Martha Stewart's
Alphabet Punch Set
I stumbled across this particular craft gizmo a few months back, and since I have a bit of a soft spot for anything miniature, I obviously HAD to buy a punch that made mini letters, right? Of course.
Well, once the set of punches arrived I was suitably impressed so thought I would write a little review here on my site for anyone else who is thinking of buying this product. Please read on for details...
F i n d T h e s e A l p h a b e t P u n c h e s o n A m a z o n :
Once I had decided to buy these punches, I learned that they are a U.S. product and, as a result, I had to pay for these to be shipped over the Atlantic. This isn't particularly cheap, especially because the punches are actually quite heavy. Saying that, I ended up paying under £22 for them (with shipping included), which was not a bad deal at all.
If you can't find them on Amazon for a good price, check around on Ebay and other websites if you aren't based in the U.S.
But if you are American; you're in luck!
So What Do The Punches Do?
Each punch cuts out a set of 13 little letters. One punch cuts out A-M and one punch cuts out N-Z. They cut through single sheets of paper and thin card, although it does take a little bit of strength to punch through the card!
Each letter measures 1/4" x 1/4" (just over 6mm x 6mm) in size.
What Can The Letters Be Used For?
Once you cut them out, you could arrange the letters into messages, quotes, song lyrics and other word combinations, and then glue them onto greeting cards, or into scrapbooks and photo albums. I think there is some scope to use this product for stencilling purposes too, by using paint and the punched-out letter shapes, but I haven't experimented with this myself yet.
My Review
The build quality of these products is excellent, with a weighty metal inner and a sturdy plastic outer.
As you can see from the photo above, the letters are cut out beautifully with very crisp edges. This is the most important aspect of the review, and I'd give it top marks.
Even though the punches both work fantastically well for what I want them for, there would be greater crafting potential if there was a way of cutting out each letter individually, rather than 13 at a time. This, of course, would make the product more expensive and complicated, but it would allow me to achieve more things. Maybe in the future this will be available, eh? :)
And in the meantime, hopefully a punch for cutting out little numbers will be released *fingers crossed*
In conclusion, despite their limitations, these punches are definitely fun gadgets for scrapbookers and paper crafters, and handy tools to have in the craft box. I absolutely recommend them!
Quick Tips
To save wastage, keep all of the letters you punch out - even if you don't need to use them yet.
And to save time, separate all of the letters into small re-sealable bags i.e. put all of the 'A's in one bag, all of the 'B's in another... and so on. If you put all of the letters in one bag you will find it annoying to try and quickly find the exact letters you want when you need them.
I hope that you have found this review helpful...and thanks for reading!
A Demonstration of the Punches: