HAPPY 11TH BIRTHDAY TO LETTERHAPPY!
Crazy how time flies, right? It’s hard to believe that over a decade ago, I started a tiny baby biz from my parents’ kitchen counter. It has been my pride and joy since I was 22 years old, and its name is letterhappy. Its mantra? Everybody deserves a little happy. Here’s a peek at the letterhappy of 2020, but believe me.. it has come a LONG way since its humble beginnings in 2009.
Lemme set the scene for you.. I was fresh out of the Disney College Program, right smack dab in the middle of a recession, jobless, and trying desperately to figure out a way to use my (very expensive, sorry mom and dad) art degree..
So let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we? This was the first thing I ever sold, exactly 11 years ago, on January 26th, 2009! Um, can we say.. CRINGE-WORTHY?!
I had actually completely forgotten about these until I did a deep dive in my sold orders, ha! These little stickers were one of my best sellers during the beginning stages of letterhappy. I did them for baby showers, weddings, holidays, you name it.
This was back when I was printing everything myself with very little design or production knowledge. I remember getting so frustrated with these.. the spacing was almost always just a liiiiittle off, and the sticker sheets kept getting stuck in my printer, so I eventually retired them altogether.
Fun fact: now that I have way more production knowledge, and a handful of trusted manufacturers, stickers (and magnets!) are on my radar for 2020.. kinda funny how things come full circle, huh?
In the summer of 2009, I started taking on more custom work, including these pet silhouettes, which I sold for $15. FIFTEEN DOLLARS. Somewhere in here is a lesson on knowing and charging your worth, but I’ll leave that for another day.
Right around the same time as the pet silhouettes, I designed this DO WHAT YOU LOVE print, which is actually still available in the shop as a printable! Etsy was still very new, and I’m proud to say that mine was the very first art print listed on Etsy with this saying on it. It gained a pretty good amount of success at the time, and copycats started popping up all over the place. It was pretty disheartening, and for a while, I drove myself crazy trying to shut them all down by sending messages, reporting listings, etc., but the bigger Etsy got, the harder it was to manage. The phrase and design has been duplicated so many times over the last 11 years that it’s basically impossible for shoppers to tell what’s an original and what’s been.. shall we say.. “inspired”.
Real talk: even though it’s not a bestseller anymore, I keep mine up in the shop as a reminder to myself that this whole business was founded on the notion of doing what I love and loving what I do.
And yes, ladies and gentlemen, below is the original listing photo.. an 8x10 print.. taped to the backing of a frame that doesn’t fit.. with no mat.. and no glass. Eye roll.
Toward the end of my first year of business, I started looking ahead to 2010, and created a desk calendar with 12 different dog silhouettes and quotes. These were a huge hit, but full disclosure.. they were also a huge pain in the ass. Remember, at the time, I was printing EVERYTHING in-house, which meant every time I sold a calendar, I had to print and cut each month out of card stock.
The plastic display cases were great (in theory), but I had trouble finding a consistent supplier. Plus, about every third one would end up broken in transit to my customers, and I’d have to send out a replacement. I had multiple versions of this calendar for a few seasons, but eventually, I retired them, too.
In early 2010, I ordered a vintage screenprinting kit on Ebay, and this scarf (pictured below) was the first thing I made with it. If you’ve been around Etsy for a while, you might remember the prized 12 listing spots on the “front page”. This curated list changed every hour, but for that one hour, you were Etsy royalty and your traffic went through the roof. I was lucky enough to hit the front page for the first time with this scarf when I was on vacation (of course) and I remember freaking out (in a good way) in my hotel room as the sales kept pouring in.
The summer of 2010 was rough for my beloved Gulf Coast. The BP oil spill was catastrophic for our beaches, wildlife, sea creatures, tourism, and economy. I decided put my new-found screenprinting skills to work and designed 2 shirts to raise awareness and funds.
At the time, Etsy had a blog called The Storque that sellers could write for, so I pitched an article to them, detailing the crisis and rounding up products from other sellers who were pitching in to help raise money. Even though the blog doesn’t exist anymore, it’s archived online, and I was actually able to find the original article! You can read it here.
When I say I’ve done just about everything in letterhappy, I mean I’ve done just about.. EVERYTHING. At the beginning stages of any business, you’re basically just trying to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. I followed trends, looked at what Etsy was regularly promoting, and did my best to evolve with the times. Did you know that I even had a thriving vintage section once upon a time? Here are a few of my favorite one of a kind pieces..
In 2011, I started getting serious about improving my photography (about time, right?!), and my shop benefited greatly from the upgrade. I expanded my line of cards in time for Valentine’s Day, and I was incredibly humbled when (with the help of several front page features) my MY LIFE WOULD SUCK WITHOUT YOU card became super popular.
It’s still a best-seller today, and I just recently released a newer version, while keeping the original design in the shop as well. In order below, you’ll see the original card in the original photo style, the original card in the current photo style, and the new version in the current photo style. I love looking back on things to see how I’ve evolved over the years, but sometimes you just can’t beat a classic!
I apparently wasn’t done with trying EVERYTHING, so 2011 also saw the introduction of jewelry into letterhappy. I sold handmade stud earrings, adjustable rings, dyed silk ribbon necklaces and bracelets, hand-painted canvas flag necklaces, and more! (Photos below.)
In late 2012, while preparing for my first in-person craft show in Austin, Texas, I created a line of embroidery thread friendship bracelets, lovingly dubbed “wishlets”. They each came on a giftable card with a cute poem, and I completely sold out of about 100 of them in 2 days. I knew I had a hit on my hands, and by the time I was back in town, I could barely make them fast enough to keep up with the demand.
Even 3+ years into business, it still surprised and excited me when I had success like that!
And yes, just in case you were wondering, I clearly thought this blurry picture (above) was good enough to use. Double eye roll.
In 2014, I was approached by a PR company who wanted to put my wishlets in gift bags for the attendees of the Daytime Emmys, so I jumped at the opportunity and got to work making 1,000 of them. At this point, obviously, I realized I couldn’t continue printing and cutting each individual poem card by hand, so I found a printing company to outsource the cards for me, but yes, I still had to hand-tie every single one of those gosh darn wishlets. If you were wondering what 1,000 wishlets looked like, here’s a pic I snapped once they were done. Bonus cheesy picture below of me loading the boxes into my car to send off!
Wishlets and cards were still my main bread and butter through 2016 or so, but trends come and go, and with Etsy getting bigger and more competitive year after year, I had to start adapting again.
I took a huge leap into manufacturing and designed 2 enamel pins that year, a cute little ghost for Halloween, and a peace-sign-giving penguin for Christmas. Since then, my enamel pin collection has expanded to 9 designs, plus 2 keychain options.
This was around the same time I revamped my shop look and made it as in-your-face-bold-and-colorful as I possibly could. I wanted to fully embrace a very specific aesthetic and make sure my listings stood out in search results. I always seem to come back to my roots, so my greeting card collection now includes over 60 designs, and it grows every year.
A ton of things have changed over the last 11 years, but I’m proud to say that the general vibe is still there. A lot of what I do now is inspired by those early years, just new and improved. For example, I don’t sell pet silhouettes anymore, but I do offer custom detailed pet illustrations. Art prints are still available, but for a much lower price point as a downloadable file instead of a physical shipped good.
And after all these years, I still believe everybody deserves a little happy.
If you have ever supported letterhappy in any way - through a purchase, a like or comment on this blog or Instagram, or by sharing it with friends or family.. THANK YOU. From the bottom of my heart. I am so blessed to do what I love every single day, and it’s all because of YOU.