Tag Archives: tool

Fortune at Your Fingertips

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Needing some answers? No problem! We tested this set of Mystical Fortune Teller pencils offered by Snifty. Yes, for a mere $10, you have the opportunity for 10 unique answers to your most burning queries.

The pencils appear solid black, but when you ask your question and rub them, the answer slowly appears (along with some mystical stars and moon graphics!). It did take a fair amount of rubbing to get the message to appear, so be a bit patient and persistent!

Eventually, the message fades back to its original state. The packaging also warns you not to put the pencils in direct sunlight. So of COURSE I ran outside and did that very thing. The pencils are essentially heat activated – so the hot sun made the messages appear. I also accidentally left them in my hot car and the same thing happened.

I gave these pencils to my 12 year-old and she LOVED them and shared them with her friends. Lots of questions and giggles going on. These would be great in a gift basket, goody bag, prize bin, mystery party, or magic program. They are fun, and I definitely recommended them!

Pop’s Top 10: Fabulous Fails

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acid drops 2

We make (and get) ourselves into a lot of messes here at Pop Goes the Page, and today we are honoring all those…uh…valuable learning experiences by counting down Pop’s Top 10 fails, misfires, and whoopsies!

#1 GINORMOUS FORTUNE COOKIE

cookie progress 2Our first fail comes from the kitchen of Katie, where a fortune cookie recipe test took a turn for the huge. Mis-measuring the batter resulted in a giant mega cookie that appears to be smirking at all the other cookies.

#2 UNFOCUSED LAPIN

blurry flashlight bunny 5ALWAYS test your light source. Not all beams are created equal! As we quickly discovered when our oatmeal container projector resulted in an unfocused, blobby bunny.

#3 PANTS BEWARE

deflated messLearned this one the hard way – and so did our carpets and clothing. Erasable chalkboard ink enthusiastically liberates itself from deflated balloons. And it makes a mess. A permanent MESS. Oooooo such a mess.

#4 DASHING DOGS 

more puppy post 1It took SIX tries to get Katie’s pup Finley to simply walk down the hallway with a mailbox strapped to his back. And the one time it worked? Watch the video closely, because a piece of mailbox literally breaks off in transit and drops to the floor! Argh!

#5 WATER WORKS

full tin foil sheetOur program at a local community pool was going swimmingly, until the entire waterway leaked like mad and beached all the boats. Yes, in hindsight we should have reinforced the seams of the tin foil with packing tape…but ah well!

#6 TODDLER TORNADO

teddy bear picnic afterWhat started as a lovely bucolic picnic scene quickly devolved into chaos at a baby and toddler program. The hardest hit was a lovely contact paper river. We foolishly thought the adhesive would anchor it a little. But no. It lasted about 5 minutes before being twisted and crunched into a slouching shadow of its former self.

#7 THE FAMOUS FUDGE INCIDENT

foojYes. That is fudge in a CUP. One of Pop’s most classic fails, Katie learned how woefully temperamental fudge making can be. However! It should be noted that she made a triumphant comeback a few years later, with the assistance of Toni & Slade Morrison’s Peeny Butter Fudge recipe!

#8 CAUGHT PINK-HANDED

Otherwise know as the day I turned my bathtub and hand pink. It was supposed to be a simple project, but the art materials juuuuuust weren’t cooperating. But in my defense, who knew cellophane could be so vengeful?

#9 WHEN CANDY GOES BAD

dr. dana taste tests burned acid drop

Another classic from the kitchen of Katie. Long story short, the Harry Potter acid drops recipe went horribly wrong and turned black. The second batch welded your teeth shut. I insisted on trying both batches, and, well, a picture speaks a thousand words.

#10 NOT TO BURST YOUR BALLOON…

balloon progressWhile doing research for a Willy Wonka escape room, I attempted to turn myself into a giant blueberry by shimmying into a 6ft latex balloon that would snap around my neck. The process also required the use of a leaf blower. How could this scenario possibly go wrong???

The Tiny Library Challenge, Round II

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bear books kit 4Readers might recall the miniature library kit that almost drove Katie to the edge of sanity in 2021. It took 12 months, 46 hours and countless grey hairs, but Katie finally completed it! Fast forward to 2022, and the discovery of the Mind-Find Bookstore kit by Rolife Hands Craft. How can we resist, right? This bookstore has a BEAR in it!  So we decided to test the kit…except…now it’s MY turn to feel the agony and ecstacy of miniature building.

The Rolife kit is nicely packaged, and retails for around $20 on Amazon and Target. It is intended for ages 14 and up. That age range is absolutely correct. You need a steady hand and lots of patience to build it. I slowly unpackaged everything, wondering what I had gotten myself into. In the background, Katie chuckled evily.

One thing I liked about the kit was that you could lay the pieces on the paper templates, matching up the numbers with the instructions. This allowed me to have everything in one place, without having to stop and hunt for pieces during the process. Fair warning: the print on the instructions is miniscule, and there’s a bunch of tiny little paper signs to cut out too. I used regular-sized scissors and fumbled through, but smaller craft scissors would have produced cleaner cuts for sure.

One thing I did NOT like about the kit was the glue. The nozzle was always gushing, which endangered the fragile pieces. I finally resorted to using a paperclip to brush the glue on all the teeny weeny surfaces.

The kit also comes with a pair of plastic tweezers. I definitely had to use them! Not just for construction, but also setting up the interior of the shop. It was quite the adventure, folding the little bags, gluing the little handles on, and then navigating each of them on to the little slippery pegs!

There were a couple different types of books to construct as well. Some were just paper covers glued to foam pieces. Others were books you could actually open and turn the pages. Nice!

The advertised completion time for the kit is 3.5 hours. Well, it took me 5 hours and lots of complaining, squinting, moaning, and muttering quiet curses. At one point, I sent Katie a photo of my messy progress and bemoaned how crazy the kit was making me. She simply sent back this:

Like the kit Katie assembled, this little bookstore can be wired for lights. Buuuuuut I couldn’t figure out the “heat tube” part of the instructions, annnnnnd the little lightbox broke during construction. So I had to jerry-rig the bulb to the battery like some sort of miniature MacGyver. But in the end, there was LIGHT!

I would say the Mind-Find Bookstore kit by Rolife Hands Craft is mid-range in difficulty. If you are working on this with a kid, plan for lots of extra time and patience as most of the pieces are from scratch, the paper signs are small, and the instructions are a little vague. Ultimately, the results were cute, and this cheerful little bookstore will brighten any room or shelf!