Thin Stix

My girls love it when I give them supplies for arts and crafts and just let them create with no agenda or purpose or art theory. Kids are incredibly creative and come up with some of the most amazing works of art when we just give them freedom to make. Thin Stix Creativity Pack from The Pencil Grip, Inc. is an incredible tool for this kind of free creativity because they are the most mess-free paints I have ever seen! We had the opportunity to review one of the smaller sets of Thin Stix earlier this year. When I opened the box and the girls saw this amazing box inside they all began jumping up and down begging to open it up! This set of 24 colors will keep your child engaged for a long time! In addition to the vibrant traditional colors there are also neons and metallics.

We decided to give rock painting a try with these fun, fast-drying paints. We haven’t tried rock hunting but I know it is all the rage on social media and I thought this could be a fun activity. If we don’t end up hiding any rocks we can just use them in our flower bed.

Grace liked to put lots of layers on her rocks. These this was really good for her style of creativity. are perfect for that because they dry so quickly.You can see she was working on 3-4 rocks at the same time. This is perfect for her personality since she tends to jump from one thing to the next and not having to wait long kept her occupied longer.

I don’t have photos of myself, but I also painted some rocks! These paints just glide on their surface in such a smooth way. They were really enjoyable to use personally. I Their chunky nature means your projects will not have tiny details, but we just adjusted our expectations and had such a great time using them!

While one might think mess-free paints are more suitable for pre-school and younger elementary students, my 10 and 12-year-old daughters really love them as well. When we were done with our rocks the girls asked if they could keep on creating. This is the sign of a quality product. No matter how much I may love something, if my girls aren’t engaged it really doesn’t meet our needs. Rose is working on a picture of a school bus.

My favorite rocks the girls created were the pepperoni pizza slices! So adorable! My rock was a beach scene that didn’t turn out quite as lovely as their creations. Some other good uses for these would be posters and painting clay projects. We haven’t tried that yet, but I think they would work beautifully.

Although Thin Stix adhere fabulously to porous products like paper, they did have the tendency to wipe off with enough pressure on the rocks. This is no big deal as I usually coat our placing them outside to keep this from happening in the rain.

The girls chatted and created for well over 90 minutes. Wow! Winner in my book!

Make sure to see what my Crew-mates had to say!

My girls love anything art-related. It doesn’t take any convincing on my when I offer an opportunity to create. When I told them we were going to get to review Thin Stix 6pk of Classic Colors from The Pencil Grip, Inc. they couldn’t wait until they arrived. This is a unique product in that it is tempera paint in a stick form. When using them they almost feel like oil pastels in how they glide across the page. There are also package with an even wider range of colors. They are ideal for little hands and work well on thicker paper like card stock or poster board. We opted to take a little trip to the craft store and the girls picked out some wood projects to complete. We also did some rock painting. These were ideal uses!

The girls had fun painting these little wooden characters from the craft store. The paint glided on easily and dried extremely fast. These dried in less than 90 seconds. Their only issue with these was that they are very thick and fine detail was a little tricky. This is only an issue because of the age of my girls. Grace did not mind not having a finer point for details, but Beth and Rose prefer a finer tip for art. These would be ideal for young crafters if you are a mom like me who is not a fan of big messes when making things. I saw no need to have the girls wear any protective clothing because the paint is in solid rather than liquid form. If the girls were younger I probably still would have had them cover with something.

Our second project using Thin Stix was a favorite for all of us!

We have a little potted flower garden in the front of our house and raised beds in the back. We decided to take smooth rocks and paint them for the flower garden. The girls painted rocks for a full hour! They did use some other paints for fine details this time, but most of the work was done with the Thin Stix. I loved how easily they glided onto the rocks surface and especially how fast they dried. One of the frustrations with art projects like this for my girls is waiting for things to dry. When they have inspiration, they don’t want to wait! They made rocks to look like favorite story characters, gems, animals, and all sorts of fun things. (I did find out from a test run that the paint may wash off in the rain, so if you do an outside project make sure to use a sealant on your project!) We did not use this product on paper for a full project, but I did try them out as a test. You will definitely want to use thicker paper for best results. Again, the speed of drying time is a huge factor in how much these impressed me. Impatient little artists won’t have time to become engaged with something else because of the waiting. There have been so many times when the girls were very young that projects we tried simply flopped because of the extensive drying time. Take a look at what my Crewmates have to say about Thin Stix 6pk of Classic Colors!

Tag: Thin Stix

Thin Stix Creativity Pack from The Pencil Grip, Inc.: A TOS Crew Review

Thin Stix 6pk of Classic Colors from The Pencil Grip, Inc.: A TOS Review Crew Review