The Orb Factory '3D Ocean Magic' Review & GIVEaway

Welcome to my very first review and giveaway!  I am very excited to tell you about a Canadian company, called The Orb Factory, that makes educational toys for children.  It was kind of fun for me to be asked to do this review because I actually bought one of their magnetic mosaic kits a couple years ago for my classroom.  My more artistically inclined students have enjoyed using the magnetic pieces to make a variety of designs during their free time.  Now, they've introduced products using stickers as well.  Connor and I tackled the kit shown in the picture on the right.  It's called Sticky Mosaics 3D Ocean Magic.  As you can see in the picture, Connor was quite enthralled with it all.  Granted, he's a bit young for this particular toy (Ages 5+) so it was a mommy-assisted activity.

Once we opened up the box, Connor dug in and started to organize the sheets of stickers.  While the activity was too advanced for him, he was able to talk about the colours with me and was an excellent helper.  He took the square stickers off the sheets and handed them to me to apply to the numbered pictures.  This is how I discovered that most of the stickers were quite forgiving and could be unstuck and re-stuck without too much trouble.   The board itself is solid and I know this because it withstood my child sitting on it.  The stickers are vivid and brightly coloured and the finished product was "pretty" and "nice" according to Connor.



I took a couple pictures of the part we finished together so you can see for yourselves.  The set also comes with some 3D glasses and it looks pretty neat with the glasses.  It kind of reminded me of those 3D picture books that were really popular several years ago.

Here's the picture once we finished it! (We left the other fish for his older cousins to finish. I think this would be a great activity to keep kids busy at Christmas.)

A close up!

Look at all the pretty colours Mommy!

Now to the giving part of this giveaway and there's a lot of it!  The Orb Factory is going to give away one of their toys to a lucky reader (your choice from their website).

In addition, they are going to give a toy for every Facebook "like" they get to the IWK Health Centre, a children's hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  I know the Maritime mommies will love this and hopefully get lots of friends to participate in this giveaway and in "liking" the Orb Factory on Facebook.

Finally, here's how to enter!

1. Comment on this post and tell us which toy is your favourite from The Orb Factory website.
2. "Like" The Orb Factory on Facebook and mention my blog on their page or "like" the post about my giveaway.  (Remember this will also mean one toy being donated to the IWK hospital!) :-)
3. Follow The Orb Factory on Twitter.  You will need to make note of this in the comments.
4. "Like" A Sophisticated Mommy on Facebook and "like" or comment on the giveaway post.
5. Follow my blog so you don't miss out on any future giveaways! Please write this in the comments as an entry.

This giveaway contest will be open until Friday, December 17th.  However, keep in mind that they will continue to donate a new toy for every "like" until December 23rd.