Doodle Crate Subscription Box Review & Coupon – Watercolor Painting

January’s Doodle Crate had us exploring the fabulous world of watercolor painting!  Doodle Crate is a member of the KiwiCo family geared toward kids 9+.   It inspires young makers to learn new skills and gain creative confidence through craft and art projects, but it is also excellent for anyone (even adults) wanting a craft subscription. It’s not just another craft project every month – it’s a primer teaching the basic and intermediate techniques of a new artistic medium each month. In my experience, this is the best “arts and crafts” box for older kids, tweens, teens, and adults.  It’s also not just for girls – it’s gender neutral, and boys love it too.

This box didn’t require an abundance of materials, as the paint set is pretty compact.  The main project is creating a free-standing watercolor calendar.

It comes with everything you need to complete the project, except for a few basic items from your home (we grabbed some water and paper towels to rinse our brushes).

Every crate comes with a booklet — they recently updated the format from a fold-out pamphlet to a true, staple-bound booklet.  The booklet has excellent, textbook quality background on the history of the technique, along with illustrations showing it in use.  Doodle Crate is great at giving some perspective and inspiration for their projects.

The instructions are clear and easy to follow and broken down step by step, and my daughter reads every step before we begin.

The basic concept of painting with watercolor is simple, but there are several techniques that can be used to create magnificent effects and transitions.  

Sometimes extension ideas are included in the booklet.  In this case, one of the seven painting techniques showcased in the booklet suggested using salt to create a mottled appearance.

Our daughter took to it quickly, and she insisted on continuing until she had painted a picture for every month.

Her lovely paintings, in no particular order whatsoever.  She used the saltwash technique on the January sheet (upper left), and a combination of flat and wet washes for the rest, such as March (lower right).

The calendar theme was a superb way to organize this technique exploration.  It gave inspiration and required several separate compositions and opportunities for trying each technique — plus, it provided an excellent way to store and display the finished work.  We think that the resulting projects are keepable, giftable, and high-quality, and that the techniques are appropriate and well-suited for the 9-16+ target age range.

Visit Doodle Crate to subscribe or find out more!  Save 30% on your first month with coupon code HELLO50  (or Kiwi Crate  and the KiwiCo family subscriptions Tinker Crate and Koala Crate).