DIY made simple

Wintercraft Globe Ice Lantern Kit

Wintercraft | Dorothy Jordan, business development
www.wintercraft.com
Kits range in retail price from $17.99 to $49.99, depending on the configuration. Kit components are re-usable with the exception of the heavy-gauge biodegradable balloons. Replacement balloons packs are available at a $14.99 retail price.

What is it?
The Wintercraft Globe Ice Lantern Kit is a “just-add-water” kit for making spherical-shaped ice luminaries.

Why is it valuable to customers?
Globe Ice Lanterns are an enchanting and elegant way to decorate for a special event (or just for fun.) They may be displayed outdoors to light a walkway, or inside as a stunning centerpiece.

How does it work?
Each kit contains an easy-to-follow set of illustrated instructions which details the Wintercraft system. The user can also search “Wintercraft” on YouTube and watch a video. Basically, the user fills a heavy-gauge biodegradable balloon with water and sets it in the freezer (or outdoors if below-freezing temperatures). 

What’s your company’s story?
Jennifer Shea Hedberg, aka The Ice Wrangler, has been making Globe Ice Lanterns since she was a young girl. After decades of fine tuning the process through trial and error, Hedberg has applied her experience to build a combination of custom forms and methods that produce beautiful results. She started the Wintercraft business to share this delightful craft with others.

Home Life Mini Garden Kit

Studio M | Mike Todd, marketing manager
www.magnetworks.com/studio-m
Suggested retail price: $39.95

What is it?
The Home Life Mini Garden Kit is one of four new miniature gardening kits from Studio M, a division of Magnet Works. Each kit is gift-boxed and includes instructions for how to plant your own miniature garden with the items inside. This kit includes a mini tire swing, mini flower picks, mini door, mini door mat and mini mailbox.

How does it work? 
The kit provides all you need to start a mini garden. It gives you a hand full of miniature items to help you set the scene and provides you with instructions for how to plant the garden — whether it’s a garden in the ground outside or in a container.

Why is it valuable to customers?  
The kit provides an approachable way for any customer to enter into mini gardening, so it’s a great gift for anyone — whether they have “green thumbs” or no gardening experience at all.

What’s your company’s story?
Magnet Works started 25 years ago when the owners, Curt and Sue Todd, invented MailWraps — decorative mailbox covers that could easily be changed for any season or holiday. But after the first few years, the wholesale business failed. As a mom of two kids with a third on the way, Sue decided to try working from home to sell leftover inventory through a mail-order catalog. Slowly but surely, the business recovered. Magnet Works eventually outgrew the Todds’ home and six different warehouses through the years. They added products like flags, mats, and magnetic yard signs. In 2013, they launched a new division called Studio M, which introduced the Gypsy Garden miniature gardening line, Art Poles and more.

Hydroponic planter

Modern Sprout | Sarah Burrows, co-founder
www.modsprout.com
Modern Sprout planters range in retail price from $129 to $249 for plug-in and solar-powered hydroponic Windowsill 3-Pot Planter, respectively.

What is it?
Modern Sprout’s premier product is a simple, stylish hydroponic planter that is 16 inches long by 10.5 inches high by 5.5 inches diameter and available in four finishes — chalkboard, weathered gray, glossy white, and reclaimed wood — and in either plug-in or solar-powered models. Gardening, cooking and health enthusiasts alike can grow basil, mint, kale, cherry tomatoes and more right in their windowsills.

How does it work? 
The Modern Sprout 3-pot planter features a top-feed hydroponic system to deliver a nutrient solution (water and organic fertilizer) to the roots of three separate plants. A timer and eco-friendly air pump are located in a metal enclosure on the underside of the planter, and the timer triggers the air pump to push water from the reservoir through feeding tubes to plant roots. The timer features six settings that provide a feeding schedule suitable for seeds to large fruit-bearing plants.

Why is it valuable to customers?
Hydroponic systems have many benefits. Not only are they self-sustaining, but they also grow plants up to 30 percent faster than traditional soil-based gardening and use up to 80 percent less water. Few hydroponic kits are commercially available for edible-focused gardeners and the slim selection lack style, are expensive and often require do-it-yourself assembly. Modern Sprout’s planter was designed for style-savvy and space-conscious city dwellers, absent-minded gardeners and indoor growing enthusiasts. Minimum assembly is required; customers just need to set the timer, add plants or seeds, water and organic nutrients and plug it in near a sunny window.

What’s your company’s story?
Sarah Burrows and her husband, Nick Behr, invested in a hydroponic kit, which included large buckets, exposed tubes and soilless grow medium. Although the kit took up prime real estate in front of our windows and looked like a science experiment, the results were impressive — a healthy bounty of organic tomatoes, herbs and peppers. They were blown away by the kit’s quick yields and low maintenance, but were turned off by the design (or lack thereof). Most kits are utilitarian and cumbersome or look like a kitchen appliance. This was the catalyst for Modern Sprout.