Adults & Crafts is a website that creates and sells really cool, unique crafting kits for adults. They recently started a subscription service for their kits!
This box was sent to us for review purposes. (Check out our review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
The Subscription Box: Adults & Crafts
The Cost: $39 per month
The Products: Materials and instructions to make one adult craft that you will (hopefully) be proud to display or use in your home
Ships to: US for free
Check out all of our Adults & Crafts reviews and the Crafts Subscription Box Directory!
Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!
Please note that I did not receive this box until December had started. Regular subscribers should expect to receive their boxes within the subscription month, but Adults and Crafts has a wonderful policy of holding off on blogger boxes until they ensure all their subscribers' orders have been fulfilled.
This month's craft is gold leaf painting! These are the instructions that were included. I like that every step is illustrated with a photo! That's so helpful!
These supplies were provided in my box. From home, I only had to provide a pencil.
Full Disclosure: I hate working with foil. The only other time I have done it was for a Darby Smart project, and it was a complete disaster. There are tons of people who love it and are brilliant with it, but I don't think I am among them. Adults & Crafts provided two project suggestions, and I chose to make the feather painting. My first step was to paint the blue and purple feathers and let them dry.
My second step was to draw in the areas that I planned to cover with gold foil. I then had to paint glue over these areas.
Then I had to apply the gold foil. I had to wait until the glue got a little dry, and then place the thin gold foil sheets over those areas. The instructions said to rub them lightly with the sponge brushes, but this made the foil tear, so I just barely went over it with my fingers. After waiting for the glue to dry, I started peeling off the unattached gold foil. It was a nightmare! I got foil EVERYWHERE. It also adhered to some spots I didn't want it to, so I had to flake those off. It also didn't adhere to some other spots I did want foiled so I had to repeat the process a few times.
This is my completed feather painting! I have to say it turned out much, much better than the last project I did with foil. The main problem I have is that there are areas where I can see my original pencil marks, but I can't erase them because it would damage the foil.
Never a quitter, I decided to try the other project suggestion from Adults & Crafts, which looked much easier. My first step was to paint the canvas black.
Adults & Crafts provided some handy templates, so I turned mine into a stencil.
I then painted the glue on over the stencil. The black background makes it much easier for you to see this step in the process. I then waited for it to dry a bit. The glue has to be right in between wet and dry, in the "tacky" stage, for the foil to adhere properly.
My last series of steps was to apply the foil, as described above. I was hoping that this big, basic design would yield cleaner lines.
This is my completed moon painting! The lines did come out much cleaner, and there are no pencil marks to conceal, so I'm happy about that. I don't really feel like it's good enough to display, though.
Verdict: I love Adults & Crafts! I don't think I hate working with foil quite as much as I did before, either. I can't say that I'm thrilled with how my projects turned out, but I'm pretty sure that's my fault, not theirs. I think this was a great project, and I'm sure many people produced gorgeous artwork with it. I just wish I was one of them!
What do you think of Adults & Crafts?
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