Art therapy has never been more important for our family than it has these past two years. Everyone in our household loves to make art of various types, but one of our favorites is Paint by Numbers. We recently received a kit from Craft-Ease, and it exceeded all of our expectations!
For our first Craft-Ease kit, we chose one from their Classics line: “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.” All of their kits can be purchased as a rolled kit or a framed kit. We went with the framed kit as we have been framing our own to hang around the house and wanted to save ourselves the effort this time around! The thin box (bravo for minimalist packaging) contained our framed canvas perfectly nestled inside, with the rest of the goodies secured beneath the painting.
The first thing included in the box that we noticed that put Craft-Ease ahead of the competition is multiple reference sheets to aid in painting—an almost full-sized black and white print of the painting along with a smaller, full-color reference sheet with the paint colors and numbers listed out. If you’ve ever done paint by numbers, you know that sometimes you can lose the numbers on small details as you go, so having a full-sized reference sheet of all the numbers and spaces can be crucial and is usually lacking in cheaper kits.
But not only is the packaging minimal, it also doubles as an easel and art station! We have a full-size easel setup for art, but for those who don’t, or for being able to make your painting a bit more portable, this too is a welcome upgrade! The top of the box folds over and becomes a stand for your painting, and there is also a numbered cardstock tray to organize your paints in. The paint tray is not attached so doesn’t need to stay in the box as pictured above, but it was very convenient to have all the paints, brushes, and hanging accessories safely tucked into the bottom of the box with the painting so we wouldn’t lose track of them.
The inside of the box lid also has some handy tips and instructions that are very helpful to those inexperienced with paint by numbers. I’ll admit that when I did my first paint by numbers a few months ago, I relied heavily on my wife who is an old hand at them to guide me on how best to work on the painting. These tips from Craft-Ease are spot on and would have absolutely helped me out when I started.
We’re almost done with the painting though we still have a bit left, but we are confident in proclaiming Craft-East the best quality Paint by Numbers we’ve tried. In addition to all of the aforementioned add-ons we’d come to not expect from other kits, the canvas quality is great, the printing of the painting and numbers on the canvas is crisp and clear, and the paint is wonderfully pigmented for great coverage.
One of our other favorite things about Craft-Ease is that, unlike some of the Paint by Numbers kits you can find online, Craft-Ease works with artists to license their work and also has a huge selection of original works from a variety of artists as well, and we’re already eyeing a few for our next pick. Craft-Ease also offers a wide collection of Diamond Painting kits, though we’ve not yet tried one of those, as well as the ability to turn your own photos and art into custom Paint by Numbers for a truly one-of-a-kind gift for the painting aficionado on your shopping list.
