Review and Giveaway!: Joobli Studios Shrinky Dinks

Remember these??? I LOVED doing them as a young un'. For some reason, I remember doing "Shirt Tales" ones. Although the Shirt Tales are history, shrinky dinks are not! Joobli Stuidos offers really cute themed packs that are great for parties, play dates, or just creative fun with your kiddos on a rainy day. The themes currently available are "Wild West Jamboree", "Enchanted Kingdom of Dink", ", P.T. Shrink's Circus Jubilee", and the "Tiki Dinki Island" that we received.

There is also a Christmas Pack that I'm considering getting for my daughter and her cousins to do together.

Their packs are different in that you trace or draw your own designs. The ones I remember as a kid were already drawn. This is nice because you can either use their line art images, or you can trace or draw whatever you want. While the Tiki designs are cute, my gal was excited to create her own mini Tinkerbell characters and Princesses that we traced from books.

Click on "Read More" for my full review and info. on how to win your own fun pack!

Design/Style ***: Our Tiki design is very fun and playful, great for the summer. As usual, I'm pleased that it's not a bunch of licensed stuff even though that's what most of ours ended up being!

Ease of Use ***: It's pretty easy, just trace, color, cut, and bake. You can use both colored pencil and Sharpies. I found that the Sharpies came out better. They say it's for 6 and up, but my 3 year old loved coloring and watching them shrink. I did the tracing and cutting, which did leave my hands pretty cramped but there's really no way around that. I definitely recommend making them BIG to start out with because they really get teeny!

Also, they curl up while baking and should usually uncurl on their own. However, if they aren't uncurling you can uncurl them with chopsticks while still warm. Then they say use a piece of paperboard to press them flat. Some of ours never turned out totally flat, but they were still fine for what it was.

Price **1/2:
Each pack includes -
- a fun themed poster that can be converted into an 8" x 10" picture frame
- 30+ themed line art images for tracing
- six 8" x 10" sheets of plastic to trace your images on
- 8 ball and chains for making bag tags
The MSRP is $17.95, but they are going for $14.99 through various on-line retailers. I think it's a weird price point and $14.99 makes more sense given that it's really just some papers and plastic sheets. Worth noting are their party kits which include the matching themed invitations for $1-$2 more.

Overall ***: This is a fun, easy activity that leaves your kids with something that they can keep and play with vs. art on paper. Plus, it allows you to re-live a little bit of your childhood!

Joobli is offering one lucky Kid Buy Products reader the chance to win a Fun Pack or Party Pack of your choice. To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is tell us if you made Shrinky Dinks as a child and which pack you'd like to do with your own children. All comments must be received by midnight on Wed. December 2, 2009. Winner must be 18+ and a resident of the United States. You can read the rest of our giveaway rules HERE. Good Luck!