Outside the Box Creation is a subscription box that brings art class into your home! Each month, ignite your child's creativity with fresh art techniques to explore through a box that has been crafted by professional Art Educators and Literacy Experts. Dive into each month's curriculum delivery, complete with designed lesson plans and high quality art materials, empowering your student to craft a masterpiece. Geared towards kids ages 5-11, you can even choose the size of kit that will fit the needs of your family!
The Cost: Subscriptions start at $36.95 each month + shipping. Save on longer subscriptions!
This is a review of the art box designed for up to two kiddos.
(Check out our editorial guidelines to learn more about how we review boxes.)
First Impressions
My crew is taking over for Becca and Charlie this month with an exploration of air dry clay and a lesson in the earliest pottery techniques. The box was full of all the materials we'll need, and lined with brown paper to protect our surface. We couldn't wait to dig in!
Artist Guide
This subscription is meant to be utilized as art curriculum, and thus we have been provided with an Artist Guide. It's a fourteen-page book filled with learning objectives, tips for grown ups, content lists, digital pairings, lessons, examples, and even games! It's put together in a user-friendly way and does a great job of teaching us techniques, all while adding history, facts, and fun to art!
Art Supplies
Air Dry Clay + Modeling Clay - Estimated Retail Value $8
At the heart of this box is clay, and so we were pleased to find we were sent some bright pink clay to practice our techniques before delving into the "real deal" projects with air dry clay that would feel more permanent. The pink modeling clay was very soft and flexible, and great for creating shapes with ease. The air dry clay was firmer and functioned similar to traditional clay that we've worked with before.
Pack of 5 Clay Tools - Estimated Retail Value $12.50
What a treat to receive two sets of five useful clay tools! Actually, because each has two ends, it's really double the tools. In the guide we are taught the the names for each tool and some ideas of what they can be used for.
Acrylic Paint Pen Set - Estimated Retail Value $12.99
Another exciting new thing to keep in our art collection are these acrylic paint pens. We were drawn to the unique shades in this set, but it took some patience before we could use them on our creations. Once we did, we found ways to finesse them that worked well for us, which was a great learning experience together.
Small Plastic Cups
Part of our lesson in clay was learning how to make and use "slip." We could've sacrificed a jelly jar for this effort, but I appreciate that we were sent small cups in a manageable size for this initial effort. It made cleanup extra easy.
Ancient Egypt (Blast Back!) - Retail Value $5.99
My older daughter learned about Ancient Egypt in Kindergarten last year, and was very intrigued by the forms of writing, building, and honoring one another. It was her first exposure to formal learning about a culture very different from her own. So with that foundational knowledge she was ready to dig into the facts this book had to teach. I love that for a nonfiction book catered to children in grades 2-5, it has illustrations throughout to accompany the facts. I can see this being a book we chip away at.
Paper Supplies
Also included in this month's kit were two clay vocabulary study sheets, two worksheets that invite our young artists to create clay renditions of certain shapes and then draw them as well, and two large sheets of brown paper to keep surfaces clean.
Lesson #1: Tool & technique overview
With an organized setup for each kid, we sat down ready to learn. We began using the guide to educate ourselves about the history of clay pottery, the tools that were developed to manipulate it, and some shapes that can be made with it, many starting with rolling a piece of clay into a "snake." With these shapes there are many possibilities including using them as rims or handles, or pressing them into larger slabs for texture.
Lesson #2: Make a slab saucer
Our second lesson was to create an artful slab that would be the foundation for our soon-to-be-created pinch pots. Because the clay had to air dry before being colored with the paint pens, it doesn't look like much is happening in the photo above—though you may notice my young artists got creative with pushing some items from their pockets into their clay as decoration in addition to using the tools as directed to create designs.
Lesson #3: Make a pinch pot cup
Lesson three was the most satisfying of all: we worked with balls of clay to create small pots by indenting the ball and then pinching the edges into a cup shape. In the above photo you'll see our homemade clay slip in use, its watery substance being used to soften the clay and then eventually to add handles onto our pots.
Lesson #4: Make a custom clay tile
Similar to the saucers in the first lesson, we made custom tiles that had designs etched into them. We waited and waited for them to air dry—the guide instructed us to let the pinch pots dry upside-down for 24 hours, and then flip them and leave them for another 24 hours before painting. When the time came, we found the paint pens picked up crumbles of clay with each stroke. In time, we realized that the gentler we pressed with the paint pens, the more effectively they colored our works. Everyone was proud of what they made!
Was This Box Worth It?
The Cost: $36.95 + Shipping
Our first Outside Creation Box was a delight. Our family has spent a lot of time working with playdough both homemade and store-bought, polymer clay, and red clay. It was great giving this modeling clay and air-dry clay a try, learning how to use tools to achieve an end goal, and having the satisfaction of a dried piece of handmade pottery that didn't require a kiln. This subscription ticked the boxes of history, literacy, and art technique within a specific theme, and it was engaging for my youngest (who doesn't quite reach the minimum age suggestion for this box), my six-year-old, and me.
Value-wise, it's hard to calculate specific values of the physical items in the box because they're all proprietary. Based on similar items from Blick and Michael's, I estimate that the physical items add up to about $39.48, which exceeds the cost of the box, and that's not including the value of the guide, theme, and priceless homemade art pieces to keep. To me, this box is very much worth its cost.
More You Should Know
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? Possibly. Each month the boxes ship out on or around the 7th. If they still have boxes in stock, you will receive that box.
What do you think about Outside Creation Box?
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