For those of you that follow my blog at all, you know I am always interested in adding art to our school. Artist I am not, so anytime I can get something that is all planned out for me I am happy as a clam! Thus I was thrilled to have the opportunity to try Eye Can Art and to share our experience with you and to offer a giveaway of one of their products as well! Here is what the company has to say about it’s products:

Eye Can Art is a line of high quality art kits for artists of all ages and experience levels, designed and created by arts educators. At Eye Can Art they pride themselves on creating highly engrossing and dynamic art kits that really teach open-ended and authentic art techniques. The kits provide parents and/or care-takers with the means, methods, and materials needed to create a dynamic arts experience for students of all sorts. The kits bring quality creative play and informal education to artists aged 5 to 95, and retail for between $24 and $30.

Eye Can Art kits:
*contain high quality materials and easy to follow instructions
*have won many industry awards, including Parents’ Choice and Oppenheim Toy Portfolio
*are repeat use, and come with everything you need to do the projects (down to scissors and glue)
*are built in the USA

The kit I chose to review is called the Fabric Sun Photo Kit.

Supplies the Kit Contains:

Sun-ready cloth
Plastic plate
China marker
Backing board
Hemming tape
Ribbon
Instructions

Cost:
$30

 

How We Used Our Eye Can Art Kit:

To begin with the art kit came with all the essentials to do the project.  All we needed to do was add some fun objects that would create a shadow on the fabric.  My kids chose things like a stick, grass, leaves, pom poms, a horse figure, and coins.  I had each of my 3 children (ages 13,10,6) do 3 blocks each.  What I loved was how each one of their personalities and interests came out in their blocks.

After gathering supplies and reading the directions, the first thing to do was create your image.  The kids started by using the enclosed pencil to draw a border for their block.  They then added designs with the pencil and finally placed their objects.

Our project turned into a nice wall hanging and keepsake of where the kids are at, and what they love at this point in their lives.

While the supplies are included in the kit, I found this difficult to do with multiple children because there was only 1 pencil, and one block template board, therefore you could only create the blocks one at a time.  We sped the process up a little by making a square on a piece of paper that was the same size as the block template.  That way when one was finished with the pencil, they could pass it on to the next child.  As you can see in the photo below some of our blocks are on a hard plastic stencil (that was our make shift board).

After completing their designs, we clipped them to the boards and set out into the sun to create our images.  We had good bright sun (unusual for early spring in NY) so we timed each one for 10 minutes and then checked them.  Obviously the items that were less porous made a more distinct imprint (like the horse and the coins).

Once we felt the sun shadow was dark enough we brought the boards inside out of the sun, removed all the objects, and set them out to dry.  The left image is while they were still wet, and the right is after they had all dried.

After they were dry I took over to do the ironing and and hemming tape.  While ironing I noticed that the heat from the iron changed the color on some of the squares, in particular the 3 that we different colors from the rest so I had to be careful to really keep the iron only on the hemming tape.

The other thing I found and was disappointed about was that after all the thought and care the kids put into their borders that were such a big part of the process, most of them were cut off.  The fabric squares were not big enough to accommodate both the border and the hemming tape.  I would suggest creating your boarder inside the template square to help ensure that you don’t lose any of it in the finishing of the project.

The Bottom Line:

Eye Can Art kits come completely ready to use, and our was fun and engaging for all ages in our home, from the teenager down to our 6 year old!  The instructions are clear, and the activities are complete, right down to finishing details.  These kits make trying these activities easy and inexpensive as you don’t have to buy large quantities of each thing to complete the art, instead the needed amount of supplies are included for one reasonable price!

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Disclosure: I received Eye Can Art’s Sun Photo Kit for free in exchange for reviewing it on my blog. While I received it free of charge in exchange for my review (positive or negative), my opinions are my own, and have not been influenced in any way. I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

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Giveaway!!

{Note: Giveaway is open to U.S residents age 18 and over}
You Can Win Your Own Eye Can Art Kit: To enter the drawing go to the Eye Can Art website and pick which of the 8 kits you would like to win.  Then come back here and leave a comment telling me what kit you would like and why. **You MUST do this entry to be entered!**

You can earn additional chances by:

1. Subscribing to Starts At Eight via Networked Blogs or Google + in the right sidebar (then tell me, “I subscribe to Starts At Eight via Networked Blogs and or Google +” in the comments)

2. Follow Starts At Eight on Pinterest (leave your Pinterest name along with, “I follow Starts At Eight on Pinterest” in the comments)

3. Like Starts At Eight on Facebook (leave your Facebook name along with, “I like Starts At Eight on FB” in the comments)

4. Like Eye Can Art on Facebook (leave your Facebook name along with, “I like Eye Can Art on FB” in the comments)

5. Follow Starts At Eight on Twitter (leave your Twitter name along with “I follow Starts At Eight on Twitter” in the comments)

6. Follow Eye Can Art on Twitter (leave your Twitter name along with “I follow Eye Can Art on Twitter” in the comments)

7. Tweet about this giveaway (you can do this once each day of the giveaway for a total of 11 entries).  For each tweet come back and enter the tweet url here in the comments.

Here is a sample tweet you can cut and paste (or simply click the tweet button in the share bar below):  I entered to win an #art kit from @eyecanart & @startsateight http://wp.me/pIm0Q-476

8. Post about this giveaway on Facebook (you can do this once each day of the giveaway for a total of 11 entries). For each post come back and post the FB url here in the comments.

***Be sure to leave a comment for each additional entry.  Your comment is your entry.***

The drawing will close on Sunday, June 23rd, 2013. I will then draw a winner using the WordPress Plug-In – “And The Winner Is”. I will contact the winner via e-mail, so please be sure to use a valid e-mail address when leaving your comments.

Giveaway is Closed. And the winner is……

Patrick C!!