I have a love-hate relationship with Martha. When I heard that her new line of craft products had hit the shelves at Michaels I thought I should take a look to see what all the fuss was about. There were different reviews, some thought it was fantastic, others thought it was nervy of her to waltz into the crafting scene with her own line. I wanted to form my own opinion.Her stuff is great. It is stuff that is rarely found in small-ish towns. These towns have very limited resources, but are lucky enough to have a Michael's. The products on the shelves were (I'm speculating) products that were developed to match ideas shown in her magazines and TV show. Her cute labels, boxes, adorable ribbon, and punches make it easier for the common person to pull off a "Martha" project. The price you pay for "Martha" does cost a little more.
Does this take the crafting out of Martha Stewart:Crafts? There are kits you can buy to make featured products. For $19.99 you can buy the materials (tissue paper and wire) to make 7 (3 large and 4 medium sized) of Martha's pom poms. Each pom pom requires 8 sheets of tissue paper.
Being the cheap person I am, I am think, "I can buy tissue paper and wire for less than that". So I start on my hunt for tissue paper.Conveniently located just below the pom pom kits are packages of Martha tissue paper. 6 sheets for $2.99, hmm 6 sheets? That means I will have to buy about 2 packs for every pom pom I intend to make. Or, for 7 pom poms I will need to buy 10 packs of her tissue paper (10x6=60, 10x 2.99=$29.90).
Not satisfied with that I keep looking.
My looking takes me to Target. At Target I find packs of tissue paper with 20 sheets per pack, for $1.99. I buy 3.
Here's the math:
3x1.99=$5.97
3x30=60 sheets
Now that is more like it! I am planning on using wire twist ties (which I already have) for the wire part of the pom poms.
Martha's stuff is wonderful, but I found comparable stuff--located in the same store for less money.
Stick to using her ideas, but you may want to shop around for the materials!
3 comments:
I would have liked to see some bar graphs showing the price differential of the paper. Martha does charge a lot for her name and ideas, but I would charge even more if it were my ideas and name...
We already made our own pom-poms for Deidra's party on Saturday, and they're pretty cool. I'm sure we'll have pictures after the party. We made 12 pom-poms for $2 (plus tax). Gotta love dollar stores!
I agree with so many things you said here. Grr, that Martha Stewart. Some of her products are really cool, especially for places that don't have stationary stores, ribbon stores, etc. But there is a lot of stuff that just recycles (and tries to sell) ideas that are free on her website.
Another HUGE pet-peeve of mine is the way that she uses the last 10 minutes of her show as an infomercial, trying to sell the products. When I saw the line (before the "official launch") I was really excited by the idea cards that were there. She now just recycles those ideas on her show. The creativity is GONE! It's frustrating to me, because it doesn't seem like she (let's get real, her team) is coming up with new ideas for me to steal. That bugs.
Maybe I should use my power as a share holder to bring about some change. HA!
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