Alex Toys Alex Tots Art Start

While I love crafting with my daughter, I am not “crafty.” In other words, I don’t have a giant stockpile of fabric odds and ends nor a natural ability to convert found objects into art. Enter Alex craft kits, one of my very favorite parenting tools. The Alex Tot Art Start Kit was my entrée into the line and the kit that got me addicted!

The Basics
The Alex Tot Art Start Kit includes six art projects – two collages, two sticker art projects and two coloring sheets – and everything needed to complete them, from paper to crayons to collage materials. Each of the finished crafts measures a little less than one foot square.

While most Alex art kits provide target age ranges starting at two or older, this special “Tot” line is intended for use by kids 18+ and up.  At the time my daughter received this kit as a gift, it was the only one in the line but there are now a couple other sets including one focusing exclusively on sticker art and a color collage kit.

You can see all the different kit options at www.alextoys.com but I’d recommend purchasing at Amazon.com for much lower prices. The Alex Tot Art Start Kit currently retails there for less than $12.00, or about $2.00 per craft.

Our Experience
We started working through the crafts in this kit when Baby_Chelledun was about 22 months old. Many of the things I love about Alex craft kits in general apply here. The crafts are simple and self-explanatory. All craft materials are accounted for and neatly packaged.

There is a tiny bit of parent prep involved in that the collage materials (tissue paper, streamers, doilies) and stickers are packaged together, so it makes sense to portion only part of them out to ensure there are enough materials left for later crafts. This only takes a minute or two though.

The two collages that come with this set get the highest scores from both my daughter and me. This project allows toddlers to arrange an array of brightly colored, differently textured materials on already-sticky card stock. The craft took Baby_Chelledun about a half hour each time, and the end results looked fabulous – like a true work of modern art. I’m definitely saving one of the collages in our craft keepsake box.

I give the sticker art projects a solid rating as well. We received one piece of card stock shaped like a tree, and another shaped like a giraffe, along with plenty of stickers to decorate them with even after some were used for the collage project. Alex stickers are always a little tough to remove from their paper backings without ripping, so an adult will need consistent help with this project. My only comment is that the stickers provided are a little generic – solid colored and patterned dots. It might be nice to have some stickers that are specifically themed to the cardboard cut-outs, like apples for the tree or spots for the giraffe.

Finally, the coloring sheets were the least exciting craft in this kit. They are basically pieces of cardstock/paper with a decorative border. Triangular kid-friendly crayons are included, but there are only three colors and they don’t mark very easily unless a lot of pressure is applied. Personally, I would have rather received more of either of the other two crafts since it is so easy to give toddlers a piece of paper and a box of crayons. I did like the nice thick paper, though, and we gussied one of our coloring sheets up with stickers left over from the other crafts to make a more exciting final product.

Final Thoughts
The Alex Tot Art Start Kit is a fun craft kit and one of the few accessible to the under-two age group. This kit would make a great gift for any young toddler in your life, and it’s fun for parents too!

Recommend this product? Yes