IDO3D Vertical Design Studio

The boys and I love crafting. We love working with different textures and finding new ways to create and craft especially on these rainy days. We’ve been watching with interest the adverts about the 3d pens with the boys wanting to see one in action. Well recently Flair sent us their IDO3D vertical design studio.

The Vertical Design Studio from Flair costs £24.99 and is aimed at children from the age of 8yrs plus. Included in the set are 4 multi-coloured pens, a mat to trace through the stencils which are included, 2 curved plastic cups and some stencils to get you started.

The pens were very easy to set and the instructions simple to follow. Each pen has its own nib which twiddles closed and opened. Included with the pens is a blue light to help set the ink as it comes out allowing you to design your 3d creations. Some top tips here are starting squeezing the ink out of the pen before you turn the light on. Have some kitchen roll at hand to wipe the end of the nib and practise first!

Now my 8 year who doesn’t have great fine motor skills struggled a lot with this. He created a lot without the light on as we found this set the ink faster than we could work with so we ended up not creating a 3d creation as none of us (mummy included) could actually get out timing right. They did manage to stencil over the dragon skeleton though without the light on and they really enjoyed that. However we didn’t feel the ink colour ran true. And when we tried creating a butterfly the ink ran into each other as we hadn’t allowed time for the various colours to dry. We did read online that you shouldn’t use the light on a white background as this reflects the light back and dries the ink inside the pen so we worked on my green crafting board but still found our ink dried to quickly with the light on.  I did try repeatedly to create an upright 3d creation but quite frankly they are so awfully I can’t bring myself to share with you!! Do make sure you are wearing old clothes when using this pen as there is a sticky residue when you craft and it’s easy to wipe on to your brand new jeans!

The boy’s enthusiasm waned quite quickly with this product so I passed it on to a friend who has three girls for their opinion. They have absolutely adored it. While all three have had different results using the pens they still pick it up to play with when they come home and their mum has actually gone on to buy more as they use it so much. I think it’s a great little toy for crafty children and those who have a far steadier hand then we seemed to be blessed with.

I think that in a couple of years my eldest might give this another go and be more successful with this. I think it takes a fair amount of practice though to get this right and my kids were qute frustrated with their lack of skills. However I think for children who are very crafty and perhaps slightly older this is a fabulous gift! You can have so much fun with the Vertical Design Studio I think if you have a great steady hand and a wonderful imagination! Have you got one or tried one yet? What do you think? Take a look at their Youtube & Facebook pages for more inspiration.