Paletteful Packs is a carefully-themed selection of art supplies for artists of every skill level and all ages. Every box will include a variety of media. Products include paint, pens, pencils, brushes, markers, and more! There are 3 different pack options including:
- Petite Pack: 4+ artist quality supplies per box for $24.95/month
- Premier Pack: 5+ artist quality supplies per box for $35.95/month
- Young Artist: for ages 8 and up, 4+ items per box for $30.95/month
This review is for the $35.95/month Premier Pack.
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review processes post to learn more about how we review boxes)
About Paletteful Packs
The Subscription Box: Paletteful Packs
The Cost: $35.95 per month + free shipping (save with longer commitments)
ACTIVE DEAL: Save 10% off your first box!
CODE: FIRSTMONTH10
The Products: Carefully-selected art supplies provided to create a unique project
Ships to: The US for free, Canada for $10, and International for $15
Paletteful Packs December 2020 Review
The December Paletteful Packs Premier box included all of the supplies to paint three canvas panels: 8" X 10", 6" X 12", and 5" X 7" in Golden Heavy Body Acrylics.
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Each month we receive a postcard listing all of the month's contents, along with tips, tricks, and techniques. The opposing side also includes the prompts for the month. This month's prompts are: library, everyday object, storm, and texture. I love following their social media platforms to see what subscribers come up with!
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5-Piece Golden Heavy Body Acrylic Paint Set - Buy the 6-piece introductory set for $21.11
Check out these professional-looking acrylic paint tubes! I am loving the screw-on caps and the capability to squeeze every last drop out of these tubes with little to no mess. I am definitely more comfortable with watercolors than any other type of paint, so receiving these got me a little nervous. While I use Apple Barrel acrylic paints for at-home crafts and kid projects, I have never ventured out and bought anything of this quality. I can tell you straight up that these are wayyyy more smooth and buttery feeling than any other acrylic I have ever used. I have used oil paints in the past, and to me, this felt a lot like that over traditional acrylics. I was happy to see these colors offer excellent permanency and lightfastness, but was a little bummed to not receive the entire introductory set. We received benzimidazolone yellow medium, naphthol red light, ultramarine blue, permanent green light, and titanium white. The introductory set comes with those five colors, plus black. The fact that these paints are fast-drying, and can be manipulated to look like oils had me intrigued...but still nervous! Check out below to see what I came up with...
The fact that each tube of paint included a fresh swatch on the label was really impressive! And look at this...the paint out of the tube looks EXACTLY like the swatch...now that is pigment!
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Golden Gloss Medium 2 oz. - Buy an 8 oz. container for $11.89
In conjunction with the acrylics, we received the Golden brand gloss medium. This medium is useful for creating glazes, extending colors, and enhancing gloss and translucency. It was easy to use and really helped a little paint go a long way!
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Robert Simmons E57 Angle Shader Brush - Retail Value - $13.77
Robert Simmons brushes are amazing. This professional artist brush is hand-crimped into seamless, 22-karat gold plated ferrules and has a beechwood handle. It is comfortable to use, with a soft feel of synthetic fibers. You can tell the quality when you pick up the paint and how beautifully it applies. I will take all of the Robert Simmons brushes I can get my hands on!
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Art Alternatives Palette Knife Set - Retail Value $7.17
These plastic knives can be used to mix and apply acrylic paint and manipulate texture. I also learned that it can be used for scraping and cleaning unused paint after a painting session....why didn't I figure this out in my college oil painting class?! Anyways...I remember watching Bob Ross videos where he would do paintings with just a knife similar to this, and after toying around for a little while, I decided to use these for cleaning and leave painting with it to the masters. Fun inclusion though!
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Art Alternatives Canvas Panels - Listed Value $8.17
These canvas panels are made with unbleached 3 oz. cotton and are primed with acid-free acrylic titanium gesso. We received an 8" X 10", 6" X 12", and 5" X 7" canvas panel that was wrapped in plastic for protection. I love the variety of sizes they sent!
Project #1: Rose Abstract
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Like I said above, I get completely anxious when it comes to acrylics and oil paints because I just don't feel comfortable with them, and I feel they are a lot more time consuming than watercolor. I have admired many Pinterest acrylic tutorials, posting them to my "Want to Learn" board where they have sat unused. I browsed through the videos a bit, discovering that you pretty much just need to jump right in. As you can see my panel started out yellow and ended up green....truth be told, I switched gears and went from painting a hummingbird to some abstract roses. Whoops! I didn't get a lot of progress photos as I was using my phone to look up helpful hints and videos, with not much luck. My painting transpired into an abstract version of one of the antique plates I have in my living room that I received from my grandma last Christmas. Because this Christmas will be my first one without her, I wanted to do something in her memory. Using all of the provided tools (except the knives) I created this interesting looking piece. As you can probably tell, I don't know what I'm doing with these paints and I just went with the flow. Turns out my mom loves this and is putting it up in her living room...I think she's just being nice!
Project #2: More Roses
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After my first project, I decided to watch some more tutorials and try, try again, this time using the 6" X 12" canvas panel. As you can see in the first picture, I sketched out my roses before I started painting, and didn't paint my background first. I had a plan, but I'm not sure if I really knew what that was. Mixing the red, white, and yellow I created the peachy pink colors to create my three roses and added whites and reds to define the petals. Again, I didn't quite know what I was doing, even after watching hours worth of tutorials, and I finally shut everything off and painted on my own. I decided I wanted a light yellow background so I added that last with a thick hand for extra texture. For some reason, I'm obsessed with little dots on paintings, so I went ahead and added those, finally calling it a day. While I was a little disappointed with my finished projects (because they looked NOTHING like I imagined they would) Hank and Charlie told me they thought they were beautiful, and to me, that's all that really matters.
The Verdict: Paletteful Packs, definitely took me out of my comfort zone this month! I love art and creating, but struggle with acrylic as a medium. When I received the 3 canvas panels, I was super nervous to screw them up, but soon realized it's more about the process than the finished project. Creating art isn't all about a beautiful painting, it's about learning that it's okay to dive in, but it's okay to go slow too, there are no mistakes, and most of all: enjoy yourself and have fun. Even though this month's curation terrified me, I learned a lot and did have a lot of fun. I can't wait to see what next month will bring!
This subscription costs $35.95 a month. The listed value on the website's content card came to $56.05. I was able to find most of these supplies (or close versions) online for about $47.11 which is over $10 more than the subscription cost! If you are into trying high-quality art supplies and new techniques, I highly suggest this box!
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, you'll receive the January box.
Please note that we have a cutoff date of the last day of every month to order the box for the coming month. For example, a box ordered Oct. 1-Oct. 31st would be for the November box. Boxes will ship around the 1st of each month.
ACTIVE DEAL: Save 10% off your first box!
CODE: FIRSTMONTH10
Value Breakdown: At $35.95 for the box including 7 unique items, you’re paying approximately $5.13 per item.
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What did you think of the Paletteful Packs December box? What would you create?
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