Below is an interview we did with Mishma from Chasing Faery Tales
Hey bookworms!
Today, we have the official first post of Book Merch Monday! In case you weren’t aware, I launched this feature last week, and you can expect to see book merch stores highlighted on the blog on random Mondays hereafter!
Today, we have the girls behind Crafted Van – an etsy store that sells the cutest magnetic bookmarks!
1. Let’s start by breaking the ice! Introduce yourself and your store, and tell us something random and interesting about you!
Hello! We are Diana and Erica from craftedvan! We opened our online Etsy store 3 years ago to spread the bookish love. Here’s a little something interesting about us: we’ve known each other since we were tiny teenagers in the 9th grade and are still great friends after over 10 years!
2. What are your signature products? What sets your store apart from others?
Our signature product is definitely our magnetic bookmarks. We are the first online shop to have cute handmade character magnetic bookmarks with a front and a back. Our coffee set is definitely our most popular! Our store sets us apart from others with our vibrant and fun designs and great quality. We pride ourselves on having good customer service with the hopes of making each booknerd or planner addict happy with their purchase.
3. What inspired you start a business? And why specifically (your product)?
We always loved making things and crafting together, specifically scrapbooking at first! One day, Diana made a set of magnetic bookmarks for her boyfriend as a gift. We decided to sell our products (including knitted items and other crafty goodies) at a small craft fair. The bookmarks were a hit and it kind of just took off from there!
4. What is your favourite thing about owning a book merchandise store?
We LOVE sharing in the book community and getting the details on the latest releases. Craftedvan has always focused on bringing back the love for paper books with our products. Our bookmarks are a true testament that the tablets haven’t taken over the book world quite yet!
5. What are the biggest issues you face/ or have faced?
One of the biggest issues we face is our love for making our product but our “not so much love” for managing the behind the scenes of running a business. It’s not very fun, but definitely necessary to keep our business running!
6.What is your personal favourite product of those you’ve made?
It changes all the time! Currently, Erica’s favourite has the be the cherry blossom jumbo magnetic bookmark. It’s so pretty and goes great in a planner. Diana’s current favourite is probably the couch potato, a great laugh whenever you open a book! He’s eating chips too!
7. Where do you see yourself and your store in the future? Any plans in terms of expanding, developing the products, any big dreams?
Oh, we have lots of crazy dreams and goals! One of them was to attend the National Stationery show in New York one day and guess what! We got in for 2017. We are super excited and cannot believe one of our dreams has come true. We’ll be working on that for the next few months 🙂
8. Tell our readers where they can find your store items, how they can contact you and how they can promote and share their reviews and pictures of your merch?
#readhappy 🙂 That’s what we started a few years back and it’s great to see how much it’s grown in the book community, especially on instagram! Instagram is where you can find us posting silly photos of our products all the time!
You can find all of our products on our Etsy store, or our personal online store, craftedvan.com. We also have a monthly subscription service (the craftedvan #readhappyplan) which we started in the summertime that’s fun and low cost. Perfect for any booknerd or planner addict that loves to read, plan, or give a little gift to someone they know! You can find it on Cratejoy 🙂