So if you read my post yesterday, you know that I’m the owner of a brand-spanking new iPad; so today I’m going to review the as-of-yet- only craft application for the iPad, the FamilyFun Craft Finder by Disney.
The good news is that if you are an early adopter, this clever app is free for the downloading. It’s also easy to use and lovely to look at, if a little thin as far as content goes. But at the price you can’t beat it!
So here’s how it works: after it loads up, you’ll see a landing page that is similar to a magazine cover:
See that little turned page at the upper right? That cue you to swipe your finger from the upper right corner across the screen to “turn the page.” If you wanted, you could browse the whole app in just that fashion- just “turning pages” like in a magazine to see what there is. This is the first craft I ran across:
What’s nice is that there are easy-to-browse categories at the top right of each page- it’ll tell you about age-appropriateness and the length of time it’ll take t0 complete the craft. The materials list is usually below the photo box, and then it commences with the directions. If the extend beyond the bottom of the page (also known as the “fold”) , you can just scroll down to see the whole thing.
The grey box you see in the above folder is an animated add that redirects you to visit FamilyFun.com (which also effectively navigates you away from the app.)
So, if you don’t want to page through every thing- and there are a LOT of pages, you can use the search function instead. The little magnifying glass icon in the top left gives you a drop-down menu that enables you to search through the library of crafts by age, season, & duration, and looks like this:
Screen shot of the "search" drop-down menu
You change the search criterion by swiping your finger back and forth, and it rotates to the next category in the box. When you tap “Show matching crafts” that box is replace by a list of matching crafts with a thumbnail photo. Tapping on those will then take you to the appropriate craft.
My problem with this style of search/navagation is two-fold: first, there is no search “box”, which enables you to find specific crafts that include, say, pipecleaners. Secondly, after you select a craft to view, you are kind of stuck on that page- there is no “back” button to click to take you back to your search results. You CAN continue on by “turning pages”, but what is next may not necessarily match your search criterion. In other words, it’s a dead-end. To find other crafts with your criterion you have to go back to the drop-down menu and then search again.
So I searched through a number of crafts by age, season, etc, and for the most part found fairly easy, “do-able” crafts using common house-hold items. There is some confusion with the “PreSchool” category- some of them are crafts that you can actually DO with a preschooler, but others are ones you would make FOR a preschooler. (Such as the silly sunglasses.)
Also, there are a number of crafts in this app that are not…um… how do I say it??? CRAFTS. They are activities that may be age- appropriate, but having your toddler dancing with fabric is not a craft in my book. See for yourself:
This is NOT a craft.
This discussion is kind of like the one my son has in his third-grade math class: square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not necessarily a square. Ergo, making crafts is an activity, but not all activities are crafts. You know? And this is a craft app, so yes, I am splitting that hair.
(Gets down off of soap box.)
So, all in all, I’m glad I downloaded it and am giving it space on my drive- I’m sure we’ll try out a few of these crafts during some rainy days, and because it’s on the iPad, I can take it to grandma’s house, up in the studio, down in the kitchen, where ever. Thank you Disney, for breaking the ice and giving us crafters something to do with our iPads!
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Ugh I REALLY want it to have USB port(s) and support Flash… but it does look like fun.
Great review, Jenny. They also have this app for the iPod Touch/iPhone which is similar, but with really small photos.
Amazingly, this is about the only craft app I found, although Lion Brand has a good one for their yarn patterns. I really wish there were more pictures of the steps. Also, as a general rule, Family Fun has great ideas for kids and family activities!