Spring is in the air

That's a saying, isn't it. Spring is in the air? Well, along with Spring being in the air, so are my hands and my flailing arms as I shout "whyyyyy" into the clouds

If you haven't been keeping up with my rants via Instgram, I was finally struck down with covid. It got me on my birthday of all days, the creepy little creep. It also hung around waaay longer than was acceptable, bashing my immune system with reckless abandonment - v. rude

So yes, while it was a super crummy way to spend my week off work/the start of the Easter holidays, it did also mean that I was able to focus any of the energy I could muster into getting this website up and ready - silver linings etc

I had a personal goal of April to get this site up and running. Although covid and a few other fiddly factors did slow me down, I still made it! Haha

You may be wondering, why do you need a website Nelly, and that's a valid wonder, it's not *just* because I'm an egomaniac, I swear ; )

I did have an Etsy that was working well, along with a Facebook group that wasn't and a #buymeacoffee page that was somewhere in the middle. I guess I could have continued plodded along with those three options, but I was feeling like change needed to happen

You must have heard that Etsy put up their transaction rate earlier in the year. As a tiny small business that already felt like Etsy were taking a chunk of my change, the additional increase felt frankly rude and unnecessary. That increase along with a growing sense of unease about the way they handle things left me looking elsewhere

Likewise with my #buymeacoffee page, things weren't quite working in the way that I had hoped. Although I loved having a little community there, it wasn't as easy for people to get to. Plus, having everything behind a paywall didn't sit right with me and made sharing a bit harder. Along with the loss of PayPal as a method of payment/payout and a few promises about podcast hosting capabilities that never came to fruition, it just wasn't all it had cracked up to be

My Facebook group had turned into a lonely little guy, that was mainly due to me being the only person who could post on it. It sort of lost that sense of community when I was just shouting into the void, plus it annoyed me that my design team were unable to post on it too

Taking time to sit with those issues, I decided to go back to basics about what I actually wanted to get out of this whole scrappy experience. I settled on the following:

1. I wanted to still be able to create and sell printables - I just wanted more control over the way in which I was selling them

2. I wanted to still have a design team and have a place to showcase the teams beautiful work where they could also comment

3. I wanted community and to have a place where we could all connect and most importantly share projects as well as ideas

4. I didn't want to rely on social media platforms as much. We've seen how little they care about us and the ways in which we communicate, so I wanted to future-proof myself against the growing obsession with videos only

5. I wanted to try something different with my silly face at the front of it

All of these thoughts brought me here. My own website.

A place where I make the rules. I decide what I want to share, what I want to create and how I present it. A place with members of like-minded scrappers who want to chat about all things paper. A place focused on scrapbooking, memory keeping and hybrid techniques. A place where I can sell my printables but also show you want to do with them and how to incorporate them into your projects

I'm excited to see how it all goes and I hope you are too

This Spring kit is the first kit I've created specifically for this website. It's no surprise that it's all about new starts, spring cleaning and things in bloom. It totally represents how I'm feeling right now - excited to start blooming and get things going

If you want to check out the full kit, head over to the Shop to see it in all it's glory

Nelly xo