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Darby Smart To DIY For Subscription Box Review – December 2015

Anna Rodriguez
ByAnna RodriguezDec 30, 2015 | 7 comments

Darby Smart To DIY For Subscription Box Review December 2015 - box

Darby Smart
4 overall rating
21 Ratings | 12 Reviews

Darby Smart To DIY For Box is a monthly craft subscription box for teens and adults. I have been an on-and-off subscriber for the past year or so, and I really love Darby Smart's project selections!

This box was sent to us for review purposes. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).

Darby Smart To DIY For Subscription Box Review December 2015 - inside

The Subscription Box: Darby Smart To DIY For Box

The Cost: $19

The Products: Each box will include all the craft supplies you need to complete a new DIY project.

Ships to: US only

Darby Smart To DIY For Subscription Box Review December 2015 - project

This month's project is a snow globe! I've never made one of those before!

Darby Smart To DIY For Subscription Box Review December 2015 - project-reverse

On the back of the card is a variety of ideas for different snow globes. I like that they give suggestions on where you might take your newfound crafting skill after completing the project. Conveniently, you can buy more supplies at their online shop.

FYI, Darby Smart does not include instructions in their boxes. Instead, they provide a code you can use on their website to look up the instructions. Just a note in case you have a preference, but I guess you could always print out the instructions.

Darby Smart To DIY For Subscription Box Review December 2015 - supplies

These are the materials that were included for the project. Usually, the things you have to supply yourself are things most people definitely have. I only had to supply water this month.

Darby Smart To DIY For Subscription Box Review December 2015 - snow-globe

This is my completed snow globe. Do you see any snow? Do you see the penguins or tree that are part of my winter scene? Do you notice the snowflake stickers don't lie flat on the jar? If you look closely, you can kind of see what look like Chinese throwing stars in the enlarged belly of a penguin on the right. Also, all the glue holding the scene down and together disintegrated within 12 hours so that it was just a bunch of floating stuff in a jar. Also, it leaks.

Darby Smart To DIY For Subscription Box Review December 2015 - bonus

Darby Smart sent out bonus gift tags this month. They are much appreciated!

The Verdict: This was a mammoth Christmas FAIL. I can't even go into all the problems associated with this project. I usually love Darby Smart, and I would not quit my subscription based on this project alone, but this one just didn't work. I'd like to take the blame for how it turned out, but I can't! For the first time ever, Darby Smart sent me a pretty bad project, from design through to execution. It was a fun idea, though.

What do you think of Darby Smart?

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Darby Smart To DIY For Box is a bi-monthly craft and DIY subscription box for tweens. Each box will include: all the craft supplies you need, step-by-step instructions and inspirational project photos.
Anna Rodriguez
Anna Rodriguez
Anna has been a fan of subscription boxes since joining Birchbox in 2013, but didn't become a true addict until discovering subscriptions she could share with her children. Her favorites include Kiwi Crate and Fab Kids.

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7 comments

Rachel

The comments section on their January project seems to be missing now… I hope this is not an immature way to handle the fact that so many people struggled with December. They used to have really cool boxes. /=

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Mandy

Ditto! I actually unsubbed because mine was such a colossal fail I figured I just wasn’t born to craft! This was only my second box, but the last one was fun.

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Debra

Neat!! My daughter and her girlfriend made us snow globes like this for Christmas! Not exactly like this….I think they just picked up the stuff at a craft store, but similar!

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Ann

Maybe hot glue would have worked better? I know that’s what people use on those bottles for babies filled with glitter glue.

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Amanda

I always read through the whole instructions as well as the comments at the bottom of the instruction page. People had commented about the glue, so I used some old nail polish to seal the styrofoam first. And people also commented on the stickers on the outside – DS replied and recommended to use the small stickers.
So 2 weeks later my globe is still fine. Stickers are all on, penguin and tree still standing tall. Only change is there is a bit more air in the jar than before, but it hasn’t leaked. My only complaint is that it is a bit kitchy and I will probably have to take it apart to store it.
I’m not sure what caused your problem.

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Heathery

Yeeeeaaaaah, E6000 was not a good choice lol. I use E6000 a lot, and while it’s great for plastic, wood, etc, it’s really not good for something that’s going to be continuously wet. Ah well. At least you got cute tags? lol :/

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Helen

When I saw that this month’s project was a snow globe, I thought I’d go ahead and buy the kit from Darby Smart as I’ve wanted to make one for a while.
Then I saw the result! lol. Not even the most skilled crafter could make a passable snow globe out of that kit. If it had snow rather than giant sequins you could at least see inside. I’d rather like to see Chinese throwing stars into a penguin!

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