A new Michaels craft shop opened down the road from my house last night, and I went to check it out. Much to my delight, they had the new Martha Stewart Craft line in stock. I had been looking forward to see what was on offer, and the verdict? Well, it’s mixed. Everything is beautiful, as you would expect, and also very pricey – this was to be expected as well. The range is mainly focused on papercrafts, with scrapbooking items, food packaging and craft kits. The things I loved about the products on offer were the colours – beautiful and muted. I bought a few spools of ribbon in colours I had been looking for – beautiful corals, teals and greys – all toned down a notch. Lovely! There were also lots of nice papers, cards and tags in these gorgeous colourways. Even the craft tools – scissors, rotary trimmers, punches, etc. – were in a lovely dove grey tone. A nice change from the bright orange tools you often see in other ranges.
The disappointments mainly had to do with price. She had some gorgeous linen storage boxes for ribbon that would hold about 6 – 8 spools, but at $24.95 each, I could never afford to switch my huge collection over. The craft kits would look very familiar to regular readers of the magazine – I had seen them all in previous issues, projects like the tissue paper flowers - an image of one I made is above - were packaged up in kits with the pieces pre-cut at a price of around $15. To assemble the materials you would need to do the project would cost much less, and having all the items pre-cut is taking away half the fun. But, I guess if you aren’t particularly crafty, or are short on time (and have lots of cash!) the kits could be an option.
To coincide with the new product range, Martha is launching a crafts website in May. You can register to be notified when it goes live, and to get regular updates. I, for one, have already signed up.
The disappointments mainly had to do with price. She had some gorgeous linen storage boxes for ribbon that would hold about 6 – 8 spools, but at $24.95 each, I could never afford to switch my huge collection over. The craft kits would look very familiar to regular readers of the magazine – I had seen them all in previous issues, projects like the tissue paper flowers - an image of one I made is above - were packaged up in kits with the pieces pre-cut at a price of around $15. To assemble the materials you would need to do the project would cost much less, and having all the items pre-cut is taking away half the fun. But, I guess if you aren’t particularly crafty, or are short on time (and have lots of cash!) the kits could be an option.
To coincide with the new product range, Martha is launching a crafts website in May. You can register to be notified when it goes live, and to get regular updates. I, for one, have already signed up.
