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As makers, sometimes we see
something that we wanna buy, but we stop ourselves
because we think, "We can make that!" Sometimes a thing is
really frickin' expensive, so we're actually
gonna make it today! And then we're
still gonna buy it. Because at the end, we
wanna compare the two and see if our efforts
were actually worth it. (cheery piano music) KATELYN: This video is
brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform
for all your website needs. (laughs) The thing
that we're making today is this cloud lamp thing. It's ridiculous, I will say. (sad violin music) We found it, we were looking
at Christmas presents and you know those websites– It's like, "This
is why I'm broke." This is why I'm broke. There's a lot of them out there and they're all just
like ridiculous stuff that are just fun to look at. But we found this light
and it was pretty cool. And then we started looking
for it on other places because it was very expensive. And the weird thing
is, we found it listed across three, four,
five different websites with prices ranging from $3000 (cash register rings)
to like $70.

Yeah, and they all look kind of the same.
The same. Yeah, they pretty much
use all the same photos, but seem Photoshopped. Anyways, I have some
serious concerns at the end because we got it in (laughs) and this does not look like
it would contain a cloud lamp. It looks really, really
squished and damaged. Hopefully it fluffs
up in the end, like we can like. (fun piano music) You know what really matters
is how ours turns out. (package crashing) Yeah.
And don't throw it. That was still $100! (Evan laughing) Okay, let's just– Here's what we're
gonna do for ours. Yeah, first we need
to make a body. We need to give it some volume. So we're thinking some
paper lantern chandeliers. It'd be a really cheap
way to just give it some structure and definition. KATELYN: And then on top of
that we got some stuffing to put on the outside and
give it a cloud-like texture. On the online listings,
there's kind of two different types you can do.
Yeah, there's a cotton one, and then there's the turds. They look like–
Okay. They look like– It says it's like
imitation silk.

We're gonna go the cotton route, because the imitation
silk looks like turds. And then for the
internal lighting, I noticed that the
really expensive ones, the ones that were
$1000, $2000, $3000, were all interactive. They would respond to music. So when I was looking at LEDs, you can either pay
$20 for the basic, or $30 for the ones that
respond to the volume. So we'll see how it
all comes together. (upbeat jazzy music) EVAN: What are they called? Paper lanterns.
Paper lanterns. So it turns out you can get
a few paper lanterns or. 30 for the same price.

So we have a bunch of, did
you fling a glue stick? We have a bunch of paper
lanterns, two glue guns. I think we should
use fishing wire. I feel like there should be
some other reinforcement, 'cause this paper's so delicate. I feel like if it gets yanked, the hot glue will just rip off. We're gonna be rippin'
holes in it anyways when we wire it up with LEDs. I mean, that's how I was–
Yeah, that's true, but also like how many rips 'til it loses
structural integrity? And it just like explodes. Well no, it won't explode. Well yeah, 'cause
these metal things are pulling it tight. The only thing preventing it
from exploding is the paper. Exploding is a strong word. (explosion banging) So I think
we should start with a couple of the bigger ones to
form our core base. Fishing wire. I do have memories,
when I was young, of burning my hand
severely on some hot glue, 'cause I didn't understand
that it was hot.

Want some help with that knot? (Evan laughs)
I was trying to tell a story to distract you from the
lack of my knot tying skills. (screen beeps)
I dunno if these paper lanterns have like a heat tolerance. EVAN: I'm just gonna
dribble it on, you know? KATELYN: Yeah, it's like
caramel drizzle. (laughs) 'Cause then you're spreading
out the surface area contact. No, it makes sense. It's just not what
I would've guessed. I've never used the
drizzle technique. Right, do y'think? Oh, yeah! I'm so curious about
the one that we bought, to see how they did theirs.

Not like this! (laughs) I think this is gonna
be one of those projects that looks really jank
until the very end. I really wanna touch it! Don't touch it. What if it's dry? That's how I injured myself
when I was young. (laughs) I'm definitely
getting flashbacks to our paper lantern chandelier. Oh, yeah.
That we made for the wedding. This actually
would've been so cool. This woulda been so cool. This woulda been way better
'cause the lights flash. We weren't that advanced yet. Instead we put
under-cabinet lights in every single chandelier, and then they started falling
on people on the dance floor. (laughs) They did! So we've come a long way. Yeah.
(hands slap) Okay, so I've been
planning for the next step while Katelyn has been
editing what we just did. I have some good
news, some bad news, then some good news. Okay. Good news: this
feels really sturdy now that everything has dried.

Feels pretty solid, yeah. Bad news: it's
gonna be really hard to wire everything up. So we're gonna
have to do surgery. Yeah, I know. Oh, you do?
Yeah, you already said we're gonna have to poke
holes through it. That's the bad news?
Okay, no, no, no. Like we're gonna have to
really do some surgery, like snip main chunks away. But good news is
they're totally fine! I did some tests on like
non-essential parts. Wait, wait, wait,
but how are we gonna get to all the parts
we need to cut? Yeah, so I plotted out,
like just like surgeons do, how they make little sketches. It's all gonna be hanging
from this cable right here, so both of these need
to fit through this one, and then this one right in here needs to go back
out that same hole and up through here
and then out there.

Worst case scenario,
we just hot glue the whole thing
back together again. (both laughing) Before we shove 'em in there, should we show what the LEDs do? So you can either do
it in normal mode, just various colors, but
what we really think is cool is the music mode,
the interactive mode. This is what added so much
price to the other ones. And when you talk, it lights up. (children cheering) Yay! There's different colors
for different levels ♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ (laughs) You wanna give it a try? (Katelyn clears her throat) ♪ I have a structured
settlement and I need cash ♪ ♪ Now ♪ (both laughing) All right, back to surgery.

I have my scalpel. I have my bone crushers. This is the bone crusher. Precise! (paper tearing) It seems wrong. It seems wrong. Will it fit? Yes.
Yay! So now just a lot more of that. (lighthearted upbeat music) All right, so
something went wrong, because of course
something went wrong. Something, one thing has
to go wrong every episode. And this is it, it's done. Done. So I'm not really
set up for welding. I'm not really that
good at soldering. I'm not really good
at any of this. But I have just
enough equipment, so like I trouble shot this. Do you wanna say
what went wrong? I got it all plugged in. Everything was good. You mean you got it all– I got it all wired.

I had it hanging. After an hour, I was like, ah, that was a long time, but it's ready, it's done. I'm ready to turn it on. And I pressed the button
and it didn't work. And then it was another 30, 40 minutes of
troubleshooting? It's been an hour and a half. (laughs) It's been an hour
and a half of troubleshooting, but Katelyn, are you ready? Yes, no, wait. Oh, by the way, look
at this little– Wait, and you're soldering? Wait, what's happening? I'm so confused. Are you pushing the button
now, are we soldering? No, I already soldered. Oh, you already soldered. This was my third arm to
like help me hold things. Oh!
Look at that! Isn't that kinda cute? KATELYN: That's nice. EVAN: It worked. Yep, I feel like your
brain's all over the place. What are we doing?
I think that I have. I just need to turn this on, celebrate with you, and
then go eat something. Okay.
Ready? KATELYN: Yeah. Yay!
Yay! Ah! Bah!
Wabba wabba! Wait, is this only one color? Whoa! Whoa! Oh there, there,
that's it, right? I think that's it, yay! KATELYN: Here wait,
let's be quiet.

Wait no, go back, we have
to make sure this works. EVAN: Yeah. Bop. Ah!(laughs) (light recorder music) So originally I meant
to ask you to come out and to show you this
because check this out. The center of it is
right in the big bulb. The center, what do
you mean the center? Like the center of gravity? The controller? So this is a big long
string of lights, and one thing that I noticed is that the center of the roll, when you start talking it
starts at 50 and goes out. So the arrangement matters. The arrangement matters. So what I did is, you
see the very center? KATELYN: Yeah. EVAN: It's right in the
center of the cloud. 'Cause if we talk louder the whole thing lights up. KATELYN: Yeah. EVAN: When you talk quietly it's just the center.
It's just the center. Oh, you're so smart. Thank you. So I had to like, the center
had to be in the center. No wonder you've been
slowly going insane.

Yeah. (both laughing) Thank you for saying it's cool. Do you also wanna share
what you did to fix it? I don't think you
ever said that. Oh, what happened is, the end of this, there
was a built-in little… Oh, I think I got angry
and I threw it away. That's understandable.
It's gone, it's gone. KATELYN: But there
was a little piece, a little connector.
There was a connector that connected this to here, and I was just trying
to figure out why. Well I was, at
first I was testing, like is it this outlet? Is it this power adaptor? Is it here? So what I ended up
doing is snippin' off a little bit of the
end and connecting it. I think you don't need to
go that far into detail. I think just say like,
"After much testing, "the connector was bad
and I had to solder it." Okay. (laughs) I took another piece
from another lamp and I added this to the
messy, messy soldering job that somehow works. You know, I'm not the best. Let's not question it. (laughs) Let's not
question it, it works.

I did what I had to do. (Katelyn giggles) KATELYN: I will try my best to make that something cohesive. It's done! It's not done.
Plus, a bonus feature. Well, my trials– It's at the same place
we left it in the edit. Oh, yeah. But I did more work! Last night, I couldn't sleep because I thought of a really
cool idea. (clears throat) I put a speaker in there. (both laughing) I was like, "How
do I sell this?" But adding a speaker to this, if you were looking at
buying one of these, would increase the
cost by about $1000. We just saved $1000, basically. 'Cause we had one
sitting around. KATELYN: It kinda looks
like a monstrosity. (thumping bass music) No, it's cool.

But the next step I
think will take it from monster to really cool.
I think it's that effect, that when you build
something yourself, it looks so much better to you. You have pride in this. Oh, my gosh, it does look ugly! Dang it! (laughs) But, we're about to
add this polyfill. Basically this is
like stuffing you use for pillows or
stuffed animals or. One of the reasons why
we chose it, though, is you can pull it apart and
then re-fuse it together, which is what we want. We wanna be able to attach
it to a few key points and add more if we
want to, just by like. Smashing it. So I think the plan is just to cover this whole thing in
hot glue and smash this on. It seems just as janky
as all the other plans, but they've worked, so. All right, let's do it. All right, so I'm gonna start
with a thin little piece. Yeah.
Should we do it on a test? Just in case, just in case.

Just kind of. (both laugh)
Looks like Mr. Meeseeks. Hey there, I'm Mr. Meeseeks. EVAN: I think that
we could even like– I don't know how we're gonna do the underside of this. Oh, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no. Okay, yes. (both laughing) Yeah, let's just do it! EVAN: I also think that
applying this much hot glue, in general, will help with the
integrity of the whole thing. (lively piano music) (both laughing) This is like one of the
most ridiculous looking things we've ever made. (lively piano music) It's so soft! Should we turn on the lights and show them what's going on? (bright digital music) Ah! (laughs) It like perfectly
just fuses the light. It hides all of that weirdness that is goin' on underneath.
It looks so much better! We've access to the remote. Yep! It looks freaking
great, honestly! It looks so good.
This is so cool! This is better that I thought
it was gonna end up lookin'. This is better than
I thought, yeah. And by the way, did we mention the speaker is a smart speaker? It's a smart speaker.

Play royalty-free
music playlist. (bouncy electronic music) Wah! Wait, let's really
get the party started. Are you ready? (bouncy electronic music) Next. (smooth jazz music) Next. (thumping electronic music) Next. Oh, Katelyn! (hands slap)
It's awesome. Good job, good job. Okay, but we're not done. This is not the
end of our video. No!
We have to do what is probably the
most important part. And that is compare
our DIY to the buy. Should we turn on the lights? Yeah, turn off the music maybe. I feel like this is really
gonna mess up my editing. I'm gonna grab a drink
before we do that next scene, and I'll be right back. All right. (box clunks on the table) (dreamy music) I have awakened.
(thunder booms) I am the all-knowing. Yes? Floodle!
(thunder booms) I have the power to answer
any question you desire. Well, I actually have a
question that relates to clouds. What's the best way
to start a website where I can sell
stuff that we make? Really? I can answer anything.

Like literally anything. The best place is
obviously Squarespace. They have built-in
e-commerce tools, beautiful templates to
help you get started. You can literally
have an unlimited number of products. So I can have an
unlimited variety of different cloud
lamps on my website? Uh, I mean I can't
really support the selling of my people,
but technically, yes. Thanks so much, Floddle. It's Floodle! You can also even
purchase your domain directly from Squarespace. So if you wanna
join all the other makers and creators
that use Squarespace to bring their
visions to the world, go to squarespace.com
for a free trial, and when you're ready
to pull the trigger, go to
squarespace.com/EvanAndKatelyn for 10% off your first purchase.

Wow, all I need to do is go to
squarespace.com/EvanAndKatelyn to get 10% (laughs)
off my first purchase? Wait, did I just wake up
from an eternity of slumber to be roped into
a Squarespace ad? Bye, Flortle. It's Floodle!
(screen beeps) You can see it kinda
poking out right there. KATELYN: We still
don't know if we got the cotton or the
imitation silk. It kinda looks like silk. It looks like the
imitation silk. You know, I wanna
open it from this end. Don't wanna cut
the very expensive, luxury product that we bought. So we bought the $100
version off of Amazon. And it doesn't have
the interactive lights, but it is a light.

(tape popping) It is expanding! It's expanding. Aw, I think we got a turd. Wow, this is–
Whoa, it's big! EVAN: This is bigger than
they said it was gonna be. KATELYN: Maybe it reshapes? It's like a piece of clothing that you put rods
in to expand it. Is that how clothing works? I don't know. It's a big paper lantern! It's just a paper lantern? It's just a big paper lantern! KATELYN: What the heck? We've been bamboozled!
That's $200, $100? That is so dang ugly! Oh, I'm upset at
how bad this is. We have been so bamboozled. I was hoping ours
would be better, Wait.
but I was hoping this would not be this bad. Wait, Katelyn. Does it not even have
a frickin' light bulb? Doesn't even have a
light bulb included. We're gonna have to
supply our own light bulb.

KATELYN: I literally
can't believe this is just a glorified paper lantern. (laughing) I don't
know what to say. I don't know what to say. I'm angry.
Let's just put it together. Let's just put it together. It doesn't even have any,
like, interesting pockets or anything like that. Oh, we so got the turds. Oh yeah, this is
definitely a turd.

Oh, this is definitely the turd. Oh! (laughs) Oh! (both laughing) It looks like a full diaper! Oh! It even feels like it. Somebody change this baby! (comical music) It's so bad. It's, this is a cloud. A fluffy, light cloud
you could give a hug. And this is like. Katelyn look at this. I think these were
supposed to open up and form these little
like poochy pockets. KATELYN: Like it did here. But whatever they used to
seal this didn't fully dry, and when they squished it for
packaging, they all fused. Like you might be
able to go around and separate some of these, but this is what it's
supposed to look like. More like this. They advertise this
to be put in hotels, as like really high-end,
fancy lighting. (fancy hotel music) I mean, should we, we
gotta do our comparison. We gotta do a fair comparison. (jaunty music) EVAN: We're gonna be judging
these on five criteria. The first is aesthetics. KATELYN: Quality, so
quality of construction and also the durability.

EVAN: How long it took, time. The fourth factor is a
new one for the series, and that is the audience vote. So we actually posted
these on Patreon without saying which was which
to see what they thought. I hope that everyone was kind. What if people
thought we made this? Well you'll have to find out. Evan hasn't looked at
those comments yet. And the last factor is price. KATELYN: Okay, so aesthetics. EVAN: Easy win, I mean. This one looks like a turd. This one looks like a cloud. Maybe I'm biased. You wanna hug this,
and like the light is so much more diffuse. You know, I think if
you had a bunch of these in various different sizes and they were very far
away from your eyes, they could be cool maybe, but I still think
this one's cooler. So I think
(bell dings) we have to give it to
ourselves in aesthetic. Yeah, quality is a
little bit more nuanced. I feel like this
is more durable.

Like it shipped to
us, it is really like, I can just like mess
around with this. Ours would not hold
up in shipping at all. And I think it would get
dirty a little bit easier. More effort went into the build, but I think that this
wins in durability. Yeah? It bothers me to give
this any points at all. KATELYN: 'Cause
it feels so cheap. EVAN: Feels so cheap. KATELYN: But it
would hold up better. We'll give this–
Yeah, we'll give it that. The build is more
durable over here. (bell dings)
More durable, yeah. Okay, time.

The hot gluing of this,
this took about an hour. How long do you think
the electronics took? If you don't break the LEDs, under an hour. Maybe another hour
for adding the fluff. I think like three
and a half hours is the max it should take you. How long did this one
take to ship to us? I know that's kind
of a weird factor, but people in the past have said we should include
the shipping time. Coming from abroad,
this took two weeks. So I dunno how you
wanna call that one. I think this was
faster, but in the past we've always said that
the bought one wins time 'cause you don't
have to do anything.

Let's call it a draw. (bell dings) Okay, maybe we just
remove the time factor. Yeah, it's always a
contentious thing. Yeah. I'm very excited to
share the audience vote. We posted this on
Patreon last night, and you guys had very
interesting things to say. So first off, 2%
preferred the buy. (sad music) And 98% preferred the DIY. Yay!
(bell dings) And some interesting summaries
of people's feedback. The reasons that they
liked the DIY more was mostly about the
fluffiness and the shape. And most the complaints
about this one were that it was
just too uniform and didn't really
look like a cloud. Though they did say
that in the dark, especially, this one
looked more stormy.

Oh, okay. Some thoughts about ours. It was compared to Bob
Ross clouds, Pixar clouds, a silky cocoon of alien eggs. And some comparisons
for the buy– Did anyone think it
looked like poop? A well-lit turd, (Evan laughs) an egg sac, a sheep torso, (sheep bleating) a bioluminescent potato, a
hamburger patty from space, and it looked like it was
filled with guinea pigs that might escape and
attack in the night.

So thank you, guys,
for your feedback. Those were glorious
descriptions. And now for the price, which is one of the reasons
why we chose this product. We saw that $3000 price
tag and we thought, "We can beat that by a lot." Okay, disclaimer though,
the one we bought is the $100 version of this. All the prices we're
gonna be comparing are for the exact same size. It's all about features. Is it static? Is it interactive? And does it have a speaker? And how much does
each of that add? If we were to get the
cheaper LEDs and no speaker, the price of this
would only be $43. (cash register rings)
Are you serious? Yeah, $109 for this one. (cash register rings)
Wow! (bell dings)
That's awesome! I actually thought we
might get kinda close. No, no. For the interactive LEDs
were only $13 more at $56. (cash register rings) Guess how much the
interactive size would be. $1330! (Katelyn laughs)
(cash register rings) Oh, that's so ridiculous!
(bell dings) Okay, and what about the last
one with the speaker also? It only took us $25 to
add a speaker to this one, for a total cost of $81.50.
(cash register rings) And we already had that speaker.

Yeah, but to upgrade the
purchased interactive light to the one with
the speaker, $3360! (cash register rings)
Oh, that's so dumb that it makes me angry.
(bell dings) (flames crackling) What? By far, the winner. (children cheering) Granted, we picked something that we knew would be ridiculous so that we could win. I don't think we're
ever gonna win so much in any other buy versus DIY. This is just–
You know, we'll take it now. (clapping) Go team! The DIY is the way to go. Is this where we
do the outro now? This is where we do the outro. Okay guys, thanks so much
for watching today's video.

If you want more, make sure
you subscribe, hit that bell. I don't think it's been, it's been like a
year since we asked. We never say, "Hit the
bell," or like, "Subscribe." Well I dunno. I mean, do what
you guys feel like. Yeah. Whatever you wanna do. And we'll look forward to
seeing you in the next video. Bye!
Bye! Also, check out
our gaming channel. That we do say every time.

Evan and Katelyn Gaming. Bye!
Bye! (screen beeps)
(Evan coughing) Sorry, I coughed
directly into the mic. (laughs) Great. Great!
(screen beeps) Or just like, ah! (laughs) (screen beeps) Kitty Wampus. Kitty Wampus is a good word. A lot of people
say catty wampus. No, it's kitty wampus,
'cause it's cats. Well, you could say
catty wampus 'cause cats. Kitties are cuter than cats,
I gotta say, I'm sorry. (blaring brass music) (keyboard clicking).