Gel-a-Peel Sparkle Bead Station Review

Gel-a-Peel is a sort of squishy gel, it gets squeezed out of tubes almost like you would with icing. Once out of the tube it sets in solid state. This clever gear can be used on pretty much anything, and you can make a variety of different items including my daughters' favourite, jewellery and now along with the Sparkle Bead Station this has been made even easier to do. 

What the Bead Station allows someone to do is create a range of beads in differing shapes and sizes which can then be used to create necklaces, bracelets or even earrings and just to keep it gender neutral things like pencil grippers can be made out of the beads designed too, that's not to say that both boys and girls won't enjoy making the jewellery.

Inside the box, you get the Sparkle Bead Station complete with drying rack, six 3D beading design rods (5 bead rods and 1 pencil rod), 3 designer tips which are round and one tip that is a rake, plastic cording in two colours that is used for threading the beads onto for necklaces and necklaces, 2 jump rings, 2 earring hooks and three tubes of gel in pink, blue and turquoise.

There is also a instruction booklet and a sheet with templates on to help you get started but if your kids are anything like mine then they will want to imagine up their own ideas, mixing gels, coming up with new shapes and colours. What was nice for me as a parent was that I could let them get on with it, the only thing they needed help with was getting the lids of initially.

The way that this station needs to be used actually teaches kids to get to grips with their fine motor skills, a good tool to get them concentrating and what you get at the end of it is something unique and personal to them and also that feeling of triumph as they manage to make something all by themselves.

Our only real complaint, both myself and my girls, was the drying time. If you wanted to add a different layer of gel without colours mixing you needed to wait around 20 minutes and the shortest drying time over all for the beads was around two hours. So just be warned that your children will need a bit of patience when waiting for their beads to be ready.

Priced at £24.99 I'd say the Gel-a-Peel Sparkle Bead Station is definitely worth buying, it certainly kept my children entertained (and quiet) for quite some time and the fact that you can refills for the Gel-a-Peel too, the fun can last as long as you want it to. My girls have decided to gift their creations to their friends, so a toy and present all in one!