In My Studio: Updating my Packaging

So Handmade's New Packaging

In January I decided to give my packaging a much needed update. Getting the right packaging can benefit your craft business in many ways. I decided to go with these recycled boxes and mailers from EcoEnclose.

By spending a little more time and money on the end product could have a big difference in your brand identity at the end of the day.

Great packaging can:

1. Get your products 'noticed' in a sea of vendors at a craft fair or in the Etsy search pages.
2. Increase the perceived value of your products, enabling you to increase your profits
3. Be informative- giving the customer info about the product and your company for potential future orders.
4. Make your line of products more cohesive
5. Elevate your brand and make it memorable

Great Packaging from The Pudgy Rabbit

In order to achieve this the packaging should:

1. Be thought of as an integral part of the product and not just an afterthought.
2. It should reflect or complement your brand, your ethos and your style
3. Be easily replicated for future items
4. Affordable
5. Not too time consuming
6. As green as possible

Some different ideas for creating your own unique, eye catching and memorable packaging could include making your own stamps or block prints, printed materials, stickers, fabric bags and ribbons or even including a small 'freebie' with your product.

I posted on this blog a little while ago a tutorial to make your own fabric labels. This technique could be applied to making your own packaging ribbon and labels. Click this link to access the tutorial.

Also adding a gift wrap option in your listings can help customers who would like to send the purchase direct to the recipient and its a great way of adding value to your shop.

Adding a Gift Wrapping Option is a great way to add value to your Etsy Shop

Good luck and Good Making!

Good things come in small packages!

Sarah Omura - SO Handmade

Green Packaging

So we start off a new year and a new decade with good intentions. Perhaps one of those is to consider ways to green up our daily living practices. As I've looked more closely this past year at where our food comes from, ways that I use and waste energy, etc., I"ve also thought about my art and its impact on the environment.

Take the simple process of getting a pin to a customer. What are my options for packaging? Factors that might go into my choices would be where my materials will come from - how far away? Are they made from recycled products? Can they be recycled themselves? What is a fair trade off for aesthetics and practicality vs greenest option and cost?

So far I use hang tags that are printed locally, using non-recycled card stock. I couldn't find a good card stock that had recycled content without buying much larger quantities than I'd ever use.

I do use cardboard gift boxes made from recycled paper. But they are sent from California - and perhaps somewhere else before that. A lot of fuel goes into delivering them to me!

Then I mail them out to customers. I'd been using bubble mailers till I read about other solutions on Etsy threads. Since then I've been looking for the old fashioned padded mailers that are recyclable, but in the meantime have been wrapping the box in bubble wrap and putting it in a regular mailer. This way, at least, the bubble wrap can be reused if someone cares to - and the mailer can be recycled. Recently I did find the padded mailers I'd been looking for at Target's. They're made by 3M so now the task is to try to find a wholesaler to buy them from so the cost will be a little more reasonable.

I write this not having the answers, but hoping to get a fruitful dialogue going, so that we can all move ahead in our businesses, knowing that we're doing what we can to live carefully.