Creatology 3D Paper Train Kit

We were in Michael's this weekend and picked up a few Creatology Christmas foam kits. I love Creatology craft kits because they are sooo cute and are easy for my kids to handle. My son, Liam, who is 4 years old, insisted we work on the 3D paper train kit as soon as we got home from Michael's. He's obsessed (an understatement) with Thomas & Friends, so this craft kit was right up his alley!

The box itself is very substantial. You get a nice color photo as a guide, and the back of the box has visual instructions. This is a bonus for kids who can’t quite read yet!

The kit has 82 pieces in total and comes with 4 large sheets of paper that have a foam core.  The kit appears to be made out of paper with a foam core. This is the first Creatology 3D structure that I’ve seen that includes both paper and foam – most are foam. The paper and foam combination made it easier to bend the “paper”.

Each of the paper pieces have a letter/number near each paper slot so you know where to insert the slots. I love that this kit doesn’t require any glue. I’m not the kind of mom who likes messy crafts, although I will tolerate them if they are truly worthwhile for my kids. 🙂

When we unfolded a sheet, we found that there was actually double the amount of materials than shown above!

To get started, we started punching each of the pieces out of the paper sheets. They were easy for my kids to punch out – but we did need a toothpick to punch out the tiny paper slots. Liam (4) and Sage (6), did this with ease. Because there are so many parts, we started to run out of time for Liam and he had to take his afternoon nap. Sage and I continued with the project.

I assembled the steam engine, penguin, and moose using the photo as a guide. Sage worked on the passenger car and caboose.  

I was impressed that Sage could put this craft together with minimal help. I liked that she had to do some problem solving to see how to bend the tabs to fit them into the slots. She was so proud that she could do it by herself! Craft kits are great because they’re both educational and fun!

Here's the completed caboose!

The steam engine turned out really nicely. All of the wheels on this train had double foam, I'm assuming for extra stability.

The hardest part of this craft was putting the penguin and the moose together. The pieces have to go in a certain way, but with a bit of trial and error, we finally got them together. How adorable are these little guys!

Sage coupled the train cars together all by herself! 

Assembling all of the train cars and animals took Sage and I around 2 hours (I had 2-year old Noah in my lap part of the time!), but would probably take an adult and child around 1.5 hours to complete.  

We loved this craft – it appeals to both boys and girls and was simple to do. It’ll make a great Christmas decoration for our buffet in our dining room – or maybe I’ll put it on our fireplace mantel.

What do you think of this craft? You can swing by Michael’s to pick one up – but you may want to do it asap. I think they change their kits out every year so it may not be available next year!

Happy Crafting!

Carolyn