About Me

Hi, I'm Louise, and I'm a work at home mother of two. This is the story of how I started selling my crafts at home parties and ended up doing this website. I hope it will encourage those of you out there who want to give it a go too.

A bit of background...

I've been crafting for as long as I can remember, and have tried my hand at all sorts, but I only started trying to sell my crafts after my children were born. Like a lot of moms, I decided not to return to my London job so that I could stay home with my two boys. But it was hard without my salary, and I also felt I needed some stimulation to keep my brain alive!

I looked at local part time jobs, but none of them interested me and childcare costs for twins wouldn't leave me with much at the end of the month anyway. I tried doing the catalogue delivery thing, but it was miserable and didn't make me much money.

And so I began experimenting with selling my crafts...

First craft sales...

I began with mohair teddy bears. Mostly I sold to friends and through word of mouth. I also had a website, but no one knew it existed and I didn't know how to go about changing that! My bears brought in some extra spending money, but were by no means an income.

Next were greeting cards. I started by selling through websites that specialised in handmade cards, but hardly sold any. I was too scared to approach shops, so just did a few local markets, but they were few and far between.

Discovering home parties...

Then a friend invited me to a Phoenix Cards home party and I realised I could sell my cards this way too! I began looking up everything I could find on doing home parties and had my own 'launch' party just before Mother's Day.

It was so exciting to see people buying my stuff! I didn't make a killing that day, but did well enough to realise that this home party business had potential. I continued doing greeting card home parties on and off, and when I began making jewellery, I started selling that at home parties too.

Down to business...

Around May 2005 I realised I needed to really work at turning this into a proper business. My boys were due to start school in September, and I knew that if I didn’t start earning a decent income from my home parties, I would need to go back to work.

I had to get serious and gave myself until school started to get it going.

The biggest problem had always been getting new bookings. I always did well at home parties, but they were too intermittent. I attended home parties for the big party plan companies, and started trying out the things I learned from them.

It took a while but by the time my boys started school I was getting regular bookings and felt confident that I was on the right track.

Success at last...

Since then, with the extra time I’ve been able to invest while my boys were at school, my business has continued to grow and grow. In addition to being able to help out with some of our home expenses, I’ve also been able to treat the family to things we never could’ve afforded when I wasn’t earning. It’s a great feeling!

I’m still learning, and by no means have I perfected the art of home parties, but hopefully my experiences will help you give it a go. You might not have to make as many mistakes as I did (and still do) if you learn from mine! And that’s what this website is all about: to help you successfully sell your crafts at home parties.

And another success...

Although I'd had websites to showcase my jewellery (and my previous crafts) on so guests and repeat customers could refer to it, I'd never had a website that actually attracted visitors to itself. So building Craft-Selling-Parties.com has been a real learning experience for me.

What's made it really easy is using Site Build It! As well as allowing me to build my website without needing to get too technical, it provides all the tools and information I need in order to attract visitors, like you!

It's wonderful to see people finding Craft-Selling-Parties.com, especially when they write in to ask questions or to thank me - I love knowing that the site is helping people. Crafting and my jewellery business are my passions, so it feels good to share it with others.

An added bonus is that this website now also contributes to my work at home income. Using Google Ads and recommending products that I know are good means that Craft-Selling-Parties.com provides a 'back up wage' for me when I'm on vacation or during the summer holidays when I can't do as many jewellery parties.

Your turn...

The great thing is that anyone else can do the same. If you'd like to find out how you can earn money from a website about your passion or area of expertise, click here for the lowdown. Or feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.