Thin Stix (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Ashleigh loves to draw and paint.  However, Ashleigh does not like to clean up.  What tends to happen is that Ashleigh will paint a really nice picture, but she'll leave her cup of water for cleaning brushes on the table and the cat knocks it over, or paint gets spilled and dries before Mom notices it. I love her artistic side but my furniture pays for it. 

Last year, we had the pleasure of reviewing Kwik Stix from The Pencil Grip, Inc.  If you with with this blog for that

review last summer, you'll know that these convenient paint sticks were a real hit in out household.  They were even one of my top recommendations for Christmas Gifts for younger children.  But for the last few weeks, Ashleigh's been using the new Thin Stix 6Pk of Classic Colors, the latest addition to the Kwik Stix line of products, to make her artwork. 

What are Thin Stix?

Thin Stix are paint sticks made with  the same solid tempera paint  found in the Kwik Stix, only the Thin Stix are thin and taller and they provide a smaller top for smoother control on projects. Currently available in classic colors (red, blue, black, brown, green and yellow), Thin Stix require no water or paint brushes to use. Using the same design as Kwik Stix, kids simply draw or color with them much as they would with a marker.  The paint itself is creamy and the paint glides on smoothly and then dry to the touch in about 90 seconds.  The stick themselves work similar to a glue stick-  as more paint is needed the student simply twists the bottom to expose more of the paint stick.  The paint itself is a semi-solid, also similar to a glue stick and provide full coverage to the project they are being used on.   And the best part is that there is little to no mess at all.  What little cleanup that may be needed is easy with simple soap and water.

What We Think of Thin Stix:

Ashleigh has been a huge fan of the Kwik Stix paint sticks for some time now, using them almost constantly for various projects and she has a pretty good assortment of colors.  She was pretty happy to get to try the thinner sticks, as she found them to be easier to hold like a pencil vs handling it like a glue stick. 

This is supportively a picture of me

We have noticed that Thin Stix doesn't work so well on Plaster of Paris.  Ashleigh tried to use the Thin Stix to paint a lion and Tiger that she had, but had trouble getting the paint to adhere properly to the surface, although I do think this was due more to the surface of the thing she was panting rather than the Thin Stix themselves.  We did end up using a paint brush with the Thin Stix, to pull some of the paint from the Stick and then transfer it to the plaster before it dried.   It worked fairly well and she was able to get paint onto the lion but it was a process.  However, even after, the brown of the mane began to flake away once dried so she gave up and moved to coloring with my dry eraser markers.  (Mom was NOT happy about that.. lol)

Lion painted with Thin Stix .   Tiger done with  Expo Markers (grrrrr!!) 

With the exception of the plaster of paris, Thin Stix have performed beautifully on every surface Ashleigh has thrown at them.  This includes aluminum soda cans (She felt like decorating my Peace Tea can), her Littlest Pet Shop toys (she felt they needed some extra color), rubber rats (they were plain grey so she wanted them colorful), paper, stone, and wood.  The colors are bright and bold and look vibrant against practically any field of color they are put on.  Because of the superb coverage, they are really great on black paper where often times paints tend to let too much black show through. 

One thing that I would like to address in regards to the paint used in both the Thin Stix and Kwik Stix paint sticks.

 I am SUPER impressed withe the longevity of the paint blend.   It has been roughly one year since we originally reviewed Kwik Stix (which again, is the same paint found in Thin Stix). During that review, my daughter painted a series of rocks resembling a turtle, a lady bug and what I believe to be a cat.  

Unfortunately, once these projects were completed, she moved on to other things and these projects were completely forgotten until I started working on this review one year later and I thought about the rocks.  I was curious how the paint on the rocks had held up over the course of the year, facing the harsh elements of the hot Mojave Desert sun. Would the paint have faded, would it have been washed away by the rain or the sprinkler systems? 

 I went out and sure enough, they were still where Ashleigh had left them. 

<---  This is how I found the rocks, covered up for the most part by rotting leaves from the blower that our lawn maintenance guys use.  

The painted rocks have sat in the flower bed in front of the house since they were painted in April or May of last year.  During that year, we have had 70MPH winds, nearly 120*F temperatures, and had a very unusual month of January where it rained almost non stop and we had some pretty crazy bouts of hail as well.  These rocks also sit at the base of a bush where we have these small desert mice live, as well as lizards, squirrels and birds that forage though our flower bed on a daily basis.  So I expected some deterioration to the paint from exposure to the elements. 

Here's what they looked like when Ashleigh placed them in the flower bed.

>And here's one year later, after being brought inside the house and just rinsed off with a bit of water in the sink..

I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed that the paint hasn't seemed to fade much at all.. The Ladybug has a bit of chipping to it, but the larger turtle looks almost exactly the same.

These paint sticks will continue to be a family favorite in our household.

For more information about The Pencil Grip, Inc. or Thin Stix paint sticks, be sure to visit their website or one of their social media sites at :

• Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/thepencilgrip/     Tag: @thepencilgrip   
• Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thepencilgrip     Tag:@thepencilgrip   
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/KwikStixPaint/boards/            Tag: @KwikStixPaint/boards   

Painting Without The Mess (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

Ashleigh LOVES to draw.  One only has to walk into her bedroom and see all the drawings of cats all over her walls to see that she loves to express herself through artistic mediums.  Crayons, markers and paint are her favorite things and she is constantly illustrating her own books and creating pictures to share with us.  Because of this, when we were given the opportunity to review the Kwik Stix 12 Pack from The Pencil Grip, Inc., I knew it would be something that would be perfect for her.

You are probably already familiar with The Pencil Grip, Inc., or at least you're probably familiar with their product.  Invented in 1992, the Pencil Grip is a piece of rubber that can be attached to a pen or pencil in order to help teach proper hand positioning while holding a writing apparatus or can help make writing more comfortable for those with arthritis and easing hand fatigue.

While we were given a sample of the Pencil Grip to try out (and which Garrett has really taken a shine to), this real winner here was the 12 colorful and easy to handle paint sticks known as Kwik Stix.

Kwik Stix are solid tempera paint sticks in bright colors that require no water or paint brushes to use.  Much like fat crayons or makers, kids simply draw or color with them.  The colors are very creamy and the paint glides on smoothly and they dry quickly (about 90 seconds).   The stick themselves work similar to a glue stick, as more paint is needed the student simply twists the bottom to expose more of the paint stick.  The paint itself is a semi-solid, also similar to a glue stick.   The colors themselves are very bold and provide full coverage to the project they are being used on.   And the best part is that there is little to no mess at all.  What little cleanup that may be needed is easy with simple soap and water.

Ashleigh using a Kwik Stix on a Stone

Ashleigh absolutely fell in love with these paint sticks and used them for many different projects.  I found her coloring her school work with them as well as using them for her art work.

The Stix worked well on various types of media - watercolor paper, regular printer paper, and even wooden shapes that she picked out from Walmart.

 However, this weekend, I found her using them to paint some of the rocks that we have in our flower bed.  Using the bright colors, she was transforming them into garden decorations like turtles and lady bugs.  

I was actually very surprised to see that the paint dried on the rock and didn't rub off the surface even while being handled.   And since it doesn't rain here often, her little garden creations will be around for a long while.

She did try to paint a pine cone to make a hedgehog and that took a bit longer to dry but even that dried and did not smudge.

Some of Ashleigh's Creations Made with Kwik Stix

A Turtle Made With a Large Stone

Ladybug Made with a Smaller Stone

A Bit of Color In Our Flower Bed

A Colorful Art Project

A Wood Cutout of a Bird

Without a doubt, Kwik Stix were an absolute hit with Ashleigh and my husband and I have already decided that they are something that will be a regular purchase for our household.  The 12 pack that we reviewed was the more traditional bold colors, however, The Pencil Grip, Inc. also sells a 6 pack of Kwik Stix in Neon Colors as well as a 6 Pack of Kwik Stix in Metallic colors, both of which could open a whole realm of new possibilities for Ashleigh's artwork.

Find out more about The Pencil Grip, Inc. and Kwik Stix at any of their social media platforms:

Website:  http://www.thepencilgrip.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/thepencilgrip

Pinterest:   : https://www.pinterest.com/KwikStixPaint/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ThePencilGrip @ThePencilGrip

The Pencil Grip, Inc. provided 100 members of the Review Crew with different packages of their Kwik Stix paint sticks.  To see how they used them and what they thought of them, be sure to click the banner below.