10/20/2026
Hello friends! (Long post)
It’s been a while since we’ve had a chat and I haven’t been as active on here as I used to be…
This entire past year I’ve been going through ups and downs (mostly downs) with my business, the Craft Ju**ie, that I first started with a hope and a prayer and no clue what I was doing back in 2020.
Being in my 6th year of business now, I’ve had so many thoughts of shutting this whole thing down, getting rid of all my supplies and anything related to it, and just giving up on it entirely…
and that’s not because I don’t think my talent, skill, and designs aren’t worthy or good enough — but because for the most part of this year and last year, sales have almost stopped entirely.
To the point where I’ve spent many days questioning if this was even worth the effort anymore… many many days where I haven’t created anything or even touched my supplies, but rather just boxed most of it up and put it in storage, and got rid of a lot of things.
Being transparent here, this entire year from January until now, October, I’ve sold only 6 of my wreaths on etsy.
Six.
That’s it. And I think like, 3 or 4 things in person locally…
I think this has a lot to do with Etsy’s new “visibility” thing they rolled out last year or year before, which basically, they show your page and items less from the search results based on your listed shipping prices, if you charge more than what they prefer which is like, $3.99.
Listen. I know some of yall don’t know this, but shipping a wreath can be pretty expensive.. average cost was $30-40 OR MORE per wreath, depending which state/area it’s going to. And I obviously do not control the shipping carriers prices. I use UPS, which has always been the cheapest rates for me, and I don’t mark up shipping prices to make money off of it.
Actually, a lot of times the shipping turned out to cost more than what I charged, so that difference I paid out of pocket.
Let’s not even get into how much the shipping supplies and boxes and packing paper and bubble wrap costs.
But you simply cannot ship a wreath, especially one of my designs, for 4 dollars, like Etsy wants.
And for those saying “list it as free shipping and add it into your price”…
the downside to that is customers are now seeing designs that are marked up $40 more, which can also seem outrageous and turns off potential buyers.
So I’ve tried running numerous sales all year long throughout my shop, I’ve lowered the total prices on top of that by another $20-30 or so, and I’ve tested the “free shipping” theory.. and I’ve seen no difference or improvement honestly. Anddd wasted money month after month on ads that did not a damn thing either.
I have wreaths all over my house, hanging on almost every door, hanging in closets, stashed under beds, wreaths from 3-4 years ago that have never sold… totes and totes of supplies waiting to be used, just sitting here..
And so many times I got discouraged or lost all motivation to make anything new, simply because I have so many already, I don’t have room for anymore.
This is a long post, I know, and if you’ve read this far, thank you.
If you’ve been with me all these years, thank you.
I’m not sure actually what the whole point of this post was for.. not for pity or anything… just awareness and transparency I guess… that some of us don’t actually profit as much as yall think we do, and we struggle.. a lot— financially.. mentally.. all the things.
So, with that said, running another sale 30-50% off.
Please share if you can, and maybe this will reach a new potential customer who’s looking for a pretty wreath.
I can’t put my Etsy link, because Facebook has also decided to be stupid and now limits how many of my links I can share in posts in a month, which is only THREE. Unless I pay monthly to be verified. Then I get only 8 links I can share… wtf
But find it in my b!o, or search directly on Etsy, KarahtheCraftJu**ie
Anyway.. I don’t know where the Craft Ju**ie goes from here.
But thank you all to my friends and supporters… it’s meant a lot these last few years.
💖Karah
