Sabbiarelli is famous in Italy for their sand art kits that kids of all ages can create with. Each kit comes with a set of cards and sand that you “paint” with, adding color and texture to your portrait. Now, there’s an electronic version of the kit available on iOS, which means you and your kids, or anyone, can have tons of fun – without the mess!
Sabbiarelli Sand Art for Kids is the name of the app, although I will say it does not have to be just for kids. The app is a free download and, because it’s made for kids, it’s easy to use. When you open the app you’ll see different ways to create and have fun.
To start, you can pick a card and color it. There are many to choose from and they vary in complication, so the really young tots can color the simpler pictures, while older kids can choose from more complex graphics. Simply pick the card and choose your sand pencils. There are 12 to choose from. Peel sections that you want to color with one color. Tap on a color pencil and then use your finger to fill in the areas you want to color. Peel away the next set of areas you want to fill with a different sand color, then tap on another color and do the same, until you’ve finished your picture.
Sabbiarelli makes creation your own by allowing you to control how much sand you want to apply and by allowing you to mix colors and adjust shading, so you can customize to your content.
The app does a phenomenal job of mimicking the action of peeling away sections as you would in the hardcopy version of Sabbiarelli sand art kits, so you get a pretty close experience.
Next, you can more creative by taking a selfie or a photo of something, and the app will transform it into a sand art pictures, with sections that peel away, ready for you to fill with sand. These pictures, along with the pictures provided by the app can be used in a Memory game, which is the third feature in the app.
Lastly, you can take your sand painting to the next level by challenging a friend to a sand art duel. Your aim in this game is to spread your sand on your opponent’s picture before they cover yours. There may be times when your friend “blocks” your sand, so you’ll have to swerve your stream of color around theirs to get to their picture. Fill theirs first and you win!
The beauty of the app is that you can then share your work of art. Sabbiarelli lets you frame your creation and send it. You can share over a variety of social media outlets, such as email, Facebook, Messenger, and Twitter. You can even upload it to iCloud Photo Sharing.
What would be nice is the ability to send the picture to the printer so you can have something to put up right away.
Even then, Sabbiarelli is one that will keep little ones occupied for a long time. They’ll have fun coloring, creating, dueling and exercising their minds, all without the mess!
