Have you ever been stuck at home, trying to work a full time job, while taking care of a three year old? In 2020, when the world as we know it basically shut down due to the pandemic, I... and probably many other... found ourselves in this situation. My three year old, spent most of her days watching tv, playing on her tablet, turning orange from the insane amount of cheetos I allowed her to eat just to keep her entertained while I tried to work and take care of her.
In an effort to find her some kind of activity to take her away from her tablet and the tv for a little bit each day, I started coming up with simple paper crafts that I could sit and do with her to let her be a little creative. I had a lot of cardstock and other materials which I was buying to use to make cake and cupcake toppers for my Etsy shop already so I already had everything I needed to make these little crafts for her.
I noticed she really seemed to enjoy the crafts and the time we were spending each day doing them. It made me think... I wonder if any other parents would be interested in craft kits to entertain their little ones during those crazy times. So I sat down and came up with Little Bella Boutique's very first paper craft kit --- the Superhero Mask Kit. I packaged it, priced it, and posted it and then waited to see if they would be a success.
To my surprise, within a week of the kits being posted, I started making sales. My thought was right, I was not the only parent looking for a way to entertain their kids and craft kits, even simple ones, we great for that. I came up with more new craft kits after that... the unicorn mask, tissue paper turtle and caterpillar were the next ones to be released. They also started selling right away.
Fast forward to 2024 and we still have paper craft kits going strong in our store. I try to come up with a few new ones each month and some of our originals like the tissue paper turtle are still going strong. My daughter is now seven years old and she still enjoys the craft kits. She is my tester for almost every one of the crafts I release. I continue to work on new ideas for craft kits and plan to continue to offer fun new options in the future.