Doodle Crate Subscription Box Review & Coupon – Faux Leather Portfolio!

Of the several boxes within the KiwiCo family, Doodle Crate is the most likely to leave you with a keepable and displayable piece of art!  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 by teaching them basic and intermediate techniques of a new artistic medium each month.

Though geared toward kids, Doodle Crate is gender neutral and also excellent for anyone (even adults) wanting a craft subscription.  In our experience, this is the best “arts and crafts” box for older kids, tweens, teens, and adults.

This month’s project: a faux leather protfolio!  Every crate comes with everything you need to complete the project (except for a few basic items from your home), as well as a booklet.  Doodle Crate tends to focus on a single craft and contains only what you’ll need for the project.

The booklet has excellent, textbook quality background on the subject matter of the project.  The booklet is loaded with high-quality pictures and illustrations to both give you ideas and help you along.  Doodle Crate is great at giving some perspective and inspiration for their projects.

The booklet walks through the project step-by-step in great detail.  There are lots of pointers and helpful tips located throughout the booklet, and the designers are good at anticipating areas of potential confusion or difficulty, providing suggestions and work-arounds.

Like many Doodle Crate projects, this one has some templates and project suggestions, but it also leaves room for a lot of creativity.

All the materials in this Doodle Crate project!

We got right to work assembling the project. This one was a little different in terms of choices – my daughter had to choose which color to have on the outside for both the portfolio & the pocket (blue or brown) and the color of waxed thread to assemble them. She chose the brown exterior (she liked the texture) and a contrasting blue.  She’s younger than the recommended age, and enjoyed learning the word “faux” too!

She did a great job sewing up this project, which was relatively quick & easy. The waxed cord came with aglets (also a new word for her – they’re the ends of shoelaces), so no needle was required. Mom (that’s me!) adjusted the final tension on the stitches and dad made the knots – older children could do 100% of the project themselves. She selected a pattern for the studs, which were just standard brads, and artfully adjust a few to be diamonds, as suggested in the project.

You can see the back of the brads on the envelope. The project came with a sketchbook, which she delightedly remarked how much she loved it because it was blank!

We had a great time making this project as a family.

Visit Doodle Crate to subscribe or find out more!  Use this link to save 30% on your first month of Doodle Crate!  (or Kiwi Crate and the KiwiCo family subscriptions Tinker Crate and Koala Crate).