Art

Crayola releases art-themed items for all ages

Crayola LLC, is a famous American arts and crafts company based in Easton, Pennsylvania. A subsidiary of Hallmark Cards Incorporated, Crayola is the worldwide leader in children’s creative expression products. Known for the iconic Crayola Crayon first introduced in 1903, the Crayola brand has grown into a portfolio of innovative art tools, crafting activities and creativity toys that offer children innovative new ways to use color to create everything imaginable. Consumers can find the wide array of Crayola products in the “Crayola Aisle” at all major retailers. As the 2017 holiday season looms, Crayola has released a number of products that might make befitting presents for children, teens, and even adults.

Although the brand is more often associated with younger children, the “Crayola Signature” line is ideal for teens aged fourteen and over. Each one of the products in this line comes in a beautifully decorated tin box and includes art supplies that are nearly professional in quality:

IMG_9280· Crayola Signature Blend and Shade Colored Pencils take coloring, shading, and blending to a new level. Their soft, highly-pigmented cores allow for a smooth color laydown and appear vibrant on both light and dark paper. Available in both 24 and 50 packs, the premium pencils retail between $19.99 and $39.99.

· Crayola Signature Detailing Gel Pens are designed to enhance and embellish artistic and creative projects for adults. Each of the twenty pens feature premium metallic or glitter gel ink to deliver vibrant color with a stylish touch. Delivering both fine points and then broad, bold, shimmering brushes, these pens are ideal for graphic art work and/or card decorating. It retails for $19.99.

· Crayola Signature Brush and Detail Dual Markers feature sixteen double-ended markers and thirty-two brilliant colors, providing twice the color and tip options for art and writing projects. Artists can use the brush tip for lush strokes (like a paintbrush) and the ultra-fine tip for delicate details such as lettering, detailed drawings, and beautiful calligraphy. In fact, when used correctly, it is possible to get an almost watercolor effect using these extremely impressive pens. They retail for $14.99.

· Crayola Sketch and Detail Dual-Tip Markers feature sixteen double-ended markers and thirty-two brilliant colors, providing twice the color and tip options for art and writing projects. Sketch thick and thin lines with the graphic tip then add detail and accents to illustrations and lettering with the ultra-fine tip. They also retail for $14.99.

· ·Crayola Signature Creative Lettering Inspiration Pad is a forty-page pad was designed to enable users to learn to create eye-catching designs and chalkboard lettering. The pad makes it possible to enhance cards, gift tags, table place cards, and more with this unique art tool to help improve hand-lettering in varying styles. It also comes with many craft ideas and tutorials. Best of all, it retails for only $7.99.

· Crayola Signature #Crayoligraphy Activity Set features a variety of hand-lettering tools including practice pages, dual-ended markers, detailing gel pens and craft inspiration to help artists discover the fun of “Crayoligraphy” and create eye-catching lettering in a calligraphy-like style. Artists can enhance cards, gift tags, table place cards and more with this premium set that comes with fifteen instructional/practice pages, twelve duel-end markers, two detailing gel pens, eight gift cards, four place cards, and one photo frame. In total, it comes with forty-five pieces and retails for only $14.99.

Although these items are intended for an older market, Crayola is still strongly dedicated to children of all ages who have made the company so successful. To that end, they have also released a number of items for smaller kids in honor of the 2017 holiday season:

IMG_9278· Crayola Color Wonder Magic Light Brush enables children to create colorful art without the mess! Color Wonder “paints” (which are really clear gels) only work on Color Wonder special paper, meaning that the paint will NOT show up as a colorful mess on furniture, carpets or skin. Moreover, the paint is easy to clean and remove so, if it does spill, a simple wipe from a paper towel will be enough to clean up. Operating seemingly by magic, Color Wonder Magic Light Brush lights up to match whatever paint color the artist is using. Dip into green and the brush turns green! Try the blue and it changes to blue! The set comes with six classic colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) and eighteen sheets of Color Wonder Paper. The mess-free painting set requires three AA batteries and is recommended for children ages three and up. Although the paints will eventually dry up and/or run out, affordable refill packs (paint sets and paper) are available on Crayola.com. The set retails for $19.99.

IMG_9277· Crayola Fashion Superstar is an app-based arts and craft set that enables aspiring designers to bring their designs to life and create their own styles like a world-famous fashion designer! Users can create more than 1,000 combinations of dresses, tops, and skirts…and then mix and match the outfits however they choose to build their own virtual closet! Via the free app, users can enter fashion challenges to unlock new levels, win rewards and earn “likes” from other designers. Intended for ages eight and up, the set includes a design book containing sixty-two pages, eighteen super-tip markers, twenty-four colored pencils, a design case, and the code to the app which they can download for free. It retails for $19.99.

IMG_9278· Crayola Silly Scents Marker Maker is a marker kit that enables uses to create their own custom and scented colored markers. Simply mix the colors your and the fruity scents contained in the package, measure them, and click! The kit comes with everything you need to make sixteen custom color scented markers for creating and sharing fun scents with friends. Intended for children ages six and older, it includes stickers, ink bottles, markers, tweezers, a measuring tube, instructions and more. It retails for $19.99.

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I personally tried out all the items in the “Signature” brand and while they all work exactly as advertised, the “Crayola Signature Brush and Detail Dual Markers” are, by far, the best value that produce the most professional-looking results.

As per the items for younger children, the “Crayola Color Wonder Magic Light Brush” is absolutely the crème de la crème. Easily one of the top toys for the three-to-five age range this holiday season, it’s near-magic technology, creativity-fostering play, and mess-free set-up is bar none.

I recommend all the items listed above. However, I certainly give both the “Signature Brush and Detail Dual Markers” and the “Color Wonder Magic Light Brush” as being my top-picks.

For more information visit the official Crayola website and/or their community page on Facebook.

Meagan Meehan

Meagan J. Meehan is a published author, poet, cartoonist and produced playwright. She pens columns for the Great South Bay Magazine, Examiner and AXS. She is also a stop motion animator and an award-winning abstract artist. Meagan holds a Bachelors in English Literature and a Masters of Communication. She is an animal advocate and a fledging toy and game designer.
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