All wrapped up!

Christmas time. A time of wrappings, bows and tape.
Unless your thrifty, most ends up in the bin.  
The moment of a beautifully wrapped present is soon a crumpled crunchy pile.
Being given a present and unwrapping it is almost as exciting as the gift itself. So we choose to wrap our gifts beautifully. Going the extra mile to make the gift precious and wanted before it is even opened.
We use methods of furoshiki to wrap our gifts.
It is beautiful, reusable and kind to the environment (each year tonnes of plastic bags end up as litter and spends decades in landfills. Reusable material, such as furoshiki can help reduce this waste. It's versatile, which allows us to wrap almost anything regardless of its shape or size. Furoshiki uses techniques similar to origami, with stunning results. We add the final flourish of a silk ribbon and our compliments/gift tag for you to write a personal message to the recipient. The end result is beautiful as well as functional. Since we're not ones to waste, please remember that the cotton is yours and could be used again as a scarf, a burp cloth or a babies comfort blanket.

We always gift wrap every product that leaves u_ni_k so that you can give it to it's new owner exactly how you receive it! We wrap it without stickers or sellotape so that you can peek inside without disturbing the wrapping too much!!

unikgifts

Teacup tuesday- Displays

As well as running the lovely u-ni-k gifts, I run a little market to help me quench my passion for things made with love and care by talented creators. 

It's a way to envelope myself with inspirational people and their wonderful makings. 

The makers inspire me to get home and get my tools out. To be creative and to be crafty.

To have a go and jump in. 

Not only are they creative in their makings, they are also creative in their lovely displays at the markets I run.
An interesting stall or space invites you to come inside and take a peek.
Invites you to stop and peek, and if allowed to touch and investigate.
It should give an impression of how to use the product and be styled in a simple aesthetic way that makes the products shine.
Here are a few inspirational displays that i LOVE and aspire to. 

My Pinterest DISPLAY board

Here are a few of the market stallholders wonderful displays too!

Kate Smith Ceramics

Lucy Litchfield's pinnies and cards

Splendid Ocassions

English Handmade Soaps

Thimble Workshops

Feel free to share your wonderful displays. I would love to love them too and PIN them to share what you do!!

Lets inspire each other !

Wordless Wednesday- Made to order

A little bespoke box I have recently just made.

unikgifts

Wordless Wednesday....enjoying Autumn

unikgifts

Teacup tuesday... things in twos

Sarah and I have been tackling our end of year accounts. 

This year we have decided to bite the bullet and do as much of it as we can....

hoping that we can do it all. 

After all, we are intelligent ladies. 

We've done the majority of our bookkeeping in the past. So with both of our knowledge of running a small business and project management between us, we have almost mastered it. 

Almost there...

We've used a few tricks of the trade like running the accounts from the bank account and through the help of Paypal downloads. We (I) have made it pretty by colour coding it to simplify things. 

And of course look pretty!

Between us we have mastered it.

Between us we can do anything!

So today I congratulate us and our team work.

Well done us working Mums!

unikgifts.co.uk

Teacup tuesday.....Puss in boots eyes!

It's always lovely to see our chosen products being cared for, loved and used. 

Especially by little ones. 

So when we take part in markets & shows, we encourage people to play, touch and have ago. It's the only real opportunity that the general public get to see how special our things are. 

We are a gifting website after all! Although an image speaks 1000 words seeing the actual physical thing is something you just can't beat.

You see how vibrant a colour is, how soft the cashmere is and how something has been lovingly made with much love and care.

I am always overwhelmed by the gorgeous feedback we receive when we take our things out to be seen. Everyone swoons over the cashmere, laughs with us at the paper animal names (Sophia Le Hen, Eggory Peck and Cluck Gable to name a few) and I have caught many a man gazing adoringly at the Handmade wooden train and carriage and  the wonderful Mr Moose. It's understandable, both are incredibly handsome. Ive caught myself doing the same many times.

So, what more of a compliment is needed than a little girl who has been allowed to play and take bobbing bunny out on a little walk round the market to become a little bit tearful when she has to be parted and say goodbye. With proper Puss in Boots eyes.

We felt saddened that she felt so sad at the farewell but apparently she LOVES bunnies!

We do too!!!

What more can I say, our gifts are u-ni-k and quite irresistible. 

That's why we get a little saddened too when a piece finds a  new home.

We may be sad but it only lasts a moment, till we see a child's happy face and the thought of  it finding a happy home and being lovingly played with.

Image courtesy of Sarah D photography

unikgifts.co.uk

*P.s Apologies for the lack of blog yesterday. Mummy duties called! 

Monday Maker: Packaging & all the frilly finishing touches

This is the last in our Monday Making series of blogs.  If you have missed the other parts, click here to follow our blogs on making a product to sell over the past month.

1. Make, Create- Go on dive in!

2. Selling your wares

3. Marketing & Promotion

And now for Part 4- Packaging & all the frilly bits.

Ok, your product is fabulous and you have made a sale. 
Congratulations. But that isn’t where your job ends.

Service

I am BIG on service. The service you give is a reflection of your business. So if you have a face book or twitter site representing your business make sure you stay entirely professional.

Always ensure you communicate with your customer.

Acknowledge the order with a confirmation- in whatever way you choose to communicate with your clients. If you offer a “made to order” service and it takes ten days to make it, explain that in an email. Ensuring the client understand that the goods are made by one pair of hands with love and care.   If you need a little more time to make it, be honest and explain. Normally if they have chosen your product for the reason that it is a special unique and one off treasure, they will wait a little longer.

If you sell bought in products and you happen to be out of stock, explain the problem, offer a fabulous alternative and a refund if necessary. If the goods are delivered later than anticipated,  ensure  that you apologise, keep the client in the loop and as a gesture of good will, send something lovely to apologise like a gift voucher token.

Inform the client when it has been posted with a tracking number. 
Always be open in your communication.

A good service is normally a good foundation for a repeat sale.

If you offer matching sets to accompany the product the buyer has bought, make sure you send a little picture or mention the matching items. 

No big sales talk. An image talks 1000 words!

U-ni-k's porcelain matching egg cup, cereal bowl and cup sets

Packaging
Something alot of small business forget. But the packaging can be just as important as the bought product.  I know of people who have bought something purely because of the way it was gift wrapped!!

Aesthetics- Make sure your packaging reflects your little companies ethos.

We have chosen Furoshiki for many reasons. Our gifts are for infants so we wanted to replicate a swaddle cloth & a comforter.  Something without sharp edges, dangerous staples or messy wrappings.

We believe in being ec-friendly and making minimum wastage therefore we designed our packaging to have a double use. Not only is it a protective wrapping, it also duplicates as a burp cloth. A perfect free gift without giving a gift.

Don’t cut corners. If your ethos is to be eco-friendly recycling old packaging is fine if you stipulate you do so, so that people aren’t surprised. But be prepared to cost your packaging and include it in the cost of your products if it is something you do for free.

Function- If you are selling something breakable ensure your goods are well wrapped with a wrapping that will protect your goods in the post. You don't want your best efforts to go to waste and have to re-make it again.

Gift wrap- don’t feel you have to gift wrap your products. Offering the service for a additional price is ok.  If you do gift wrap make sure the gift is wonderful and gives the “WOW” factor. I believe that a beautifully wrapped gift present should make the recipient smile as much as the gift. A simple beautiful tissue with a customised sticker is lovely as a standard packaging. Beetroot Press uses a very pretty sweet floral tissue and a lovely string.

Mess & Outer Packaging- I recently opened a package full of broken Styrofoam sheets. A BIG mess over my floor. It looked un-professional, made a mess and quite honestly looked awful. Something i would avoid doing when packaging a product. Keep it simple, Mess free and if possible similar to the beautiful outside packaging. We use brown paper and string to outside wrap our parcels. 
Lucy from LucyLitchfield uses a beautiful brown gusseted envelope that she stamps with her logo in the shape of a brown parcel label and stitches through the envelope in red to replicate the string on the tag.

Fabrics & Material- Use something original that will be a signature of your business. Everyone remembers when Body shop started selling in their gift in fabric bags. Everyone wanted one. The bags at that time became more popular than the products. And with "Body SHOP" on the bags- helped spread the word.

Useful information-

Make sure the wrappings have your company name on and a way to contact you. If the product has been bought as a gift, the recipient may want to know where to find you. This can be done in the form of a swing tag or  a "hello"postcard. 
I love the combination of swings tags and postcards that Beetroot Press use. 

After care

We always send a  "your gift is dispatched" email to the client as the gift leaves us.  That way the client knows when to expect it. Always ensure any track able delivery has been received by following the delivery on the Couriers website. That way you know if there is a problem before the client does.

Marketing

If the client has agreed to allow you to keep their details in the form of a client list, use the Marketing & Promotion blog from last week to keep in touch with your client.

Click here to read it.

Survey Monkey

Survey Monkey is a good tool to follow up your sale and gain feedback.  A perfect tool to gain constructive criticism and positive feedback.

We have a section on our website for Client feedback and an album on facebook of "We use our products so we can recommend them to you" so people can see our gifts in action. We also always share images of other people enjoying their new gifts on our social networking sites.

We hope you have liked reading our helping hints into taking the jump and delving into being Crafty.
The MOST important piece of advice I can give is to enjoy what you are making.
If you are smiling so will your product.
 And be Original

Happy Crafting

From the u-ni-k gift ladies, Anna & Sarah

Friday Funny- Special delivery

The naughties!

unikgifts.co.uk

Teacup Tuesday- Constructive Criticism

Criticism is a difficult subject. It’s tough, it’s hard and it’s normally quite personal. But I think there are two types.

The Negative & The Positive.

There being only one difference between them.

Is the criticism constructive?

If it is, then it is most certainly positive.

Something you can build on, take on board and learn from. Be open, be transparent and use it to your best advantage.

As a maker & a small business co-owner we use the information we receive constructively. Whether it be a new making we have concocted, a product we have been deliberating over or a successful sale we have made- Feedback on all of these is important.

I am in the process of making a new product. Something I know needs moving on but I was flat and in need of help and encouragement. After falling flatly after asking for some feedback that was simply unhelpful and pretty useless I delved to people I knew would brutally be true. I am now inspired and my head is full of new ways to move it on. If only I had the time

I recently took over running a lovely local little market. Stallholders are inspiring and creative and also wonderfully critical. But in a positive way. Ways to help the market grow thrive and show the perfectly made wares off to their best advantage.

We are lucky at u-ni-k gifts to receive mostly good feedback from Sales. But any that we do receive negative or positive we always work on to make our service better. Recently a lady asked for an alternative to the silk ribbon we use to wrap the gift she was buying as the gift receiver was a Vegan. We always try to aim to please. A this hand made cotton “scrap” ribbon I suggested made from the scraps of the burp cloth from the Memory box made delivered a new ribbon alternative to the silk ribbon.

Recently somebody recommended a great product that I am deliberating over.

Survey monkey

Criticism is great and should be used to grow from. So I am delving deeper into researching a little on Survey monkey with a view to suggesting to Sarah we use it to help our little u-ni-k grow.

u-ni-k gifts

Monday Mentor... Our local fayre organisers!

OK so not the catchiest of blog titles but today I want to celebrate two different women that kind of do the same thing!

Both these ladies spend a lot of time organising fayres in our local area where u-ni-k gifts can promote and sell some of our lovely treasures to people. These fayres allow us to talk to our customers and find out what they love about our products and what they'd perhaps like us to keep our eyes out for in the future.

This is an invaluable experience for us as our online sales can sometimes lack the human touch of a conversation. While it's always good to receive positive feedback, it's even better when you can see the smile on the face of the person buying the gift!

In organising these fayres these ladies not only book the hall, organise the stalls (making sure no two stalls are alike) and communicating with all the stall holders. They also ensure that there are refreshments on site, there is ample parking for us to unload all our goods and ample parking for those that are coming to see us!

On top of all this, they sort out the advertising, printing & putting up / handing out flyers, putting up the banners on the day, and endlessly marketing the event to ensure footfall (people attending the fayre) is worth all the effort they and we the stall holders put in to holding the fayre.

So the unsung heroes of the Godalming Independent Market; Loretta Farell, and Love What We Do events in West Byfleet, Jane Tyson, are today's Monday Mentors.

Well Done Ladies, we take our hats off to you!

u-ni-k gifts will be at the next Love What We Do event on Friday 28th September, from 9am onwards at 
The Cornerstone Centre (next to St John’s Church), Camphill Road, West Byfleet KT14 6EH

Click Here to put the Facebook Event in your diary



u-ni-k gifts will also be at the next Godalming Independent Market on Saturday 29th September from 10am onwards at: 

Godalming Borough Hall

Bridge Street (across from Waitrose)

Godalming Surrey   GU7 1HR

A lot can happen in a year!

Today I celebrate my little boy Samson’s

(aka BIG Boy Bump, SamSam, Tsar, BamBam and naughty number 2)  

first Birthday.

The BIG 1

Woweeeee.

A lot can happen in one year. For starter’s my little boy has grown into a fully fledged coal eating, mud cramming in mouth and scattering round my house, walking, sort of talking, charming sweet little boy. He’s shocked me into the world of little boys. He throws, he chews, he bangs and he eats EVERYTHING!!! Literally everything. Cardboard, dirt,  bugs, you name it he’ll try it. And enjoy it and have it again. A delicacy! 

Such a lot of growing to make something so small turn into something so BIG and charming. He has a gorgeous sense of humour, a very cheeky personality and most certainly knows his own mind. And he’s such a BIG handsome boy! And i think looking like my Dad, his Granddad Allan everyday.

In the same way, little u-ni-k has grown. In the year that Sam has been around, u-ni-k has flourished and grown into a beautiful international company. Yes we have clients in Australia don’t you know!

Here is a little of what has happened in Sam’s first year.

Our cheeky paper friends featured in The Telegraph’s Christmas gift guide as well as our baby blankets in The Telegraphs S T Kids.

Our beautiful baby blankets featured in the beautiful Selvedge magazine.

All our beautiful gifts have featured in House Beautiful, The Sunday Post, Stylista Magazine, Simply Crochet, Angels and Urchins to name a few.

Samson himself and u-ni-k had a little preview in Baby Surrey’s Welcome to the World feature.

Our beautiful newly designed Website has grown and become something wonderful. I am very proud of its look and the coverage it and our beautiful gifts have achieved. The website is all Sarah’s handy work may I say! Sarah you make beautiful ideas come to life. Thank you for being the women “who knows” with website stuff. Without Sarah’s know how u-ni-k would not be! 

We’ve been shortlisted for a Mumpreneur award and managed to wangle ourselves a #WOW award from Jacqueline Gold herself!  Whoop Whoop!

Lily Allen’s little baby Ethel has a Shuktara baby blanket to snuggle up to at night.

And lots of lovely other babies and children get to treasure their u-ni-k gifts everyday.

We have new beautiful makers added to the website, like the beautiful patchwork blankets made from your babies old baby grows and muslins made by the lovely Susan. What Mum can throw away those tiny little baby grows!?? The perfect Keepsake for Mum and baby!

So what’s in line for u-ni-k's next year?

New suppliers in the pipeline…. beautiful new things to share with you all.

Most certainly weird and wonderful tales and musing from Sarah and I.

Plenty more Friday funnies….we always have plenty of humour !

A Theo Paphitis #SBS award perhaps?

A mention in a book?

And new babies ??

Who knows!

JOKE!!