WhimseyBox

And now for something completely different!

I'm a bit of a craft geek. I love to try new things and tinker and fiddle with them. When a fellow Tweeter mentioned subscription boxes, I was intrigued but not totally sold on the idea. I mean, I love getting stuff in the mail and getting surprise stuff would be awesome but... I'm not a girly-girl. I buy my make up at Walmart and sometimes have to throw it away due to the expiration date without even opening it. I like a wash-and-go hairstyle. My only girly thing is I get my nails done but that's more to break me of the evil habit of biting than anything else. So, when the majority of the subscription boxes turned out to be samples of make up, perfume, or something similar, I thought it sounded swell but wasn't for me. 

And then I found WhimseyBox.

According to their site:

Whimseybox is the original subscription for DIY and craft lovers. Every month we ship our subscribers a box with craft projects along with a project idea. We are also an online community where anyone can discover, learn and share the best in DIY and craft. 

I had just cancelled my MMO membership so I had a bit of left-over fluffy entertainment money floating around the budget. At only $15 (which includes shipping), WhimseyBox cost the same as the MMO that I hadn't played in over five months. Win-Win in my books!

Now, what do you get? Well, it's different every month or so I'm told. I've only gotten the first one so I don't know how they do every month. This month was nifty (yes, nifty is a word) and I have the pictures to prove it!

First, the shipper -

 
The card laying on the right is a military ID which is the same size as most standard credit cards or American driver's license. It's there for size. The box was bigger than I expected and I wondered how much was padding.

Then I opened it to get to the shiny box inside -

There wasn't any padding! The interior box was only slightly smaller than the shipper (as seen by the ever-present ID card). It's a nice, sturdy cardboard box that closes with velcro at the front and has a small label section on the back. They're good for storage or so I'm told.

Ta-Da! The pretty wrapping -

 
Pretty blue paper and a pretty ribbon hide the goodies. There was a card on top that says "Creativity is a drug I cannot live without" on the front and has tips and URLs to instructional videos on the back geared towards the items in the box. Sweet!

And finally...the goodies -

Not bad at all! The theme, I suppose, is block printing and you're supplied with everything you need to give it a go. A piece of linoleum/carving material with a single carving tool, some block printing ink, a palette knife, two sizes of gift tags and some really nice blank cards with envelopes. The stickers that came with the set say "Stop Pinning Start Crafting" which I found immensely humorous since WhimseyBox has a Pinterest board.

Still, I was quite pleased with the contents even though I've carved my own rubber stamps for years. One can never have too much carving material or too many carvers. What I haven't tried, though, is actual block printing with the proper ink so here's my chance. Which is what I was looking for in a arts & crafts subscription box.

Definitely going to maintain the subscription for next month to see if the quality remains the same.