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 – the end result is nearly always something you will want to save!
This month’s project: Punched Metal Dry Erase Board!
DEAL: 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).
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. It’s loaded with high-quality pictures and illustrations to both give you ideas and help you along. Doodle Crate is great at providing 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, and the designers are good at anticipating areas of potential confusion or difficulty, providing suggestions and workarounds.
These are the patterns for creating your designs on the metal board.
And a few ideas!
In order to create your design, you cut it out (there were also directions for using the dot paper to make your own design), tape it down on the metal board, and use the awl to punch it out!
The assembly after punching was quick and easy (and the punching went much better than I ever expected!). There were a few orientation tips to make sure your board came out perfectly. The pen loop is built in, and you sandwich the cardboard between your two designs – you get a front and back!
My daughter & I each chose a side. She loved the idea of the speech bubble and she can create a new comic every day with it.
The metal boards get sandwiched in with a screw assembly. This project was quick and fun, but with a snazzy look that is really fun for tween and teen decor.
And my side? As soon as I saw that pineapple I had to punch it! (She loves pineapples too!). This was a ton of fun and I loved that she learned a new technique (with intense parental supervision, she’s still a bit under the typical age range for this box). There was an extra metal sheet included so you could use your best of three, too!
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