Shop Update
I have not one but two new designs for Father’s Day coming up on the 19th June!
Father’s Day is the one celebration I find hard to design for as I never want to fall into any of the same cliché traps - Think pints of beer, cars, gardening, golf, fishing etc - which I personally find are not a representation of men and father’s. Just like not all mum’s are all about shoes, flowers and Prosecco, so too are father’s more diverse than what the current greeting card climate displays.
So I put the question to my Instagram audience - What do they look for when purchasing cards for their dads? The feedback was so insightful and useful as it helped me see the types of themes and imagery that you guys are looking for. So I hit my sketchbook and drew up these two designs; one inspired by space, constellations and stars, and the other by vinyls, record players and vinyl label artwork.
I hope you’ll agree that these designs are not like the usual fair you’ll see on your local high street, hopefully giving all those dads outside the cliché norms a card perfect for their Father’s Day.
For the dads who collected vinyls in their hey day, or during their revival. For those trendy vintage dads, and those vintage dads who are trendy!
• Card measures 10.5cm x 14.7cm (4-1/8 x 5-7/8 inches)
• Card is blank for your own personal message
• Design is printed on 350 gsm recycled card and comes complete with its own recycled envelope.
• Please recycle your card after use.
• Want to save some postage? I can write your message and post your card at no extra charge! Simply select from the drop down menus and add your personalised message in the text box. Be sure the delivery address is your recipients!
There are some dads who go above and beyond. Celebrate how special your father is this Father’s Day with my illustrated and cosmic greetings cards.
• Card measures 10.5cm x 14.7cm (4-1/8 x 5-7/8 inches)
• Card is blank for your own personal message
• Design is printed on 350 gsm recycled card and comes complete with its own recycled envelope.
• Please recycle your card after use.
• Want to save some postage? I can write your message and post your card at no extra charge! Simply select from the drop down menus and add your personalised message in the text box. Be sure the delivery address is your recipients!
The second product to hit my online shop are these contrasting screen printed patches, which I’ll be honest, have taken me years to list.
Yep, these patches have been in my cupboards for the past few years, hidden away by shame. You see the monkey patches were printed to go on some lovely kids t-shirts which, unfortunately, haven’t sold. Because I was a bit embarrassed about this product tanking badly I decided I would just shove the remaining patches in the cupboard and hope one day I’d make my money back by some divine miracle.
Of course that’s not how you make a living when you work for yourself, so I gave myself the goal of getting them photographed and listed by the summer. It was the little push I needed to get them out there and out of my cupboard, and I hope you’ll like them as much as I did when I had them first printed back in 2019!
Illustrated digitally, these celestial moon and stars patches are perfect for jackets, bags or anything you want to embellish.
• Patch measures 8 x 8cm
• Screen printed with a high quality overlocked hem to prevent fraying.
• Application instructions come with each patch, printed on recycled paper and packaged inside a glassine envelope.
• Please recycle your instructions and glassine envelope after use.
Illustrated digitally, these tropical monkey patches are perfect for jackets, bags or anything you want to embellish.
• Patch measures 8 x 8cm
• Screen printed with a high quality overlocked hem to prevent fraying.
• Application instructions come with each patch, printed on recycled paper and packaged inside a glassine envelope.
• Please recycle your instructions and glassine envelope after use.
Enjoy having a browse through my new products, and if you have any feedback please feel free to email me or drop a comment below!
Deborah x
The Great Postage Debate
As some of you may have seen in the news (it’s a bit inescapable) our lives are about to get a whole lot more expensive.
Self belief coach Anna Dunleavy shared in her Instagram stories last week an amazing reel from Susie Jackson (pricing mentor) talking about how freelancers should be thinking about their worth and in doing so increasing their prices to be able to cope with the increased interest rates. It’s got me thinking about my products, my pricing, my offerings and when I did the math I was doing myself a disservice.
Etsy are very keen for all their sellers to offer free shipping, and this is something I implemented to try and get more sales, more customers etc. Their stance is for us to absorb the postage costs into our product pricing, however I don’t feel this really works for my offerings, especially when people mostly buy single sheets of paper or cards. Over time, I’ve just been losing money. And whilst I’ve wanted to try and not be too expensive for people, I’m really not doing myself any favours. So I’ve decided to add shipping costs back into my online shops as a starting point for me trying to keep my head above the rising tide of price increases in every daily element of my life.
I wont lie, just this small alternation scares me a lot. I’m scared that I’ll lose my customers and I’m scared that this will be the end for my small business. As soon as I put my postage on my listings, Etsy will be there to alert me that in doing so I’m charging more than my contemporaries, that people won’t buy from me, that it’s a bad idea. So I hope this isn’t the case and that you all will be happy to pay the extra 85p to have your card posted, or £1.29 for your gift wrap. I don’t feel it’s steep, but of course I value your feedback and comments on this.
This may seem like such a small thing, but I am a small business and so for me it’s huge. I’m laying my heart bare in the hope that my transparency helps explain the decision, and also shows the intricacies of how businesses run. Postage will be added tomorrow and any orders over £30 will automatically get that desirable free shipping.
Hope you all understand and please let me know your thoughts and feelings!
Deborah
The Etsy Market Summer LookBook
Very excited to share with you that my Eat Kind tea towel has been featured in this years Etsy Market Summer lookbook!
The Etsy Market is a virtual shopping event that is a perfect opportunity to shop unique and one of a kind from a selection of very talented and passionate makers. Some events are run locally, and some are curated by Etsy themselves, but always featuring wonderful treasures from Etsy’s marketplace.
You can shop directly through the lookbook above with clickable links to each product, with the market running till the 15th June, and help support small businesses (like mine) working hard every day to keep their dream going.
Happy shopping!
Deborah x