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THE CRAFTY NETWORK HANDMADE CRAFTS & GIFTS CHRISTMAS SHOWCASE

07 Nov

If you are looking to buy something special and unique this Christmas as a gift or just as a treat for yourself, why not take a look at The Crafty Network Christmas Gift Ideas Showcase.

Here is just a brief overview of the crafts and gifts on offer, please visit https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.317350991624196.99468.218848154807814&type=1&l=a1ce422f27 for more details and links to the various crafters/sellers.
 
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Posted by on November 7, 2011 in Facebook ~ Seller Showcase, Featured Sellers, Promotions

 

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FEATURED SELLER – FOR YOU, WITH LOVE

30 Oct

The Crafty Network would like to introduce to you ~ For You, With Love.

For You, With Love

Q1.  What is your Business Name, your name and where are you based?

A1.  My business is called ‘For You, With Love’ and I am Helen based in West Yorkshire.

Q2.  How did you come up with your business name and when did you set it up and why?

A1.  I wanted something personal and non-commercial as a gift for my friend’s new baby, so I decided to design and make my first new baby keepsake. I wrote ‘For you, With Love Helen x’ on the card.  The friend who received that keepsake then liked them so much that she ordered them for all her friends who had new babies and so the business began!  I decided that as the products are all handmade and sewn,  there’s clearly a lot of time and love that goes into each piece to ensure it is special for the recipient and so ‘For You, With Love’ seemed the perfect name.

Q3 What do you make and why?

A3. I started by making new baby keepsakes and Christmas decorations.  The business has then expanded as people have asked me to make certain products, such as the Christening and wedding keepsakes, and as I have added new ideas to the range.  My mum taught me to cross stitch when I was young and I’ve kept it up, I find sewing quite relaxing (when my thread’s not in a taffle!). I started making things for For You, With Love in January 2010 and so it will soon be a year old! I also wanted to raise some money for two important charities that are close to my heart Cancer Research UK and AFASIC West Yorkshire, so I donate 10% of all sales to them.  So far I have raised £75 for the charities.

Q4. Tell us a bit about yourself and your business?

A4.  I am 26 years old and I am a full time teacher, which is obviously a very full on job, so I do bits of sewing at weekends but try to build up as much stock as possible during the school holidays. I use one of the bedrooms to store my stock and get cosy on the sofa to sew my current piece of work. There’s usually something on the arm of the settee that I’m working on!

Q5. Where do you sell your items?

A5.  I sell my items on www.facebook.com/ForYouWithLove or on www.foryouwithlove.weebly.com  which is my website that is work in progress. I also go to a few craft fairs,but as a business trying to raise money for charity, I tend to just choose smaller craft fairs.  The Facebook site is where I sell most of my items through.  The biggest success I’ve had is Colne Valley Garden Centre, Huddersfield, stocking my Christmas decorations this year, which I am very excited about.  The worst place had to be at a craft fair in June, where there were lots of events on around the place, but no signs into the room where the craft fair was! It was my first fair so I was slightly disheartened, but met lots of lovely crafters who shared lots of advice with me.

Q6. What are your 3 favourite items that you are selling at the moment?

A6. My three favourite items at the moment are these Christmas puddings which are £2.50 each, because they are very cute!!

My second favourite are the gorgeous Baby’s First Christmas decorations which are £3.00 and can be personalised with the baby’s name for 50p extra (available in pink or blue), as they are popular and a great gift. 

My third favourite is the New Baby keepsake which is £10 and available in pink or blue (although other colour can be used). This keepsake was the reason For You, With Love became a business and helped to raise lots of money to charity.

Q7. Where do you get your creative inspiration from?

A7. Sometimes people ask me to make things for them, which I then continue to make and add to my lines, such as the tooth fairy pouches or First Birthday bag ready to fill with goodies. Sometimes I just play about with ideas until I find something I like, or occasionally a material will inspire me to make some decorations out of it.

Q8. What is your best/favourite tool and why?

A8.  I think it has to be my needle, without it I’d be pretty scuppered!!

Q9. Do you want to learn anything new or are you learning anything at the moment, what are your plans for the future?

A9.  ??

Q10. When you first started if you could have been given one piece of advice what would it have been and lastly, what piece of advice would you like to pass on to anybody starting out?

A10.  I think that as I hadn’t originally planned for my hobby to become a business, it kind of took me by surprise and I have had to learn about different means out there to support me and the business.  www.stallfinder.com is a great site to find craft fairs nearby, vitally important to get chatting to other stall holders as nearly all of them I’ve met have been so helpful, sharing their thoughts and advice.  Get a Facebook page, there’s always customers asking for things to be made and lots of ways of promoting your business on there through networking pages.  You have to work hard to promote your business and sometimes it can feel like hard work and slow starting, but keep persisting and it will pay off.

Thank you Helen, it was lovely to hear how you started and how your business has developed and progressed. TCN xx

If you would like your business featured on our blog, please get in touch with us via our email – thecraftynetwork@gmail.com.

 
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Posted by on October 30, 2011 in Featured Sellers

 

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A Crafty Christmas??

27 Oct
A Crafty Christmas??

Christmas is fast approaching and hopefully it’s one of the busiest and prosperous times for us Crafters. But this has got us thinking about Christmas from a Commercial point of view as buyers and now as sellers. This has thrown up a whole can of worms of questions for us and we expect for others too?

As this is our first Christmas as craft sellers and we have no previous retail experience of selling, just buying!  When should you really start planning and preparing for Christmas and marketing your Christmas stock and events?

We know the shops on the High Street start moving their Christmas stock into the shops more or less as soon as the kids go back to school in September, some even start setting up their Christmas displays in August! Should we be doing the same as sellers? Personally from a buyers point of view I don’t usually start thinking of Christmas until the beginning/middle of November, ie. after Halloween and will walk out of a shop if I as much as hear a blip of a Christmas song, but now as sellers is this far too late?

Is the time to start planning and making, different depending on what you do, make or sell?  For instance if you sell Christmas Supplies, make Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, Christmas themed items etc., or organise Christmas events, do you start planning and making earlier than others who make items like jewellery, gift items for the home etc?  If so, when do you start and when do you notice the start of your Christmas items selling?  Also, how much do you make and how much stock do you order?  On-line stores say the search for Christmas related items usually starts in September, but how does this compare with your impressions, have you sold anything Christmas related yet?  I sold at a Craft Fair in September some gift packaged book marks, which people told me were for Christmas presents, but I hadn’t packaged them up as Christmas items, I wasn’t even thinking Christmas then, was I being naive!

Christmas shopping on-line this year is predicted to be earlier, mainly due to last year’s issues with the early December snowfall and postage problems.  This is known commercially as Cyber Sunday and Cyber Monday and these dates this year are the 4th and 5th December.   This is when on-line retail traffic peaks.  So if those dates are anything to go by, be prepared for an onslaught of shoppers early December!  Also, for those who have mailing lists, Wednesdays, predictably the 14th December and 21st December is good for emails and is a good time for you to use your mailing lists to target your customers.

Also, we suppose we do all have to bear in mind the Christmas postage dates as well, so buyers get their items in time for Christmas, Royal Mail recommends posting earlier than later!   (See link: http://www2.royalmail.com/greetings)

So now the question of Christmas has been asked, we have another.  When should you start your Christmas/New Year Sales?

Do those retailers on the high street who start their Christmas/New Year Sales early, ie the last week or so before Christmas, do it too soon?  Personally as a buyer it puts me off buying from them, knowing that if I had waited I could possibly have bought items at half price.  As a small business selling mostly on-line and at Craft Fairs when should you start your Sale and how successful is it?  Will shoppers peak too early this year with their Christmas shopping, so have no money left for the Sales or will they remain savvy and wait for the last-minute to see if they can get a bargain, this is a gamble for both shoppers and retailers, so who will win?

So what do you think, we would love to hear your opinions and thoughts on this subject?  

Lastly, we at The Crafty Network are trying to do everything we can to attract and educate shoppers to our Facebook Page and Blog, so we can act as a kind of portal out to the bigger retail world of Facebook and on-line craft sites.  So many people we have spoken to are just not aware of the buying opportunities on-line, especially buying UK Handmade items.   That’s why we asked recently on our Facebook page if people would be willing to print and hand out our leaflets at Craft Events so we can spread the word.  We make
no money from promoting Handmade Crafts etc., and we give up a large amount of time to keep these pages going so a little bit of help is really appreciated.

We have also asked on our Facebook Page for Sellers to send us 3 photos of handmade items that people may want to buy as gifts this Christmas, so we can publicise them in a Christmas Album on Facebook and on here.  The closing date is 6th November, so far we are disappointed with the response, we really thought a lot more people would use this opportunity to promote their items.  All you need to do if you would like to join in with this promotion, please send us 3 good quality photos of items you are selling this Christmas, along with a description and price for each item and where the items can be found, ie. your Facebook shop url, or on-line shop url.  Send these to our email address: thecraftynetwork@gmail.com and please don’t leave it to the last minute.
Thanks.

Linda & Kay xx

 
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Posted by on October 27, 2011 in General

 

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