TWINdustry Guest Post Friday: Crafts/Etsy

Each Friday, we highlight an entwined community member who works in the TWINdustry of the Week. This week's post is by Kelly Heslip, twin mom and owner of Kelly's Paper Creations in the Bryan/College Station, Texas area.

I am a mother of twins and a singleton. We were blessed with boy/girl twins just over three and a half years ago. Of course, this was out of the blue for us even though twins run on my mother's side of the family. There is no pattern, such as skipping a generation, so totally random! What makes our twins unique is that they are the first set of boy/girl multiples in the family. Then we were blessed 2 years and 6 days after the twins were born with another beautiful daughter.

My husband and I decided that I would stay at home when the twins were born. I did, however, work part-time for a year and a half for my previous company, but since then, I have truly been a stay-at-home-mom. I sold Stampin' Up! products on the side, and one day, a friend had asked me to help her make invitations. It was a lot of fun, so I began to think about starting my own scrapbooking/invitation making business.

The first thing I did was create a website for Kelly's Paper Creations and registered it with the top search engines. Then I made business cards and started handing out to friends. For the first year, I think I completed two projects: one ready-made scrapbook to insert pictures into and some Valentine cards for a college student (we live near Texas A&M University). Then I hit a period of nothingness.

The local scrapbook store closed down due to the family leaving, so that opened a whole new opportunity for me. Although, most calls I get are asking when my hours are and if I carry certain supplies, I have had more orders for scrapbooking services and invitations. This year, I started making bag tags due to the need for identification for my own children's backpacks and lunch kits for mother's day out. I set up an e-store for custom orders for bag tags and a new line of birthday invitations, thank yous and party favor bag tags.

New services that will be revealed in the next few weeks will be customized scrapbook calendars and scrapbooking parties. The parties will be for ages 6+ with themes to choose from such as princess, diva, rock-n-roll, butterfly, and more. Each guest/participant will be given supplies to make up to a 12x12 sized scrapbook page (they will need to bring 4-5 pictures). Then the pages will be mounted on heavy duty material (such as chipboard), eyelets/gromets punched and ribbon added to make it a hanging creation for their room or to give as a gift. Kelly's Paper Creations can be found on Facebook for the latest updates.

I am very honored to be featured at entwined community, to link up with other mothers of multiples and multiples themselves! For members, Kelly's Paper Creations is offering 10% off scrapbook and invitation services and $1 off bag tags.

Kelly Heslip is the owner of Kelly's Paper Creations in the Bryan/College Station, Texas area. Contact her at kellyspaper@gmail.com .