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The Crafter’s Box Subscription Review – October 2016

Emily Cosnotti
ByEmily CosnottiDec 19, 2016 | 13 comments

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The Crafter's Box
4 overall rating
1 Ratings | 0 Reviews

The Crafter's Box is a box for people who love to make. Each month, you'll get unique crafting supplies and tools along to make an artist-designed craft for your home. In addition to the physical items in the box, membership includes access to an online community and an online workshop taught by an experienced maker.

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).

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The Subscription Box: The Crafter's Box

The Cost: $65 a month, or $60 a month with a 3-month subscription.

The Products: A curated box of craft materials and specialty tools assembled in collaboration with an artist/maker.

Ships to: US (for free), $10 to Canada and $20 everywhere else.

Check out the DIY + Crafting Subscription Box Directory and make sure to add The Crafter's Box to your subscription list or wish list!

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The October Crafter's Box included all the materials needed to make a contemporary embroidery art piece. I've been seeing beautiful contemporary embroidery work on Instagram so I was so excited when I opened this box!

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The embroidery pattern for this project was made by Sarah K. Benning, a fiber artist who helped jump-start the contemporary embroidery movement with her botanical designs. Signing up for this subscription also means getting access to an online workshop taught by Sarah K. Benning.

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The box included all the supplies needed to for this project except a print-out of the pattern. I had a little trouble finding the pattern at first but here's how: log into your account on The Crafter's Box website, click on Membership in the menu bar, scroll down and click on Online Workshop Gallery, scroll down and click on your box. This is where you'll find all pattern downloads, maker videos, maker podcasts, and more!

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The box included a double-sided card with inspirational sentiments.

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Here's everything that came in the October The Crafter's Box. It included everything needed except for the pattern download.

the-crafters-box-october-2016-009 I love all the embroidery floss colors in this box! The box even came with tiny little snips that are nice and sharp and cut the string very easily.

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The printable pattern has a guide to tell you which embroidery floss colors to use with which shapes. It's like a paint by number.

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They included two embroidery hoops, one to use while working and a larger one to use to display the finished product.

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The Crafter's Box folks worked with Sarah K. Benning to make a stitch glossary as a quick guide to get started with the project and to show common stitches.

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The glossary is well illustrated and includes step-by-step instructions for different stitch types.

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In addition to the craft supplies, this month's box came with a large zipper pouch. The pouch is made of a lovely linen fabric and screen printed with a cactus design. It is fully lined in black fabric and has a metal zipper closure with a leather zipper pull. It is a very well made, sturdy piece and I absolutely love it!

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The bag was designed and made by Amelie Mancini, a Brooklyn-based artist. She uses quality materials like natural fibers, leather, non-toxic inks, and solid brass hardware. Amelie Mancini designed this bag just for The Crafter's Box, which makes it feel extra special.

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The pouch makes an excellent project bag to keep everything together and organized. When I've completed this embroidery project, I know I'll have a number of new uses for this lovely bag.

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Here is my work in progress. Sarah K. Benning suggests working with the string like you would with ink - fill in larger areas of color and then add detail on top. I used a lamp as a lightbox to trace the pattern onto the fabric.

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I love having this embroidery project to work on while I binge watch my favorite shows. I like to stay busy while sitting in front of the tv and carefully crafting something to hang in my home is much more rewarding than staring at my phone.

Verdict: I absolutely love this box. I am a maker at heart with very specific taste and this box is perfect for me. This is not a box with a high retail value, low purchase price but instead a box where the value is in curation, quality, style, and convenience. I appreciate that The Crafter's Box works directly with artists to create each month's project. This embroidery project is something I've reached for every evening and has helped me spend a little less time on my phone. I can't wait for next month's box!

What do you think of The Crafter's Box?

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The Crafter's Box is a membership community for those that love to make. Monthly we send a curated box of specialized tools & carefully sourced materials (everything needed) to build a beautiful, grownup craft project and to master a new artistic technique. Our projects are hosted by an expert a... read more.
Emily Cosnotti
Emily Cosnotti
Emily is a design enthusiast who loves beautiful objects. She's really into vegan snacks, corgis, home goods, and minimalist makeup. She is currently fostering a healthy subscription addiction.

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13 comments

Morgan from The Crafter's Box

Hi Emily! Thank you so much for the very thoughtful review! It’s so nice to hear your feedback! I am so happy you loved the kit (and that awesome pouch) so much!

Everything you’ve shared on the materials in our box is so right on. Just a quick note that much of the value of the workshop we release each month is the guided online video tutorial we carefully and thoughtfully produce with each artist. This is filmed, detailed guide to completing each project and how to use all materials included in the kit. We think that the value of the video workshop, community forum, podcast and video feed Maker Chat with the artist (which all are invited to) is why our members love this monthly crafting community. Also, your readers are 100% accurate on the value of Amelie’s gorgeous, handmade and hand screen printed pouch :).

So very much appreciate your review! xo

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Michelle

I am a cross stitcher and I agree with the inflated value of this box. For that much they couldn’t send you a stamped project?? Although everything is pretty, it isn’t worth it.

PS I get all my hoops at the thrift store for $.10- $.15 and my thread for $1.00 a quart baggie full.

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Claudia

It looks like a great box, but I agree with others on the price. For that price, I’d expect either a second project or more substantial add-ins. The pouch is a nice touch, but $40-50 worth of pouch is too rich for my blood. Love the review, like the box, would never pay that price…

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Ragan

Please note this comment is regarding the contents of the box and is not reflective of the review!

So that is DMC 6-strand cotton floss, which you can get for between 39-44 cents each (or for less on sale; back in the 1990s I used to get it 4 or 5 skeins for $1 at Hobby Lobby). The hoops are under $5 at Michaels (estimate) for both. (Although I don’t display embroidery in hoops, since I don’t think that is a good way to secure/protect your work. Go for framing at Michaels when they have a 40% off custom framing sale.) Designer/artist or not, there is just no way $65 is a fair price for those materials. You can get Dimensions Gold Collection cross stitch kits for like $35 and they have more colors and fancy embellishment threads and you don’t have to trace your own design with those. Anyway, I could probably put this whole kit together for $15 or less.

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Jessvii

While I agree that this box does seem overpriced, I don’t think this box could be put together for $15. I pay about 44 cents per skein for floss through various sites (I recommend 123stitch.com, but I’ve also used/liked everythingcrossstitch.com) but the shipping always costs around $5. No, I don’t live near a Michaels, and my local fabric store stocks only the cheap kind of floss (which is awful). You can also buy sets of floss through Amazon Prime (I’ve bought a generic floss kit on Amazon for $10 that was actually okay, and DMC floss-only kits for $12-$14 on Amazon). Now we get to the hoops. It’s hard to tell from the photo if they’re high quality or not. A really cheap wood hoop can be bought for $4, but I’ve paid $14 for a really high-quality German-made 7-inch wood hoop before. An average quality 7″ hoop is around $7 from 123stitch.com or everythingcrossstitch.com. Then you have the other stuff in this kit, like the pouch, snips, needle, inspirational card, and curation.

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Emily Cosnotti

That’s fair! I will say that the zipper pouch makes up a large portion of the value for me in addition to the materials. Although the artist doesn’t sell the exact same bag on her site, she has a smaller version for $40, so I would guess she would sell this version for around $50-60.

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Dea

For $65, they couldn’t be bothered to print out the pattern and enclose that sheet of paper in the package?

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Emily Cosnotti

I thought that was strange too, but I think their goal might be to bring members back to the site to explore the bonus online things they have, like the community, podcast, and artist workshop.

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Ashley

My thoughts exactly….

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Alyce

Emily,
Great review! Have you embroidered before receiving this Crafter’s kit?

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Emily Cosnotti

Thanks, Alyce! I did a bit of embroidery when I was a teenager and dabbled in cross stitch too. It was nice to get back into it and learn some new stitches.

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HfroCO

Wow.. i love this box! Awesome review.

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Emily Cosnotti

Thank you!

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