Product Review & Giveaway - Creative Steps magazine

~ Posted on Saturday, July 7, 2012 at 10:25 AM ~

I came across this awesome website which offers subscriptions for its digital and printed magazines and was on the verge of subscribing to them when I decided to pose some questions I have and I received a prompt reply from them saying they are on the verge of revamping their website.

I then asked them whether there are any options to print out the activity pages etc in the digital version of the magazine subscription and also mentioned that I am a mummy blogger on the look out for more fresh ideas to try out with my 3 year old boy as part of our learning lessons.

To my surprise, I was offered the opportunity to review some of their recent digital editions in exchange for my honest feedback and review! Yay! So here goes my review for the "Creative Steps magazines":

I'm a full-time mummy

Description from the product page:
"Creative Steps is a fabulous quarterly magazine aimed at everyone with or caring for young children and is packed with dozens of fun crafting activities designed to encourage learning whilst having fun. "

I'm a full-time mummy

I was given an authorised and confidential website link to access the current and a few past digital editions of the magazine.

With the digital edition of the magazine, you can easily navigate to and fro, add and manage your bookmarks, create a clipping and email out the clipping, print and lots more options to play around with! I immediately browsed through the editions available and happily take notes on which crafts ideas I will try later with my kids.

I love the DIY crafts as there are mostly easily made with materials found around the house. I also enjoy the cooking/baking recipes and some of them can be tried out with children too!

Just  look at the screenshot below on one of the example of crafts you can do with your kids! I think this mini aquarium idea is very good, in fact, I almost tried to make it for hubby's Father's Day gift this year but home stuff caught up with me and being a SAHM with 2 kids (3 years old boy and a 10 months old girl), I will have to take a raincheck on this awesome idea!

Creative Steps

One of the craft ideas that we did get to try out was the 'Walk the Plank!' where we draws 'planks' on a pavement or path with chalks and then pretend there are water all around the 'planks' and we have to walk on the 'planks' and not fall over.

Creative Steps

To be honest, I was about to draw some 'planks' on the floor of our balcony when we heard the fire engine siren zoomed past us (FYI, my house is directly facing the highway and there is a fire station at the end of our housing row) and at the last minute, I ended up drawing a fire engine on the floor as my boy got all excited with the fire engine sound (he is nuts about fire engine related stuff!)

Just in case you can't see the picture above clearly, I actually drew the fire engine from the top view, you can see my boy squatting (or sitting) on the fire engine seat, steering the fire engine to help put out the fire somewhere, and I also drew the ladder, water pipe and tyres around the fire engine as well. Not bad right? Granted, I may not been copying the 'Walk the Planks' idea, but I apply the same chalk drawing method and we ended up having a good time as well!

I would definitely agree that this digital magazine is chock full of creative ideas to do with your kids! You really ought to give this magazine a try, be it the digital or printed version!

I'm a full-time mummy

You can go to http://creativesteps.co.uk/subscribe/ to find out more on the subscription options.

But wait!! Before you proceed to subscribe, why not take advantage of this awesome offers?

Subscription offer - The sponsor created a promo code BMRSC25, which will enable you guys to save 25% on the annual printed edition subscription. Prices vary globally, due to postage to your respective country. The direct link for this is: https://creativesteps.subscribeonline.co.uk/creative-steps-magazine/creative-steps?offer=bmrsc25 or you can just go to their website and use the promo code BMRSC25.

The sponsor also offers a 25% discount on the annual online edition, reducing this to just US$13.50 per year. You will need to send payment to paypal@creativesteps.co.uk and quote code IFTM25.

The above awesome offers does not have expiry codes, but that does not mean you should delay and wait! Go subscribe now!

Not only you guys get to enjoy the discount offers above, I am also excited to be able to hold this giveaway for my lucky blog followers and readers! TWO of you lucky people are going to win the online annual subscriptions (worth US$18 each)! Now, let's read below for the giveaway terms and conditions OK?

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

  • You can enter either via login through your Facebook account or just key in your name and your valid email address.
  • Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm a full-time mummy

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the authorised link to the online editions by Creative Steps in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

I'm a full-time mummy

Product Review & Giveaway - The Mommy Hook

~ Posted on Tuesday, June 26, 2012 at 12:00 PM ~

I am always on the lookout for products that my family and I can use around the house or when we go for our outings, so when I stumbled upon this product, I emailed to ask whether they are OK with international bloggers reviewing their products, and my oh my, they are happy to provide me their products for my review! So here goes my review for the "The Mommy Hook":

I'm a full-time mummy

Description from the product page:
"You’ll be totally hooked on our indispensable mommy accessory. Built to last, lightweight and versatile, The Mommy Hook fits virtually all stroller handles. Use The Mommy Hook on your stroller or shopping cart to hold diaper bags, shopping bags, camera bags, groceries, toys, purses, and much more. You can also use The Mommy Hook to carry items from your car to your home. "

I'm a full-time mummy

As mentioned earlier, the reason why I requested to review The Mommy Hook is because I feel it can really help when I have lots of things to carry around when we are out and about!

When I first received the item, my first impression of it is: "Strong stuff!" It is quite heavy to be honest and after checking out every nook and corner of The Mommy Hook, I can assure you it is made of good and sturdy materials which WILL be able to hold loads of stuff at one go!

I managed to use this product on several occasions but sadly the pictures taken are not clear or close-up enough as I was busy carrying my baby girl and not able to snap the pictures fast enough!

Pictures below taken in a hurry showing how I hook The Mommy Hook onto my baby's stroller (ready to use anytime!) and how my brother in law used it to carry ours and his stuff around.

This is a good product to be considered if you always have a lot of heavy things to carry around when you are out (like grocery shopping and so on) and you can just hook it onto your stroller so that it is ready to use at any time!

I'm a full-time mummy

You can get check out this product at: http://www.themommyhook.com/

I am so excited to be able to hold this giveaway for my lucky blog followers and readers! ONE of you lucky people are going to win this awesome product! Now, let's read below for the giveaway terms and conditions OK?

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

  • You can enter either via login through your Facebook account or just key in your name and your valid email address.
  • Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm a full-time mummy

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the product by the sponsor in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

I'm a full-time mummy

Product Review & Giveaway - CollageIt

~ Posted on Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 11:55 AM ~

I came across this image software and decided to request for a review copy of the full software as I like the idea of being able to turn the tons and tons of pictures I took of my 2 kids EVERY DAY, and make it into a nice collage - you know, just adding a hint of creativity and touch and the pictures somehow looks awesome-r! Anyway, long story short, here goes my review for "CollageIt":

I'm a full-time mummy

Description about the product:
"CollageIt is a most easy-to-use collage maker which allows individuals to make photo collages on Mac and Windows automatically in minutes with just a few clicks. Whether to a casual user or professional photographer, one can easily and quickly master it. With CollageIt, people can share photos with friends and families in a unique way.

CollageIt assists users in recording beautiful moment in the easiest way. It has the following key features:
- Automatic, Easy to Use and Powerful.
- Various Collage Templates to Choose.
- Customize Photo Collages Freely.
- Share the Collage Anywhere.
"

I'm a full-time mummy

This is a very user-friendly software. You can just play around with the options for a few minutes and able to grasp the navigation and features available in it. It took me just a few minutes to figure out how to use this software and I really enjoy playing around with the pictures and putting them into a nice looking collage!

I like the following features in this software: Auto Rotate, Random Layout (where the software randomly assigns the images layout for me)

In the Export feature, you can actually export out the image to 7 different types (such as JPG, GIF, PNG, etc) though of course you need to select the image type one at a time, you can also send the image out as email, set it as wallpaper and so on.

I also like the feature where we can set the photo frame as well but I did not use this feature in my review here. Take a look at my sample collage and tell me what you think!

I'm a full-time mummy

You can get this software at: http://www.collageitfree.com/purchase.html

I am so excited to be able to hold this giveaway for my lucky blog followers and readers! 15 of you lucky people are going to win this awesome software! Now, let's read below for the giveaway terms and conditions OK?

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

  • You can enter either via login through your Facebook account or just key in your name and your valid email address.
  • Please also leave your valid email address in the post comment so that I can contact you if you win this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm a full-time mummy

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the software by PearlMountain Technology Co. in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

I'm a full-time mummy