It started out as a hobby in 2011; it's now a very enjoyable little business at the bottom of my garden.

I was Little Stamp Store’s first customer. I had another “Little” hobby, the Little Gift Store, that sold items from crafters in my local area, and I wanted to personalise our paper gift bags. I couldn’t find anywhere I could get a custom logo stamp made by hand, so I decided to try doing it myself! Pretty soon all the other local crafters I knew wanted their own stamps making. After they put the pictures on Facebook it snowballed and was soon taking up all my work time.

Like many “mumpreneur” crafters, my bio is not a glossy lifestyle magazine story; it's about trying to sneak a business doing something I love into the gaps between all the stuff of normal life. Before I had a family I worked as a horticulturalist and professional make-up artist, and always loved the design side of both. When my boys came along I wanted to stay close to home, and sort of fell into carving stamps. It grew from there. I’ve always tried new arts and crafts and the process of designing and carving stamps was great for the soul as well as becoming a business I could grow at my own pace.

As the Little Stamp Store grew my carve-list grew with it so I began to look at ways to reduce waiting times. I spent more than a year researching and testing different technologies, determined to develop a product that wouldn’t compromise on print quality compared to the hand-carved soft rubber. The result is the Clear stamp range which offers fantastic detail and accuracy, and I’m really proud of it.

In 2015 we were able to build a workshop at the bottom of our garden. It’s been really exciting being part of Etsy and seeing the craft industry thrive, and seeing my products featured in my favourite magazines like Country Living, Country Homes, Stamper and Paper Crafter etc!

What I enjoy best about running the Little Stamp Store is sketching flora and fauna and anything else I’d like to draw for new product lines. I love the graphic design side too. I also really love seeing photos of the products you’ve made with my stamps on social media like Instagram @littlestampstore

Fran :)

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