Doodle Crate, by KiwiCo, is a subscription box targeted to older children, aged 9-16 that delivers a monthly art project. They describe themselves as a “studio for hands-on creativity delivered every month" and they're one of our favorite art boxes for kids!
KiwiCo offers boxes for different age groups:
- Panda Crate for 0-24-month-olds,
- Koala Crate for 2-4-year-olds,
- Kiwi Crate for 5-8-year-olds,
- Atlas Crate for 6-11-year-olds,
- Doodle Crate and Tinker Crate for 9-16+-year-olds,
- Eureka Crate and Maker Crate for ages 14 and up.
There really is something for every age with this company!
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out our review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About Doodle Crate
The Subscription Box: Doodle Crate
The Cost: $19.95 per month. Save with longer subscriptions.
ACTIVE DEAL: Save 50% off your first box. No coupon needed - just use this link.
The Products: Instructions and supplies for children aged 9-16 to create one new art project each month.
Ships to: The U.S. for free, Canada for $3.95 per month, worldwide from $4.95-$6.95.
KiwiCo Doodle Crate Message Machine Review
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Our project this month was to make a message machine and practice hand lettering our own messages to go along with it. Our booklet included some instructions for assembling our message machine and also a lot of helpful tips and guidance on how to hand letter. There were several practice pages for us to work on as well.
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They provided some wooden pieces, plastic rods, glue, a globe, and some small plastic capsules to put our messages in.
Part 1: Assemble the Machine
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The first step was to build our message machine. This was just a matter of stacking the pieces, using a pencil to mark where the glue should go, and then gluing and layering them in the right order making sure the holes lined up.
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I added the circular piece and used the plastic rods in the holes to hold it all together. This got set aside to try until the next day.
Part 2: Practice Lettering
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For our messages, they provided this great chisel-tip pen and some paper strips. I love how they are all brightly colored and already perforated making it easy to tear each strip off!
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Now it was time to get some practice in while my machine was drying. I actually have a friend who is amazing at lettering and even took one of his Crayligraphy courses where he taught us how to letter with markers. By comparison, I thought that Doodle Crate did a nice job of teaching some of the basics and making it easy to get the lettering concept down. While it was not quite as extensive, it served as a great introduction to the idea of hand lettering, which is truly an art form...and not one that I am very talented in. I thought some of my practice strokes turned out okay and I was grateful for all of the pages worth of practice. They even provided extra practice sheets we could print out if we visit their website, which I think is pretty awesome! They also encouraged us to find more resources online for learning other lettering styles.
Part 3: Create Your Messages
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The hardest part was coming up with what to write on our messages! They provided 10 capsules, so I wrote 10 different notes for my kids on them. These are not my finest lettering, but some of them turned out better than others and I still had fun with it!
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Once the message was written I folded the paper in half and rolled it up to place inside the capsule. I added all of my messages to my globe in preparation for my machine which would be ready the next day.
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Here is my finished machine. The globe just sort of sits in the top snugly and then you spin the circular disc to get the capsules out. It doesn't work smoothly every time and we had to shake the globe around a bit to get the capsules out, but my kids still loved it and thought it was cool! I think I could even use it in our homeschool room and add some sight words or activities to it. Really, it could be used for anything!
My son was excited to test it out the next day and read a nice handwritten note from mommy!
Verdict: I really love the range of projects and art concepts that Doodle Crate explores each month. The concepts and ideas are so creative and this was a fun way to introduce the idea of hand lettering. The only thing that I probably would have added to this project was maybe some paint or some way to decorate our message machine and personalize it a bit more! I did appreciate how simple the build was and I think it's a cute machine that can be used in a variety of ways. My kids thought it was cool and I enjoyed getting to practice some lettering. Overall, another great box!
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? It is possible you might get this crate, but it is not a guarantee. From KiwiCo:
Crates are assigned each month based on availability and your crate history – not all subscribers receive the same theme each month.
ACTIVE DEAL: Save 50% off your first box. No coupon needed - just use this link.
Check out all of our Doodle Crate reviews and the best subscription boxes for tweens and teens!
Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!
What do you think of the Doodle Crate project?
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