Kelly Kits Review

     When looking into the new year, it's always a good idea to set some goals on how you would like this new year to be different.  Usually people wish to lose weight or read X amount of books, step out of their shell a little or maybe learn to do something new.  Maybe your plans are bigger, maybe you would like to go to college, start a family, or finally buy that forever home.  Or maybe you wanna go small and just vow to cut down on soda or set up a paper organizing system and actually stick to it.
     One of my goals for the new year is to spend more time being actively involved with my kids.  Now, I am a stay-at-home mom, so my kids and I spend all day together.  Sometimes by the end of the day, I am so frustrated or just downright angry that the idea of sitting together for a bedtime story or a movie makes me wanna crawl under a rock!  This is where I need to be proactive.  One of my goals is to just get over myself and however I am feeling and just read the book, watch the movie, put on that puppet play or play that game... just do things WITH my kids, not just for my kids.

     Kelly Kits is a subscription service that delivers a craft to your door once a month.  It supplies everything you need.  If you need a pencil, they will send one even if they are pretty sure you have one already.  November's Kelly Kit was all about Mosaics.  In the kit, we received 4 pieces of black cardstock, a glue stick (thank you!) and a pencil, along with a bunch of double sided paper squares.  Our project was to take these squares and choose 4 colors to work with and create a masterpiece.  There were more guidelines than just that, including video through the Kelly Kits members section of the site, but that was the basic idea.
     The Big One had trouble with her sisters constantly wrecking her mosaic and got frustrated with it.  She will try again soon with The Punk who was next door at Nanny's.  The Streaker decided that she was going to copy mine, which was a very simple design... because apparently, though I rock the photoshop, I am no good at pixelated imagery.  Who knew?  So we both filled only half the space on the card and did a diagonal design.  Mine is made of single rows of various colors while her colors are in every which pattern in four coordinating colors.  We will later laminate them all and and use them as coasters :)

     What I loved most about the Kelly Kit was that it gave lots of information on mosaics themselves, or as The Big One can't stop calling them, "Mosaks".  Want in on some of that info?  Sure you do:

• A mosaic is a picture or a pattern produced by arranging small colored pieces of material such as stone, tile, glass, shell, etc.
•  The oldest known examples of mosaics are pebble floors found in the Anatolian region of Turkey dating from circa 700 B.C.
• Mosaic artwork has always adorned public spaces in cities and churches. Mosaic artists are often commissioned to create a meaningful or symbolic artwork that the community can admire and enjoy. A mosaic could be on a wall or a floor. Does your city have a public mosaic artwork? Because these public works of art are made of such durable hard materials, they can last for centuries!
• Visit the AMP Gallery at www.americanmosaics.org for a look at some inspiring modern day mosaic artwork.

     And although I truly stink at mosaic work, I do fully appreciate the skill and talent involved in making them.  Check out this mosaic done on the front steps at the local library that was unveiled last month:

     It was fun watching it all happen from the sketching of the design to the finished piece.  What a beauty!
     Kelly Kits offers a free Kelly Kit to anyone who wished to try it out, just pay shipping of $2.49.  But if you wish to continue receiving them after the first month, kits are $9.99 plus shipping per month.  Just become a fan on their Facebook page to receive your free kit code, then go to their site to claim it, easy peasy.
     What's your favorite kind of art? 

Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.