Ravensburger 2-in-1 Mandala-Designer Ocean Dreams

While not perfect, this mandala designer is certainly an easy and effective to create pretty art projects. Everyone from 4 - 104 will be able to make this work and enjoy their work.What is this mandala maker, you ask? It's essentially a spinning stencil. You use the stencil to outline a dolphin or a seashell or a mermaid (etc...), then give the stencil a turn (the paper will stay in place in a holder) and repeat. You can add other elements along the way (little swirls, curved lines) for a great deal of variety. Finish with a little coloring and you'll have a fridge-worthy project in no time. The inclusion of a smaller stencil-within-the-stencil can really help take your creativity up a notch.A couple of shortcomings: The mandala designer was created in Germany where paper is presumably a different standard size. (I don't know this for certain, but track with me for a second and you'll understand why this is a problem.) The paper holder is supposed to hold square sheets and the kit comes with a few sheets that you'll burn through quickly. Sadly, Ravensburger didn't redesign this product to more easily fit American standard 8.5"x11" paper. In order to get your own blank sheets to fit, you need to trim the paper to 8.25"x8.25". Not a big deal, but one cut (off the long end) would have been a great deal easier than having to shave off 0.25" to perfectly square the sheet. Perfectionists could really chafe at this. If you simply try to fit the paper in, you'll end up with a big unsightly crease (or 6).Also, the kit only comes with 4 colored pencils. Yes, 4 is better than none, but you'll really want to supplement the kit with more. If you're not interested in strong nautical themes, you may want to check out a few different options in the Ravensburger mandala making line like  Ravensburger 2-in-1 Mandala-Designer - Classic  or  Ravensburger 2-in-1 Mandala-Designer - Romantic .This kit is a great springboard for anyone who's been looking for an easy and enjoyable way to dive into mandala making, or just trying out a few new art themes. Enjoy.

Reminiscent of spirograph it was a real hit because it didn't "jump" out of it's base and make a mess like the spirograph did. The pen that came with it dried out too quickly but was easily replaced with fine tip pens and colored pencils sharpened to a point. So many design possibilities! Love it!!

Not as easy to use as I thought.

My 5 year old niece was able to do it with very little assistance. You don't have to have any artistic skill to make a lovely design. All parts worked well and was easy to set up and understand. It does require a little patience/focus, so may not be a good fit for more active/distractable children, but for us it worked great!

Initially takes some time and patience o understand spacing required to make designs. Allows child to create own mandalas and my 7 yr old is so proud! Ravensburger is a great solid brand. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys art, creativity and it is also relaxing.

This is sort of a similar concept to Spirograph, a toy with which I spend much time as a child. For those of you who recall that product, unlike it's hard plastic wheels, this plastic is a bit flexible and resinous - kind of like kids translucent plastic drinking cups.I think it's a little too complicated to hold many childrens' attention. My daughter and I played with it once - and ostensibly had fun - but it's stayed in the box ever since. It makes neat images, it works well, it's colorful and nice to look at...so I've been trying to think why it's collecting dust at our house.I guess it's because you have to work to make the images, and (I'm embarrassed to say this) there's no instant gratification. With spirograph, the delight was seeing this crazy cyclical pattern develop with every stroke of the pen as you rotated the little wheel inside the big wheel. With the Mandala, you cannot see the pretty pattern as you make it because it is covered up.With the Mandala, you have to line up the wheels with arrows to repeat the tracing of your chosen patterns at even intervals. You do the same thing with the little green wheel, rotating the big blue wheel around and then tracing within the green. By contrast, with Spirograph, you just rotate the different sized wheels with your pen in different positions. You don't have to think about creating the pattern, it just appears as you move the wheels. Some would argue that the Mandala's thinking -process is educationally valuable. I would not dispute this. For me, however, thinking about the creation of geometric patterns in Spirograph - and how those lines came to be based upon one's manipulations - was more educationally valuable. And just more interesting.The best part was coloring in your tracings (images) after you made them - like making your own coloring book pages! But for whatever reason, my daughter and I found the actual tracing process tedious. It's not a fault of the toy, per se, but rather a personal preference?I'd say the only legitimate con is that you need 8 x 8" pieces of paper to fit the system. Sure, you can cut 8.5 x 11" to fit. To avoid frustrating a my daughter, however, the edges have to be perfectly even so she can slide them in, yadda yadda, which means a paper cutter is ideal...or an Exacto and a straight edge...totally do-able, but for me, too much of a pain. Especially as she didn't find it that compelling anyway.Thus four stars for the product itself (one deducted for the paper-size-thing), but only three for our enjoyment in what it creates. Ergo: "meh."

it was a simple to use product. super easy to use. it is just what it describes. can't buy in stores. easy to use