Hobbycraft Flower 3D Punch - Table Decorations

I am a big Hobbycraft fan and not getting paid for using their name on here often. I use a lot of their stuff, because it is usually decent quality at okay prices. Yes, there are cheaper places out there, but the convenience of simply getting on my bike and being surrounded by craft products within 10min is also a big factor in my decision to use the chain a lot.

As with everything, though, you have to be careful what you buy. I would not, for example, buy a set of 'craft' egg carton when I get a new one for free with my eggs every week. Or a set of 8 paper plates for £1 when I am sure that elsewhere I can get 30 for £1.50.






When I came across the flower craft punch for £6 I thought it would be the ideal, easy table decoration. I bought the craft punch and some red card and set about making flowers whenever the feeling that I should really work on that wedding got a bit too intense, but I was too tired to think greatly about what I was doing.

Now, the flowers are adorable. They are the right size not to look tacky, they are even and the slight 3D effect really gives them a quality edge. They will look great with our white table cloths and burgundy chair covers in a castle-style reception room. And the best part is that it almost feels like I made them for free! (Yes, I bought card and the craft punch, but can you imagine how much sufficient amounts of confetti bags would cost you for 10 tables?)

However, I found the craft punch itself to be a bit of a disappointment for what is, in essence, a lot of money. It seems sturdy at first, but being made almost entirely of plastic, it was not durable. It broke before I had gone through 6 out of 10 sheets of card. It automatically cuts out holes within the flowers and there is no way of knowing where those extra bits of card end up until you realise that you are expected to empty the top regularly, which I did figure out quite quickly. Failing that, the craft punch would get jammed after about 15 punches. Apart from the top, you cannot open the punch up to get rid of the jam, which meant laborious use of scissors to remove any stuck card from the tiny gap where the card is inserted.

The metal bar around which the top pivoted attempted escape after every punch, meaning that it had to be put back into place in regular intervals. But as it was surrounded by plastic, the force needed to cut the flowers proved too much for the craft punch, and after barely 5 sheets it was clear that the punch would not last. I filled in the breaking bits of plastic with my glue gun in an effort to make the punch last longer, but even so it broke during the punching of the 6th sheet.

I have since looked on the website and should have done my research better. Whilst the reviews for this particular craft punch are good - mainly because of the quality of the flowers - almost all the other, similar punches have had bad reviews saying that they, too, would break easily. In one of the reviews a fellow craftie stated that they had been told that the design of the punches had changed recently, and it is clear from the reviews that the change hadn't been for the better.

We will manage with fewer flowers as I am reluctant to buy another craft punch from there (my daughter's has now also broken) and unfortunately the receipt has gone walkies, so I can't return either of them. Lesson learned: do your research before you buy expensive items. The flowers are still lovely, though.