she returned she had some textured technique she discovered and created tree trunks from brown construction paper and crayons. I pried off the twigs–they weren’t kidding about permanent! All twigs removed and some rips in her paper I was sent away.

A while later I was summoned to come and see. It was impressive. Using the X-acto decorative scissors The Divine Miss M created some pretty awesome and realistic-looking leaves. She used Elmer’s craft bond glue stick and was gushing with enthusiasm over the Elmer’s CraftBond Glue Pen–“I could use this for one leaf at a time to get them JUST where I needed them.” All righty!

The Divine Miss M kept her imagination running full speed and made these fluffy clouds out of cotton balls. I asked how she did them and she told me, “I put this tape (Elmer’s CraftBond Permanent Tape) down and then I dragged the cotton-ball across it until it wasn’t sticky!” Clever!

By far her favorite Elmer’s CraftBond Glue Product is the glue pen. It allowed her precision with one end being tiny like a pen and the other allowing a larger scale placement–like a magic marker. She used this pen for touch ups, placements and just because!

The finished product is worthy of a museum. Here is The Divine Miss M’s PTA Reflections Visual Art Entry, titled: Together We Can…GO GREEN!

I received the Elmer’s CraftBond Glues and Xacto products through a BzzAgent Campaign. No compensation was received. The opinions are my own and were in no way influenced by the sponsor. My daughter’s artwork and title is her own. Others experience may vary.

About Julee: Julee Morrison is an experienced author with 35 years of expertise in parenting and recipes. She is the author of four cookbooks: The Instant Pot College Cookbook, The How-To Cookbook for Teens, The Complete Cookbook for Teens, and The Complete College Cookbook. Julee is passionate about baking, crystals, reading, and family. Her writing has appeared in The LA Times (Bon Jovi Obsession Goes Global), Disney's Family Fun Magazine (August 2010, July 2009, September 2008), and My Family Gave Up Television (page 92, Disney Family Fun August 2010). Her great ideas have been featured in Disney's Family Fun (Page 80, September 2008) and the Write for Charity book From the Heart (May 2010). Julee's work has also been published in Weight Watchers Magazine, All You Magazine (Jan. 2011, February 2011, June 2013), Scholastic Parent and Child Magazine (Oct. 2011), Red River Family Magazine (Jan. 2011), BonAppetit.com, and more. Notably, her article "My Toddler Stood on Elvis' Grave and Scaled Over Boulders to Get to a Dinosaur" made AP News, and "The Sly Way I Cured My Child's Lying Habit" was featured on PopSugar. When she's not writing, Julee enjoys spending time with her family and exploring new baking recipes.
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