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Edited to Add: Carefree Crafts has closed their doors.
The July Carefree Crafts package arrived on the earlier side this month, but L and I were happy to see it. In fact, the day after it arrived I asked L what he wanted to do that afternoon and he replied crafts. Perfect timing! In case you aren’t familiar, Carefree Crafts is a new’ish monthly subscription service which delivers fun craft kits to your door every month (or a la carte). Carefree Crafts is perfect for preschool and elementary ages kids (aka L) ages 3-7. Subscriptions start at $12.50/month and contain five complete craft kits. Carefree Crafts knows you can go out an buy these crafts yourself, but they save you time and money by not having to run to craft store and search online!
Carefree Crafts ships via USPS First Class Mail. I live near Carefree Crafts, so it comes fast! I wish all boxes shipped out of Michigan.
Each Carefree Craft project is in it’s own individual package, so if you want to do just a few at a time, you won’t lose all the pieces to the other project.
The June Carefree Crafts theme was “Happy Birthday, USA!” and included patriotic crafts to celebrate our country’s birthday. It also included a few ways to explain the 4th of July to your kids. It kind of made me realize that yeah, L has no idea why we celebrate the 4th. We talked about it a little during the projects, but there’s more work to be done.
Color a USA Beach Ball:
The first project L worked on was the color a beach ball. When I took the picture above, I didn’t realize that there was a blue pen in the bag that I had missed. I totally thought that the thing with the blue cap was a blue pen, just a different kind. Umm, no, that’s glue.
For some reason, I had L color the beach ball before I blew it up, which I am guessing made it 10x harder?? I He’s not a huge fan of coloring in the lines anyway, so I am not sure it mattered though. He just wanted to get his hands on those fun markers. I colored the flip side of this after it was blown up and it was much easier.
Patriotic Bug Magnet:
L assigned this craft to me while he was working on the the beach ball and I was happy to help.
I think I did a pretty good job on this one and play to take it up-north to the cottage for the fridge up there. Our fridge is only magnetic on the sides, which is good since it’s never looks cluttered on the front, but bad because sometimes I do want to clutter it up with L’s art projects and stuff.
Craft Stick Flag
L saw that this project included glue and was all over it. I think this was my favorite craft of the bunch this month as well. It’s totally something we’d made here and I think we might do it again one day. Only we’ll paint the popsicle sticks ourselves. I have a year to remember to save enough, so that should be plenty of time.
When L was working on this project I thought there is no way on earth it’s going to all stay together. No way. But to my surprise, it does. It’s in one piece today and I am impressed by the strength of the glue!
Patriotic Airplane:
The Patriotic Plane was another project L assigned to me. He took a little crafting break while I worked on it. He wanted to fly the plane, but not make it.
I thought I did a pretty good job with this one. It was super easy because everything was just peel and stick!
Patriotic Windsock:
When I first saw this I didn’t realize that you were suppose to color the bottom to make it red, white and blue. LOL. I thought we just got the white variation, which doesn’t really make sense now that I think about it.
This was another of L’s projects, which was perfect for him since it was just peeling and sticking. He didn’t want to color the ends of the windsock, so we didn’t. Oh and those markers totally didn’t get everywhere. I thought they’d smear all over the ball when I touched it. Nope.
What do you think about Carefree Crafts? If you are interested in signing up you are totally in luck because they are offering you the first month for only $5.95 if you use the code “SAVE60”! How awesome is that?? If you want to sign up or learn more, click here!
I’m thinking that we’re going to have to give this one a try. My sweet boy got his BabbaBox yesterday and there were WAY too many parts and pieces and he was incredibly overwhelmed which led to a lot of frustration and tears. This seems much more simple and right up his alley.
I like the popcycle stick flag as well! The girls and I might make one next week!
I was really interested in this box for my friend’s daughters until I realized something. So I’m sure you’ve heard of Oriental Trading Company, right? Well every single one of those crafts comes from them which is why they are so nicely pre-packaged with all the materials for each project. I know you CAN buy OTC crafts individually like you are getting them in this bag for a much lower cost, but then you’d have to pay a ton in shipping because that is where OTC gets people.
My issue with Carefree Crafts is that I know that the price for all of those individual projects comes to way less than $12.95, ($5.95 for 5 individual projects when I priced them on the OTC site last month) especially since they are buying them in bulk, so more than half of the box price is going to shipping and for them to send them out to you in themed bags. I’m not a huge fan of OTC because they rarely use U.S. made products, and I was disappointed that Carefree Crafts is essentially just repackaging their stuff.
Obviously, L enjoys them which is an awesome reason to get them, but I wanted to share what I found.
Cheers,
Shauna
I have to agree with Shauna. I thought the box was a great deal until I learned it all comes from Oriental Trading. When I added up the prices of the crafts on the Oriental Trading site, it was $3.65. Not bad if you are getting the discounted box, but after that, I don’t think I can justify the $12.95. It’s too bad because the stuff is so cute, but I’d rather find a group of friends with kids and order the stuff from Oriental Trading and divide it up between us.
Carefree Crafts says they “enhance” the crafts, but I’m not sure the enhancements make it worth the cost.
Hi everyone – this is Carolyn, the founder of Carefree Crafts. I started this service because my 5-year old daughter is really into crafting. I found that the craft kits you can buy at the store were overwhelming for her age, and I didn’t have the creative time or energy to plan for and buy materials for age-appropriate craft projects.
We are big fans of Oriental Trading craft kits because they are so cute and generally easy to use. We do test several kits before we decide to add them into a monthly craft package and add additional supplies (glue dots, a easily controlled tacky glue pen, markers) and instructions where necessary. For little ones who have limited attention spans, we want to make sure you can complete the crafts quickly and not have to hunt for tools/materials.
Not all of the craft kits/supplies come from OTC and you cannot buy them for the prices stated above. July’s craft package would have cost you at least $50 plus time selecting, ordering, testing, and enhancing the craft kits and supplies.
We appreciate any and all comments. I welcome you to give us a try and join the 100’s who have already signed up – if you find it’s not for you, you can cancel after your first craft package.
Carolyn