Proofs for painting kits arrived from Moo!

Here's the package unboxed. 50 cards, 36 unique patterns

When Gallery A3 recommended we make our own art business cards for an upcoming art show, I had a batch of art cards made by the website, Moo. I am not sure why, but I chose a square format with non-rounded edges. These came out great! During setting up the cards online, I learned that Moo not only retains the project for future printing, but each run of prints can be unique on one side of the card for the full limit of the run.

As I reveled in the initial results, and how thick and sturdy they are, it dawned on me the possibility of making more paint-by-number puzzles at this business card size (2.56" x 2.56" ). I could sell these as kits in the gallery, a museum, or use these as part of a forthcoming interactive exhibit. It would be a couple of months before I'd have the time to complete the patterning labels and numbering in the computer, and then many careful hours of cropping the larger image into smaller regular individual digital files for upload on the website, and then several days waiting for the printing and shipping.

It's looking like I am on the right track. Following this hunch as been totally worth the investment of R&D (research and development). Below are some images from today's unboxing. It does appear that the edges did become a little bit truncated in the printing process; the other option was to print these with white borders, and I don't think that would fare so well visually.

Now to play with these and see how they handle different media and treatments such as pen, pencil, gesso, magnets, Velcro, and varnish. I may do a couple more runs of these to fully explore the options.

As I gently pulled open the seal, I held my breath and then gasped in delight at the results. Thank you Moo! Once again, you did not disappoint. I am excited to see where this leads!

Each tile, has a unique pattern with numbers to fill in, like a paint by number

Due to limitations of printing, only the fronts can be unique. Reassembling the tiles is a task in itself.

Fully assembled set of tiles, with pencil for reference.

original run of art business cards from April/ May 2025