Mailiens

Welcome to a guest post by the Fairy and the Frog's Papa.

This week the family has been on a 'glamping' holiday. We weren't sure what the weather would be like so we wanted to take a range of actives just in case we couldn't play outside (fortunately the weather was good, but still it's good to be prepared!) So I set myself the task of finding an activity that I could run. Enter the “Mailiens” by an ebay based company called Seaside Sauce.

I've always been fascinated by papercraft. For those of you not familiar with this hobby it ranges from sticking paper figures to lollipops all the way up to airfix with paper. If you have a moment to spare I recommend inspecting the wonderful automata designed by Rob Ives over at flying-pig. However I needed something simple and aimed at children. In the end I opted for Mailiens. Each of these fun monsters comes on a postcard hence the name. They make a cube with stubby legs which can be assembled with a minimum of cutting and sticking. The thing I really loved about them though was the comic style art and the cheeky sense of humour e.g. the safety warnings.

Little hands got to work after picking their favourite Mailien. I cut around the tricky tabs and then gave the Fairy free reign to cut out the rest.

So popular were the Mailiens that by the time we had completed the first one we found ourselves surrounded by other campers children volunteering their services to create more! In the end we carefully cut and made three between us.

I have one more reason for loving these odd little creations. These Mailiens are produced and sold by an ebay company called Seaside Sauce run by a very helpful fellow called Gary Worsnop. I contacted him beacuse the first batch of postcards I received were mat (as opposed to glossy). This made them easier to cut out but I was concerned as to how well they would survive if actually used as post cards. Gary immediately replied to my message. He thanked me for the feedback, sent me a free set of Mailiens printed on glossy and included a new design they were planing on selling. So there you have it. Great fun and good customer service. Who could ask for more!

FYI. This isn’t a sponsored post. I’m just not skilled enough to design my own aliens and I just love good customer service