Art Studio Confessions: Creating a Stationery Business at Home

When I was first starting my business, I had no idea what I was doing. Most days, I still don't feel like I entirely know what I'm doing...but I do feel like I've learned a lot since 2013!

I first started making greeting cards in 2011 after I came home to California from Italy. This was the early days of Pinterest being such a reliable resource for information. This was also pre-Instagram being the end all, be all for advertising and networking. Blogging was at its peak and it was wonderful! But it was still hard to find resources and other stationery artists willing to divulge their secrets so a lot of things I learned were by trial and error, and also working with a tight budget.

And so! I wanted to share some of my favorite tools and suppliers I've discovered over the last 9 years of working and growing Sketchy Notions from my first failed market to being carried in over 100 stores between the US and Canada!

**Please note: This is NOT the end all, be all bible list of how to start/run your business! These are just some things I've learned and products and resources that I've grown to love and wish I had known about back in the early days to building Sketchy. A lot of these links are affiliate links too, which means I get a teeny bit of money for sharing. But I only share products and services that I personally love and use :) 

Bellissima Art Retreats 2017

Happy New Year everyone! Well, I guess that phrase is a couple weeks old now. Seeing as we are two weeks into 2017. 

I've been getting back into the swing of things, after taking a nice long break from commissions and thinking about work. Which typically means now that blogging is the on the burner farthest back, in a whole other damn house. I'll try to be better this year! I can't make any promises, but I'll try. 

I know quite a few of you already know about the newest business venture but I wanted to do a little post about what's coming this year! 

Last summer, my business partner and I set out to host our first art retreat in Florence, Italy! It was amazing and so exciting that something we had chatted about over coffee less than a year prior actually came to fruition! 

And so Bellissima Art Retreats was born! We're officially a business (paperwork filed and all, woot!) and we've got big plans for this year. We are plotting some Southern California weekend art retreats but our biggest goal this year is share Italy and creating art in Tuscany with more people. 

So this summer, we're going even bigger! We will be holding 2 one week long retreats back in my favorite Tuscan town...Castiglion Fiorentino! We will be staying in an updated farmhouse tucked back in the Val di Chio just outside of town. The farmhouse is owned by the Buccelletti family, who I've been friends with since I first traveled to CFno years ago. 

Fun story: my friend Michele Bucculletti met his wife, Renee, when she was studying at the study abroad center. I was working there at the time and got to watch the magic of that town bring another couple together and then I got to make their wedding album a few years later!

Renee has been helping us coordinate and get all the amazing activities for the summer lined up! We will be having cooking classes, walking tours of the towns, day trips to Assisi and Cortona (the same Cortona from Under the Tuscan Sun), transportation to and from everything and so much more. Our villa is surrounded by stunning views of olive groves and vineyards that we get to paint every day. Did I mention it also has a pool? Yeah...to say we're excited about this coming June is an understatement. 

We've already had some amazing folks reserve their spots for next summer, and I'd love it if some of you guys could come along! Bring your mom along for a mother daughter trip! Or just your sisters, sorority or genetic! Grab a couple of your favorite besties for a summer of reminiscing about that time you studied abroad together. Surprise your girlfriend with an excuse for her to invest in that "one day I'll paint in Italy" dream. Or simply just do it as a gift to yourself because...why the hell not? 

weekend of shopping mayhem

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I hope you are warm and cozy and still under the influence of a delicious turkey induced coma! If you haven't seen on Instagram, I'm currently over in Utah with family. More or less off the grid too. There's no cell service back in the canyon and wifi only works around the house. So when we go off on 4-wheeler rides up the little winding trails, we are completely disconnected. And it's lovely!

I'm taking a quick break from the incredible technology silence to share a couple quick reminders! As I'm sure you know, today is the dreaded Black Friday. I have mixed feelings about this shopping day but there are some great deals out there to snatch up. 

Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday! This day is one of my favorite excuses to shop! Shopping combined with supported small businesses, hard to say no! Then Monday is Cyber Monday for all those last minute deals you may have missed (or opted to miss in order to stay home in pajamas!). 

I have some sales happening in the Notional Notions Etsy shop and the Sketchy Notions shop as well! If you're on the mailing list, you already got a head start on the sales but now everyone can get in on it! Until midnight on Monday, you can use the coupon THANKFUL20 for 20% off in BOTH shops! (This excludes custom work in the Etsy shop, sorry!)

Also! If you order over $40 worth of goodies in either shop, I'll throw in a set of Holiday cards for free! Hooray! There's also some other coupons in the Sketchy Notions shop. PRINTLOVE gets you any TWO large prints for $32! PEARLYLOVE will get you THREE pairs of Pearl Snap Earrings for $30, a nice way to knock out some of those stocking stuffers. My special listing for a pair of earrings, a card and a hand-printed pouch is still one of my favorites too! 

Happy early Holiday shopping guys! I hope you are able to find some gifts (maybe even for yourself!)

Have you found any killer deals? Any Etsy shops having amazing sales out there? 

farewell 2013, hello 2014

I mailed off my last giant commission on Friday so I'm officially on a mini and much needed Christmas break! In this downtime to clean and reorganize, it really hit me: the year is almost over! So much happened this year, and so much was made! That's the part I'm most excited about... If you follow along on Twitter, you already know I did the math a couple nights ago. My sales increased 324% this year! Insane! I started participating in small artist markets this year. This year I also officially filed my business name and for copyright of Sketchy Notions. I also opened up my second online shop, Sketchy Notions. 

This year I had 13 big commissions! Including 1 custom brand logo, 6 custom photo albums (three of those are the New York Triplets I'll be sharing soon), 2 custom children's books, and 6 weddings albums. I can't wait to share that last wedding album, I'm really blown away by how sweet and considerate this client was. January will be full of sharing of all these secret projects! 

Although not much progress was made on my 25 before 26 list, looking back at all the progress I made on my business is a very nice consolation. I'm already making lists for changes to make to the shops in January, as well as Valentine's Day designs and dreaded tax season in April. There's a lot of really great advice floating around the blogosphere for starting up and running a small business. Reading it all was a nice jump start to get motivated to make my lists for January and start preparing for what I want to accomplish next year. Here are some of my favorites: 

• Silly Grrl - Small Business Planning for a brilliant 2014
• Design Sponge - 5 Steps to gaining confidence in your business
• Paper n Stitch - A quick guide to setting and meeting your goals in 2014
• Design Sponge - How to tap into your core message to grow your business
• The Nectar Collective - Dream Chasing

Here's a peek at some of my latest secret commissions and a look back at some of my favorite projects from this year! 

1. Adventures with Grandma and Grandpa, custom photo album 

2. Curren Christopher's custom photo album. 

3. Jaime's Custom Wedding Keepsake Album

Here's a peek at all the new projects I can't wait to share...

4. Paige & Lola, custom children's book

5. The New York Triplet albums

6. The very special and insanely sweet "wedding" album