Etsy Seller Interview with Michelle and Leanne of The Arty Apples

How The Arty Apples got started

Introduce your Etsy shop and tell us your story. How did you begin and decide on what to sell on Etsy, and how do you create your products?

We are Michelle & Leanne, together we run a family business with a passion for creativity. We run two successful Etsy Shops full-time. Our original digital printables shop, The Arty Apples was founded in 2012, while I (Leanne) was at home looking after my two young daughters and wanted a job to fit around them. Then in 2021 we started The Blue Coconut, our cold case game shop.

We started The Arty Apples to fill a gap in the market for alternative gifts to celebrate life events. We wanted to create images that could be displayed proudly on the wall rather than hidden in attics gathering dust. Our very first design was a family tree. This celebrated new additions to the family, but our range quickly grew, and we found success selling teacher appreciation gifts, as well as wedding and events signs. All of our products are designed in-house. We create most of our own graphics too; Michelle is a whizz on the iPad, so you can be sure when you purchase from us you are getting a truly unique design. As time has gone on our shop has evolved, now we sell many different printable products from small gift tags, event flyers and posters right up to larger pieces of wall art designed to celebrate milestone birthdays. 

Our crime game shop came about during the lockdown periods of the pandemic. Events and parties were canceled meaning we had more free time as the shop was a little quiet. As a family we love thrillers and true crime shows, we ordered a cold case game to play as a family, however, after playing we were a little underwhelmed, we agreed we could probably design a better game ourselves. Everyone in the family got involved in the creative process of writing the game, then, when we had our story, we set about using our design skills to make it look like an authentic police file. 

At this point, The Blue Coconut was born. In this shop, we offer both physical games to players in the UK, and downloadable games for buyers internationally. At the time of writing we have 5 cases in the shop, and we already have plans to add more for 2022, so watch this space.

Favorite items

What are your favorite items? What makes these so special? Why do you think these items might be selling well?

Leanne - “In The Arty Apples shop my favorite custom printables are the ‘Reasons Why We Love You’ images. I love helping families create these memorable pieces. However, we also offer templates as many customers like to create these pieces themselves, spending weeks, often collaborating with long distance family members to make it a truly special gift.”

Michelle - I love creating gift tags and event flyers. These are popular with schools and PTA’s to help with fundraising. Most of the artwork we use is created as a one off by myself on the iPad, this is how we can really set our designs apart from other sellers. This is one of my favorite designs from Christmas 2021.

Leanne - Also, my favorite case in The Blue Coconut is  Case #3 - Trial by Fire. I love the way it is set over multiple time periods.

Our game is set in the beautiful Cotswolds, in the fictitious village of Garenton. A burning body is found by the Garenton Fire Brigade. The body is believed to be that of a popular local man, Dr. Gilbert Sullivan, a pillar of the community, and seemingly loved by all. Police quickly arrest and charge his illegitimate son, Hendrix Jenkins with the murder. Your job some 20 years later is to re-examine the evidence, and determine if a miscarriage of justice has occurred, and if so who really killed Dr. Gilbert Sullivan?

Michelle - My favorite game is Case 5 - Murder at the Manor. This case is set in the 1900s and it is very different to our other cases, this case is in the format of a historic scrapbook. I liked the extra design elements we were able to use in this game, as well as the historical research into life in this era.

A skeleton was discovered after a Christmas Eve storm, under an upturned Wych elm tree in 1996. The skeleton is believed to belong to Lady Silveridge, a botanist and suffragette who went missing in the early hours of Christmas Day in 1913. We need your help to solve the mystery. You will receive access to a copy of a beautiful family dossier that has been created by the Niece Esme, and passed down the generations. We supply you with all the evidence in order for you to determine what happened to Lady Silveridge.

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Getting sales on Etsy

How long did it take for you to earn your first sale and how do you currently attract customers to your Etsy shop?  

It is a long time ago now, however, I believe it took a week or so for our first sale. Luckily, the first image, “A Family Tree” was marketed as a Mother’s day gift. With the UK celebrating mother’s day in March, whereas much of the world celebrated later in May, our piece hit the marketplace at the right time. 

At the time we created it, it was a truly unique item. We sold a few pieces that first year, that gave us the confidence we needed to expand our range, we next concentrated on father’s day and went from there.

We advertise our shop mainly using Pinterest and Etsy ads. We do have a lot of returning customers, as well as recommendations from past shoppers. Some customers have been with us since our early days! It is lovely to catch up with them each year when they return to the shop.

Managing The Arty Apples

How do you manage your shop? Are you running solo or do you have any team members? What tools or services do you use to run your shop and how do you handle fulfillment?

Leanne - We, just the two of us, manage The Arty Apples, however, we do get help during busy periods from our family, especially in The Blue Coconut. My children, who are now a little older, will help assemble the cold case games. My father, as well as my husband, will take orders to the postbox for us. This is especially helpful when we are snowed under with work. My eldest daughter is also a keen artist, and she has started dabbling in digital design. One day, she hopes to join the family business. We tried a few of her designs for Christmas this year, and she was delighted as they sold really well. 

When it comes to running the 2 shops, we mainly use Etsy tools to manage orders. In the Blue Coconut, we also use a spreadsheet to manage our stock levels to ensure we never run out of any of the individual games.

The future of The Arty Apples

What goals do you have for your shop in the future?

We would like to continue to grow our shops. We constantly update and change our products to meet changes in tastes and demands. We hope in 2022 to create some more crime games to add to our existing range of 5 cold cases.

Advice for new sellers

What’s your advice for a new seller starting an Etsy shop?

Choose a niche market and find a truly unique idea. Etsy is heavily saturated, therefore you need to offer something different to stand out. 

Too many shops simply start up thinking they can copy or imitate other successful sellers, however, in practice this won’t be sustainable long term. 

Find your own unique style and go with it, this will shine through in your work and help drive sales.