Smart Art Subscription Box Review + Coupon – June 2016

Smart Art is a fine arts subscription service that sends a new project every month and all the supplies needed to complete it. My husband and I are both artists, so we were very happy to have the opportunity to try this box out!

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

The Subscription Box: Smart Art

The Cost: $49.99 per month with free shipping

COUPON: Use code MSA20 to save 20% off your first box

The Products: A fine arts project, complete with instructions and supplies

Ships to: US only

Good to know: It’s a different project in a different media every month, using different techniques!

Check out all of our Smart Art reviews and the Craft Subscription Box Directory!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

This month’s project was Indian block printing! I love block carving and printing, so I was happy to take this project on this month! This is the booklet that Smart Art sends every month. It includes art history related to the project, a list of the included supplies, project pointers, and instructions.

Subscribers can upload a picture of their finished project to Smart Art’s Facebook page for a chance to win a free box! That’s really cool! On the other hand, our projects usually take forever, so we always seem to miss the boat on this contest.

This is the inside of the booklet. On the left are the art history and project pointers, and on the right there’s some info on block printing plus the supply list.

The instructions are printed on the back of the booklet. They are easy enough to follow, but not so specific that they crush one’s creativity.

Here are the supplies that were included for this month’s project.

Soho Printmaking Blocks 6″x4″ 2-Pack – Value $11.95 (on sale at Jerry’s for $7.49)

Wood and Linoleum Carving Tool Set – Value $13.95 (on sale at Jerry’s for $6.99)

Speedball Water-Soluble Block Printing Ink – Value $4.55 each

Heritage Arts Rubber Brayer 4″ – Value $11.95

Strathmore Watercolor Postcards 6″x4″ – Value $12.99 (on sale at Amazon for $4.41)

This is my completed block-printed postcard! I am so happy with how it turned out! The Soho blocks were super easy to carve; they were like butter. It was a pleasure working with those blocks. The cutting tools were good, but I did so much detailed work on this design that I mainly just used the small U tool. The brayer was irritating because it got stuck and did not roll smoothly or completely, but otherwise the materials were all great. I printed six or seven of these, and I saved the rest to do a different design later. This was an enjoyable project for me!

Verdict: My husband and I are both huge fans of Smart Art! This month was super fun for me! I think I’m starting to really get into carving thanks to subscription boxes! I really like the way my little bird postcards turned out. The value of everything this month totals around $60 retail or $40 sale… I think whatever value you use, this is a subscription box with a fairly subjective value. I am happy to pay a premium to have someone else gather all the supplies for me and tell me what to do with them. I didn’t want to try the two-color prints yet (I didn’t feel ready), but I might at some later point when I figure out how that would work. Meanwhile, I have some awesome postcards. Aren’t they too pretty to subject to the post? Maybe I should just hand them out?

What do you think of Smart Art?