Magnetips and Common Loon Stencils: Perfect Travel Craft Set

Last year I backed two random projects on Kickstarter because I loved the design and functionality of both products. It turns out Magnetips and Common Loon are a match made in heaven!

I was really pleased my long-awaited Kickstarters arrived just in time for our trip abroad. Sometimes crowdfunding projects don't run on schedule because often companies are still at the every beginning stages of manufacturing a new product. For more information on how to back Kickstarters read our crowdfunding guide to backing projects.


Magnetips are refillable fine liners with innovative magnetic ends, which turns your pens into a desktop art piece. The fine tips of the pens make them perfect tools for using with the Common Loon stencils to create your own designs and works of art.

Magnetips

We received the Colour Edition with 20 different colours in our Kickstarter which included a range of colours plus we also got an extra blue and black fine liner. The pens are made of plastic, with two super strong Neodymium magnets and refillable water-based ink pens. The hex shape of the pen is actually very comfortable to hold when colouring or drawing, plus it allows the pens to stick together more securely!

I also like the idea of having refillable pens, it's kinder on the environment and produces less waste.

The Fine Liner has a good quality 0.4 fibre tip encased in a metal body. I was a bit nervous to let the kids use them, but the pens seem fine with their less careful use!

In fact, my kids loved Magnetips, not just for drawing and colouring but for making structures, toys and doing science. Thanks to Magnetips my 6 year old now knows everything about the north and south poles of magnets and how opposites attract! He also discovered that metal things attract magnets and went around the house testing with Magnetips.

We enjoy a bit of therapeutic colouring-in at home. The Magnetips are great for intricate designs and the colours are vibrant. They are not useful for colouring in large expanses of space, as my eight-year-old discovered! Use pencils / thicker fibre tips for bigger colouring designs.

BUY: Currently, you can pre-order Magnetips online.

Common Loon

Common Loon created a set of interesting patterned rulers / stencils. My kids really enjoy using stencils to craft and draw pictures. I only had simply shaped stencils in my art cupboard, so the Common Loon stencils are an exciting addition to our collection.

We received all 5 stencil sets including Loonster (alien-like shapes); Spaceloon (all about space); Shapeloon (not the boring kind); Loonbot (our favourite, robot drawing kit); Loongarden (plant-like shapes). The designs are fantastic and let you design and create your own creatures, scenes and designs.

Each stencil arrived in their own zip-lock bag, with a set of gorgeous stickers and a colouring sheet.

Some of the shapes are very delicate, and so you really need to use a fine liner to trace the shapes. We tried using thicker felt tips but didn't get the same result as using the Magnetips' 0.4 fine liners. Of course once you've drawn the shapes you can colour them in with other pencils and felt tips.

Here's what the kids drew on the first day. Can't wait to see how their creations develop.

BUY: Get your own stencils from Common Loon Studios

Travel Craft Set

So I mentioned earlier, we're travelling soon. Having travelled quite a bit with kids on long-haul flights, I like finding things that will be practical and keep the kids busy. I couldn't believe my luck with Magnetips and Common Loon. Perfect travelling buddies.

The fact that the pens stick together and will not roll away is one of the biggest reasons I think Magnetips are better than other pens for travelling. Oh and did I mention the lid will stick to the pen when it is in use too? I also managed to fit all 5 Common Loon stencils in one zip-lock bag for compact travelling!

I'll update this post with our experiences with them on the flight and our travels.