Customer Reviews

Rose Art Smart! Easel

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Well my daughter is a drawing nut. So I knew she would love this and so far she does. The drawbacks are the drawing board is pretty flexable. I was excited for the dry erase board since my daughter loves those things well I pull it out of the box and it's in 2 peices. You clip the board together and there is a line, bump right down the middle. So when you draw you go over a bump. It doesn't line up without having a lip on it. If I would have seen this in the pictures and video I would not have purchased this easel. To be honest I'm quite disappointed luckily she doesn't seem to annoyed with it yet!

Our 5 year old loves it and went through the included roll of paper in a few days. As I type this review, Amazon is offering a bundle that includes 18" easel paper rolls. 18" rolls will not fit on this easel! You need 14" which I am not finding very easily.

Our kids and their friends have a lot of fun with this easel. I bought it with an "EXPO dry erase system" that fits nicely into the pouch beneath the easel, so they have extra pens, an eraser and some spray to make cleaning the white board easier. The product was fairly easy and intuitive to set up, though the instructions leave a lot to be desired (24 photo illustrations with no accompanying text).

The main drawbacks:
* The pouch beneath the easel is a lot more shallow than the pictures would indicate. There's only about an inch and a half to two inches of "lip", so our kids can't store many of their drawings there, like I'd intended. You could get a small plastic bucket for the space to hold items to make it more useful.

* The pens tend to fall out of the elastic holders on the easel's two side wings. As I mentioned, I got them an EXPO set that stores nicely under the easel. Our kids haven't utilized these side wings much at all or this would be more of a problem.

* The kids' only complaint is that the dry erase board is hard to clean. You'll need some spray to help with that.

* The seam down the middle of the white board is a bit annoying, as other reviewers have mentioned. Oddly our kids (8 and 12) don't seem to mind that much. Of course when they draw on the paper the seam appears in those pictures, too. If you think your child will not like this, definitely buy a different easel.

Redesign suggestions for RoseArt:
1) Add more fabric to the front section of the pouch beneath the easel to make the space more functional.
2) Make the white board a solid piece and give it its own carrying case. It wouldn't add to the overall weight, and the money spent on a little extra fabric and a different shipping container might be saved by not having to machine apart the two pieces. I'd be willing to pay a couple of extra bucks to fix this, which is really the biggest flaw of the product.
3) Take a few minutes and have someone come up with better assembly instructions. My husband and I are pretty bright but got stuck partway through because the next step was not very clear.

My daughters received this for Christmas and have finished off the roll of paper. Now I cannot find the refills...they are 14 inches. It is a neat easel with lots of pockets for storage of crayons, markers and paints. Folds up really nice too. There is another downfall though, the board is 2 pieces, and they do not meet evenly when put together, so this creates an uneven drawing surface.

I bought this for my 3yr son this summer. I came here to shop for paper refills. I saw lots of other parents weren't able to easily find refills. I went to RoseArt website & got their number. Customer service sent me an order form. Seems Walmart was to carry refills but they are not in all their stores. 30ft roll costs $3.99 plus $3.50 s&h for EACH roll. A bit pricey but much better than nothing. Hope this helps the other parents looking. !
Mega Brands America, Inc.
1-800-272-9667

The assembly was difficult because the metal was bent and warped. Once assembled, it did not sit level. The canvas pieces weren't large enough to be attached as directed, the velcro kept popping open due to the strain. The hard surface that the child will draw/paint on is actually 2 pieces that lock together, making every piece of artwork have a nice bump/groove/line where a marker might pass over it. Lastly, you have to break down almost all the assembly to get this thing folded up.

A waste of money, time, and raw materials! I returned mine. Even $[...] is too much to pay for this headache and it's marketed for $[...] +. Skip this one!

This is such a great toy. I like that you can fold it up and store it under a bed or take it with you. Although it is cold, my daughter insisted on setting it up outside so she could draw the landscape.

This is a nice easel, but it requires 15" paper roll. I have not had any luck yet finding a 15" roll that will fit the easel.

Great easel, love the set up and perfect fun for my 5 year old. I didn't order extra paper thinking I could do that later. Now I have been spending time trying to find a replacement roll of paper. Kind of seems odd that you are prompted to order 18" rolls as replacements below the easel picture and it seems easy and all.. BUT they do NOT fit! 14" rolls are required. 18" and 15" does not fit.
A bit frustrating.

This is more of an informational blurb for all of those people who can't find paper refills for this easel. I found on line a roll thats 12"x 200ft for about $10. Now its slightly smaller than the original rolls width but it works really well and is defiantly better than nothing at all.
I found it on Discount School Supplies.com search 12"x200ft paper rolls and you'll see it on the second page for $[...]
Sorry for the previous link that didn't show.

Hope this has helped