Because It's Christmas: Group 4 UNWRAPPED - Crayola®'s GLOW STATION™ GIVEAWAY

This next gift will make just about everyone excited. It is the Crayola® GLOW STATION™! Crayola has once again graciously provided us with one for both the Relief Nursery of Collin County in Plano, Texas and one of YOU! That's right, the Crayola® Glow Station™ Art Station is the next item being unwrapped from Group 4 in our Because It's Christmas Kids and Charity giveaway!

We are all probably aware of the Crayola brand name. Providing you with safe, high-quality, and age-appropriate products is the top priority at Crayola. Since the brand’s beginning in 1903, they’ve ensured that their products are nontoxic and safe. They take pride in ensuring that everything they provide for children’s use is safe. Crayola's goal is to always bring innovative, safe, high-quality, colorful and fun products to consumers. All of these things combined made Crayola a perfect addition to Because It's Christmas.

When the Glow Station was released, it became an immediate hit. It was named on of the 2008 Top 10 Toys of the Year by Family Fun, received the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award, the iParenting Media Award for Outstanding Products of 2008, it was the 2008 Parents' Choice FunStuff Award Winner, and the 2009 winner of the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio SNAP Award. When they say it is award wining, they are not kidding!

The Glow Station comes complete with:

• a glow-in-the-dark poster-sized canvas
• a light wand with removable crystal tip attachment
• 2 stencil sheets
• 13 stencil "light resist" sheets
• 2 light texture sheets
• 1 blank acetate sheet
• 1 dry erase black marker

The Glow Station itself is a flat, smooth surface made from glow-in-the-dark, light-sensitive material. It is designed to hang from a nail or hook on the wall. As it comes folded in the box, you may have to roll it or place it under a dictionary to encourage it to stay flat.

The light wand is shaped like a large pen and has a small light bulb at the tip. The wand requires three AAA batteries. Once they have been installed, you can use the light wand to "draw" on the Glow Station canvas to create artwork that glows brightly from the light-activated canvas. The darker the room, the more brightly artwork glows. To 'erase' your work of art, you simply turn on the lights or allow it to fade away gradually on it's own in about 5 minutes.

Stencils are included to use to create shapes and scenes, such as animals safaris or solar systems. You can use them or draw freehand, as you like. Texture sheets are also included, allowing you to give your images new and exciting detail, like stripes, dots or feathers. The stencils and the Textured sheets can be used together as well. The light wand also comes with a "crystal" attachment that causes the light to refract, creating rather beautiful starburst patterns when applied to the Glow Station canvas.

The Glow Station is recommended for children ages 6-15 and at this point, I still cannot decide which of my two older daughters to give it to. My kids love to play with the lights off and they are both very creative. Sounds like Glow Station is the perfect combination of the two. My girls are both working on writing so I can easily see this becoming the newest type of 'chalk' board when they play School. The Glow Station is another hit from Crayola!

The only bad thing - you cannot keep your art after you create it but I read a couple of great ideas to offset that problem. Purchase some plain old, transparency sheets so you or they can copy their artwork before it is erased off the glow board canvas. Another option would be to make your own postcards by taking a digital picture of their artwork, download it into the computer, and print it off onto postcard paper. Fun to use and another way to preserve your child's masterpieces.

Still not sure about the Glow Station and how it works? Enjoy this video created by Crayola!

ENTER TO WIN A CRAYOLA ® GLOW STATION™!

NOTE: by entering this giveaway, you are actually entering to win all the toys in Group 4. The more individual posts you enter, the more of a chance you have to win the Group prizes. The entries will be combined from all posts and a winner selected, so you have a chance to win the Group prizes even if you only enter on one post.

To enter to win a Crayola Glow Station, please do the following:

• Visit Crayola and pick your favorite item that they carry besides the Crayola® Glow Station™ .


• Come back here and leave a comment telling us what you and/or your child could do with it.

That’s it!

To earn extra entries:

• Post our Because It’s Christmas button on your site (you can find the code for it on the middle right sidebar) - 5 EXTRA ENTRIES


• Blog about this giveaway and link back here and to Crayola. (the links must be active/clickable) - 5 EXTRA ENTIRES


• Subscribe to our updates. - 1 EXTRA ENTRY


• Enter a Because It’s Christmas giveaway over at What's That Smell? and come back here and tell us which post/giveaway you entered on. - 1 EXTRA ENTRY PER POST/GIVEAWAY ENTERED


• Enter a Because It’s Christmas giveaway over at 3P's Mama Says... and come back here and tell us which post/giveaway you entered on. - 1 EXTRA ENTRY PER POST/GIVEAWAY ENTERED

Please leave separate comments for each additional entry, ie: if you blog about this, leave 5 separate comments.

Giveaway will run through Nov. 30th at noon central time and is open to the USA.



This is the FINAL WEEK to enter the GIVEAWAYS both here and on 3 P's Mama Says... for Because It's Christmas! Don't Miss out!

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