Craft Finder on iPad: Great Crafts from Disney FamilyFun

I have a love/hate relationship with the Family Fun magazine. On the one hand I love getting each issue and reading about all of the fun and colorful ideas they feature each month. There have been some ideas that I’ve taken from fellow readers  and they’ve been a big success at our house. But on the other hand…being brought face to face with so much pure Mom awesomeness has the tendency to leave me feeling pretty inadequate. I’d like to be the clever and fun mom they showcase but because of time restraints, budget issues, children’s ages (and maybe even behavior!) and just lack of patience on my part there’s no way I can compete. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t even really want to compete. I know I’m doing the best I can and I have different strengths, but that doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally want to be the mom who pulls off the perfect piratey party or family vacation.  Like I said, love/hate but so far my enjoyment of the magazine outweighs my mom insecurities.

One feature of the magazine that I always have success with is the crafts. There have been many times when I’ve turned to the Family Fun website to find a simple and doable craft and I usually find what I’m looking for. They provide simple instructions and crafts that are actually manageable with kids. Shortly after I got my iPad I saw this fantastic app, Craft Finder on iPad: Great Crafts from Disney FamilyFun, in the iPad App Store. I was intrigued and not let down.

Here are the app’s highlights -

*The craft directions are simple and easy to follow. Everything you need to know is on the screen. You might need to scroll up and down but you won’t need to click through several pages like you do on the Family Fun website.

*The craft instructions give you a description, an age range and the total time needed to complete the craft. All key things I look at when deciding to tackle a craft.

*Each craft shows a button that says “Add List”. If you tap this then the supplies needed to make the craft show up in a shopping list. You can shop directly from this list or email it to yourself.

*You have the ability to select “Save Craft” and add the craft to your craft box. This puts it on a list that you can access to save yourself from having to browse through oodles of crafts again. A note – when you choose “Add List” the supplies go to the shopping list and the craft is saved to the craft box.

*You can look through the apps in the “Featured” section. These are rotated and changed. At the bottom of this list you can follow a link to go directly to the crafts section on the Family Fun website.

*Another way to find crafts in the app is through a search with the “Craft Finder”. The Craft Finder uses three sliding bars, line those up where you’d like them and then tap “Show Matching Crafts” to get your results. The bars refer to the following. Age: Any Age, Toddler, Pre-School, School Age or Tween. Time: choose from Any Time, 30 Minutes, 1 Hour, 1+ Hours, 2 Hours and 2+ Hours. Occasion: You can choose from the major holidays plus seasons.

I really, really like this iPad app but there are a couple of things I’d like to see improved on.

*Add in “Birthday” to the occasions that you can choose from in the Craft Finder.

*The slider bars are a neat feature but I’d also like to be able to type in a keyword and then search for a craft based on that.

*Create a way to email the craft instructions to myself in case I need to print them out.

*Frequent updates to the crafts. This might already be happening, I’m not sure, but I think it’s key to keeping the app fresh.

*Add in a birthday cake/cupcake section or create a similar app that just focuses on those ideas. Family Fun is the go-to source for kid friendly cakes that moms can actually make. I’d love to have that resource on my iPad.

Overall – wow! There is a lot to love about the Craft Finder from Family Fun. I love being able to browse through the crafts without having to pull out my laptop. The navigation to the app is very easy and intuitive to navigate through. I know my girls (10 & 7) have already mastered it because I found a nice list of crafts in my craft box that I certainly didn’t add.

P.S. – I’ve not experienced any crashing of the app like what’s been described in the App Store reviews.

P.P.S. – The app is also available for the iPhone.

Price when Reviewed: FREE

See the App in iTunes Here.

Seller: Disney