My daughter has enjoyed Alex Brand craft kits. They can get expensive if you buy multiple small craft kits and this is a good value for as many crafts as you get. We have bought individual Alex Brand craft kits so we are aware of how Alex Brand organizes the crafts. They put all the pieces in a bag with a photo on the bag of what craft the pieces go with. This giant busy box is different. I read the reviews of people being frustrated that there aren't instructions for each individual craft. Hopefully what I have provided will help others with the confusion of this giant busy box.

There are 16 crafts and instructions for 5. Looks like Alex Brand provided instructions for one craft in each category (dough animals, sticker art, tissue art, paper bag puppet and farm animal collage) to show how to do each category- but not each craft individually as they do in their smaller craft kids. In this giant busy box, there are: (4) dough animals- Instructions for one; (2) sticker arts- Instructions for one.; (2) tissue art- Instructions for one; (4) paper bag puppets- Instructions for one; (4) farm animal collages- Instructions for one.
To make things organized for us, I opened the box and determined what bag or box went to which craft and I wrote with a sharpie on each bag or box what category it was for. Once my daughter chose the craft she wanted to do, I put the rest of the unopened bags and boxes back into the original box. I have provided a photo of such.

The gist is, Alex Brand provided instructions for one craft per category and assume/encourage your child to use their creativity to create the rest. I went to the Alex Brand website to see if they had additional instructions for this giant busy box and the instructions on their website are the exact instruction provided in the box. I then looked at the individual craft kits and found that you can find a craft kit box that may have the exact craft in it with the instructions on how to put it together- that the giant busy box did not provide instructions for. That is a bit time consuming, but another option as well.

Hopefully my review will help out with the confusion.

I really love this company's boxed crafts, very fun and easy for the kids to do on their own. However after throwing out half the box from previous purchases, I stopped buying them. Why did I throw them out? Because you had to dig through all of the millions of pieces to complete a project. Some of the cut outs were on one sheet and after tearing through half, the other half of the sheet it thrashed. To do one project took almost 30 minutes of digging to find all the pieces needed. However, with winter break coming up and Amazons amazing half of deal, I went ahead and bought this kit.

Wow!! So impressed. What an improvement. I was so happy to see that all the projects were so nicely separated into its own sleeves!! It also came with a colorful instructional sheet that lets us know whic sleeve to pull ad what additional pieces we need to pull from the separate box of accessories like the glue, ad what not. My just tuned four year old didn't have any problems doing the frog puppet this morning and my newly turned 2 year old finished the pizza project without my help. I wish I knew of their new packaging before the deal because I would have bought a few more as gifts. Oh well.

Even though I got it for half price, I definitely think its worth the full price. It comes out to about $2 a project and though some may not seem worth $2 in materials, if you consider the fact that they are pre-cut and ready to go, it is worth every penny.

This busy box is incredible. Alex brand toys are such quality products (no I don't get freebies or discounts from them) that every time I order something from them I know it is going to come exactly as advertised with no defects or cheap parts. This box comes LOADED with art and craft projects that will keep your kids entertained for hours. We have had this box for 4 days and my 3 1/2 year old twins boys still haven't finished all the crafts. There are a huge variety of activities- paper bag puppets, clay animals, every imaginable trinket to glue on each finished piece. Hours of entertainment at a reasobable price and I highly recommend it.
ETA- I am now using all of the art projects that my boys make from this busy box to decorate my office with. This was the best $25 I've ever spent as the art on my walls created by my sweet boys is priceless to me.

This Alex craft kit is great. There are lots of activities that will keep your child entertained. Our kit didn't include one activity shown on the box (butterfly tissue paper kit) so that did disappoint my 3 year old a bit since she really loves butterflies. However, it wasn't a huge let down as there was a star and a fish she could decorate with the tissue paper.

Some reviewers complained that the kit didn't include many instructions. However I don't think this is such a big deal. It's a "craft" kit meant to stimulate creativity. It does offer some direction for the projects and you can find many ideas on the box. Personally, I like to let my daughter create based on her own imagination. So what if she wants to include feathers on a fish and buttons as eyes? :-)

This is a great kit for rainy/snowy day activities. I love the fact that each project is individually packaged so you just remove one or two and put the rest away until next time. Younger children may need some help with the glue stick or removing stickers, so if you're looking for a project to keep them "out of your hair" this may not be it unless you have an older child to assist.

If your child loves crafts and stickers, this is the box for them.

I spent a long time figuring out what to buy my children for Christmas, and of all the art projects, this was the best. We tried a bunch of Alex arts and crafts, including the color-an-umbrella, color-a-toy, spirograph, spin-art, etc. While the Spin-art was definitely the coolest, my kids gave this one a better rating overall because it was easy, there was more variety, and they could do it anywhere in the house (i.e. no paint). I thought it was nice that they could also do something all together: no need to take turns or buy multiple copies for each.

It was larger than I thought and just one box contributes a lot. Even my slightly older children liked it. I was a little surprised because many reviewers recommended this for toddlers and preschoolers and I was trying it out on my six year old. But my 8 and 9 year old boys dove right in too. And of course my littlest one wanted in too.

You just plunk it down and there are 16 crafts in it, so there is enough for a whole morning with several children. (Or quite awhile with just one child.) Everything from just sticking stickers on a picture to paper bag puppets. Nothing fancy, but I really appreciated how all the crafts worked and looked like the ones on the box. No crazy parental involvement to get tricky parts right, or waiting several hours while glue dried, or whatever. It even included a big glue stick so you wouldn't run out halfway.

Now the directions are not so great... just a couple visuals, so a parent would have to help a preschooler. And our box seemed to include only directions for 5 of the crafts, so my kids had to look at the pictures on the box for the others. But for an average kindergartner, that's probably not a problem. And the great part is that all the craft projects come in separated bags, so as long as your little excited one doesn't rip them all open at once and dump them out (which is incredibly tempting to do since there is so much stuff in there!), you are all set.

It comes with several plastic bags with the special papers in them, four or five blobs of playdoh, stickers, a frame, and everything else required. As long as you have a pencil, you can take it with you to Grandma's or on a trip, or whatever. Like all art projects, the crafts aren't particularly durable, but they are very good quality materials. I wasn't expecting much, to be honest, but I was pleasantly surprised.