Product Comparison - Apples to Pumpkins

I recently had the awesome opportunity to host a House Party sponsored by Paper Pumpkin by Stampin' Up! where my guests and I got to try out the new Paper Pumpkin kits for free. Pretty awesome, right? Since everyone had their own kit to work with, they all got to take home their mini stamp set and ink cube as well as the 4 cute cards they made.

Let me first say that even though I am an Independent Consultant for Close To My Heart, I have always enjoyed SU!'s products as well, and several of their products have a home in my craft room.  That being said, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in Paper Pumpkin.

Now, unlike some people I've heard from, I actually loved the cute little stamp set that came in our kit. It had three sentiment stamps: a large "seriously" and two smaller "love your guts" and "you kick booty". I thought they were a hoot! The kit also included a Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Spot (ink cube) and all the items (except adhesive and scissors) to make 4 cards of the same design. Some of the pieces were self-adhesive, but not all. I thought the cards turned out pretty cute!

I had to change my card slightly from the design, because a) the smaller strips in our package were larger than on the model photo, and b) the instructions didn't specify how to stamp "seriously" on the bubble sticker to leave enough room for the strip.

The other thing that disappointed me a bit was the price going forward. The kits retail for $19.95 a month, which does include shipping at least, but that's almost $5.00 per card! I don't know about you, but that's not my usual price point! I think I will stick to ordering individual items from my Stampin' Up! rep and skip the Paper Pumpkin kits.

Now, I did say that this was an apples to pumpkins comparison, so of course I had to compare this to a CTMH kit.  I fell in love with the stamp designs in the Laughing Lola card kit as soon as I saw it in the new catalog, and I whipped up all the cards right away!

This kit made 15 cards, 5 each of 3 designs.  It included everything except adhesive, scissors, and ink.  The stamps also coordinate with one of the CTMH Cricut cartridges, but they are all shapes that are super easy to cut with scissors if you don't have the cartridge.

So, to compare prices, I will include the basic shipping cost with this one since it is included in the PP kit price, and I will ignore the Cricut cartridge price, since it is not required to complete the cards. I am not including tax in any calculations because it is different for everyone. There are two cost options here: one with ink pads, if someone is a new customer; and one without ink pads if the customer already had those colors (or something similar in their stash).

The kit itself is $24.95, ink pads are $5.25 each (the kit calls for 4 colors), and basic shipping is $4.95.  So, assuming you need to buy all 4 ink pads, the total cost is $50.90. If you don/t need any ink pads, the total cost is $29.90.  Option 1 has a cost per card of $3.39 and Option 2 has a cost per card of  $1.99.  Either way, I think I did a lot better than $5 per card, and I also had quite a bit of leftover product, including quite a few of the Purple Gems that are exclusive to the kit. 

I already used some of my leftovers on a scrapbook page here, and I'm looking forward to using the rest! Of course, I love the paper colors and patterns so much that I already ordered the scrapbook kit as well, to use with pictures of my teen/tween girls.

OK, before I leave, a quick look at the 3 card designs up close. The kit suggested sanding the edges of the papers in the kit, but I decided instead to do each card design a little bit differently.

This one I sanded as suggested - cute!

This one I distressed the papers with the edge distresser - still neat but not my favorite with this style.

And my absolute FAVORITE - ink sponging with a sponge dauber - LOVE it!!

Now, all that being said, there is a price promotion going on for the Paper Pumpkin right now if you think you want to try it. You can read about it on my friend Sue's website.  And of course if you are interested in any CTMH products, you can always find them on my website!