Amelie'S Crafthouse

With a heavy heart, last night following the PM’s announcement, I temporarily closed my Etsy shop. Will be keeping busy though somehow restocking alongside home schooling 😱🤪
Keep safe everyone. Sending love 💕 will be back once these strange times have passed💕

Today’s prompt for #marchmeetthemaker is Marketing. Not something I feel like discussing in the current climate and I certainly have no gems of wisdom to share on what remains a subject I struggle with! Instead thought I would share this bright rainbow sign I have just finished 🌈 . Will be keeping my Etsy shop open for as long as the lovely Royal Mail continues to accept parcels. . Feeling all sorts of strange emotions today on what may end up being our daughter’s last day at... primary school. In preparing ourselves for the start of home schooling next week, we’ve decided we need a timetable to maintain some sort of a routine and semblance of normality. Our school has been brilliant in sharing lots of ideas and links to help. We are also fortunate to be surrounded by lots of open countryside so at least we can get plenty of fresh air and exercise... somehow got to burn off all our daughter’s abundant energy now that she won’t have the 7 hours a week she usually spends doing gymnastics and trampolining! 🤸🏼‍♀️🏃‍♀️
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Packaging... this has always had to have two jobs: the main one being to ensure that orders arrive safely but also to look pretty so the recipient has a lovely experience receiving or gifting it. I have worked hard this year to remove the remaining plastic from my packaging - so no more bubble wrap (unless I’m recycling some I’ve already used), no more plastic mailbags and (almost) no more plastic sticky tape (just need to improve my wrapping skills to remove that last bit!) All packaging is now either recycled, recyclable or reusable including: Kraft paper wrapping paper and hand stamped tags, hessian, ribbon, jute string, brown paper tape and cardboard mailers. Business and thank you cards are printed on recycled card 😅 . . #marchmeetthemaker - Day 19 - Packaging

Skills/techniques... I have always loved learning new skills and experimenting with different techniques. The scroll saw, shown here in the centre, is something I would like to use more to improve and expand my skills. These are some of the shapes I have cut so far...from small decorative pieces to some larger stand alone ones. Can’t wait to get my scroll saw set up again in the workshop! . Thank you all your well wishes for my parents yesterday. You’re all so kind. Spoke to them last night and they had made it as far as northern France and are making the dash to Calais this morning 😅 All sounds very surreal with roads and towns deserted... such strange times. . #marchmeetthemaker - Day 18 - Skills/Technique

Have to say blue is how I’m feeling right now. Trying to keep calm and carry on (safely) but it’s hard isn’t it? My parents are down in the south of France and are now trying to make it back with France in lockdown. Will be much happier when they are safely back, especially as they are in their 70s (though thankfully in good health).
Trying to keep going with #marchmeetthemaker so here is what I’m ‘Proud of’...
I am proud to have got this far with my small business. I’ll be h...onest, when I opened my Etsy shop I had absolutely no clue what I was doing, my photography was terrible, I didn’t have a cohesive range, and social media and marketing were a total mystery (maybe they still are 🤔!) But with hard work, lots of research, reading, trial and error plus the invaluable support and advice of other creatives I am where I am! Not quite full-time, as I fit work around our daughter, but that is my aim. I am also proud of the lovely feedback, reviews and repeat orders I receive from my customers. Happy customers make me happy 😊. . #marchmeetthemaker2020 - Day 17 - Proud of
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Unique Selling Point... personalised signs for kids are by no means unique and there plenty of others making them. But I hope by putting my own spin on them with careful attention to detail and a very personal service, I have created something unique in what is a crowded market place. For each piece I hand pick a mixture of fonts (I may even be the only one doing this - I don’t know for sure!); paint them in attractive colour combinations, before finishing each element with hand painted designs. Throw my recycled wood into the mix and I can truly guarantee that each and every piece I create is unique. That’s the power of handmade! . #marchmeetthemaker - Day 13 - USP

Learning curve... I find the whole process of running a business a constant learning curve. With all the hats I have to wear as a small business owner, there are always new skills, processes and improvements to be made. From learning how to use a new tool; to designing and testing new products; keeping up with constant changes to technology and social media, to better time management.
One thing I have most definitely learned however is that measuring just once leads to costly mistakes🙄. Measure twice, cut once is always ringing in my ears!
#marchmeetthemaker - Day 12 - Learning Curve

🤔 What additions would you like to see to this range? This selection represents my most of my range for kids spaces. It all started with just one style of sign with stars or hears to decorate in eight colour combinations. It has gradually grown to include custom decorations, hooks and artwork hangers and are now available in twenty colour combinations. I’m wondering where to take this range next 🤔...
I’ve temporarily had to stop producing custom shapes whilst I have nowhere to easily operate my scroll saw. But I’ll be back... one day soon hopefully, once the leaky roof is fixed and the former toilets are removed from what will be the new workshop (this of course has proved a far bigger job than anticipated 🙄).
Day 11 #marchmeetthemaker - Range

Authentic space... our new house has a little more space than our old one so I’ve been able to nab the smallest bedroom as a studio (of sorts!) For now the space doubles as a dumping ground for things we’ve yet to find a home for whilst we refurbish the house. For my birthday back in November, I was given this fab worktable and lamp which I’m very much enjoying. Having this dedicated workspace rather than using the kitchen table to work at is such an improvement in so many ways - far more efficient not having to pack away at the end of the day so dinner can be prepared and served!
Looking forward to taking the bareness off the walls with some prints and pictures including my fab ‘We are the Makers’ poem by @thebespokebard for @justacard .
Day 10 #marchmeetthemaker - Authentic Space

Mock up... thought I’d give you a little behind the scenes look at the mock ups my customers receive during the design process. To ensure my customers are happy with my proposed designs I always send them a draft design showing my font selection in the colour combination they chose. I have learnt over the years that fonts can be a very personal thing! Sometimes small tweaks are made, sometimes not and occasionally a customer might decide they prefer lowercase rather than uppercase letters for example. Once the design is agreed, I then sand the letters to get them super smooth before giving them a second coat of colour. Only then do I hand paint all the decorative detail and finalise the design. . Day 9 - #marchmeetthemaker - Rough/Mock Up

Reducing waste... My philosophy for life is very much about “leaving only footprints” on our beautiful planet. With this is mind, swapping to eco-friendly packaging has been very much at the top of my To Do List. Very happy to say that, after extensive research and testing affordable options, I have now made the switch from bubble wrap to corrugated paper wrapping; from plastic sticky tape to recyclable tape (as far as possible) and from plastic outer wrappers to these fab ne...w cardboard book wraps (shown here) 😄 I will also continue to reuse pre-used packaging where appropriate. Very happy with my eco friendly book wraps from @priory.direct which I’m already finding are streamlining my packaging process too. . Changing my packaging has been difficult to achieve as a small business with eco friendly options being much more expensive and with my pieces being bespoke and varying so much in size. But this is an issue that is so important to the way I try to live my life and run my business, that I was determined to make these changes. Relieved to have finally found a solution 😅 . Day 6 #marchmeetthemaker - Reducing waste
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Close up... I’ve always loved the little details, those finishing touches which elevate a piece from ordinary to extraordinary. I love getting close up to nature, art, fabrics etc and seeking out the finer details. Attention to detail spills over into my work too. I remember being fascinated by pointillism during my art A Level - all those dots!
Whilst I would never call myself a pointillist, I do love coming up with all the different dotted designs that finish off my designs. Here’s a close up of my hand painted compass design which would not be complete without that single tiny dot at the centre of the arrow!

Time... there’s never enough is there?! As a mum and business owner my time is always a juggling act. But I feel very fortunate to be running my own business meaning I have the luxury of working flexibly fitting my work around our young daughter. . I get to wear a lot of different hats when running my business and some suit me more than others! But because I’m doing something I truly love, it doesn’t feel like work (mostly!) Whilst I would love to spend all my time making, ac...tually when you run your own business it becomes an increasingly small part of how time is spent. The planning, goal setting, admin, accounts, branding, social media, photography, keeping my Etsy online shop up to date, online listings for products, packaging and dispatching orders etc all takes time... a lot of time! Added to this, following our recent move to Devon into a renovation project of a house I’m also squeezing in DIY, so my days are very full at the moment! . Day 3 #marchmeetthemaker - Time
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Hands at work... my pieces are entirely hand made - from preparing and finishing the recycled wood; waxing the finished signs, hooks and artwork hangers; selecting the mixed fonts, to creating and hand painting the agreed design. Usually I do all my own photography too so one hand is operating the camera. But for this shot, I enlisted my partner Mark to help with photography (and to prove that I do actually have two hands!) Here I’m adding the chunky jute rope hangers to a batch of signs. . Not going to manage to complete the whole #marchmeetthemaker challenge this year but am going to dip in where I can! This is Day 2...

Friday already - this week has really flown by! Caught up on orders after the half term break, including this explorer door sign, so am feeling on top things again 😅
Weather looks rubbish again this weekend so don’t think we’ll be doing any exploring. We will instead be preparing for our new wood burning stove being installed next week... very exciting and cannot wait for the house to be warm of an evening! Will also be relieved to get the chimney defended from nesting jackdaws too - they have been hanging out up there of late!

These two signs in pink, grey and white are on their way to their new homes. One of these is a gift for a new baby niece 💕 . Thank you for all your best wishes for Amelie in her cross country race yesterday! She enjoyed it and did really well despite tripping up and rolling the mud... well if you’re going to get muddy you should do it properly 🙄🤣

Seeing stars... and sunshine for once! Really hoping the sun stays, at least for today, as Amelie is part of a team representing her school at a local cross country race. Anticipating a mountain of muddy washing later 😬🤣

Oops been a bit absent with half term and catching up on orders after the break! Very glad there’s lots of bright colours on my work table given the continuing grey, wet weather... will it ever end?! 🤷‍♀️
Also starting to plan for #marchmeetthemaker which kicks off on Sunday! Anyone else joining in this year?