Today we’d like to introduce you to Addie Gibson.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Addie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Hi everyone! I’m Addie from Tiny Acre Crafts.
My whole life, I’ve lived with the mentality of “why buy it when I can make it!”. That goes for anything from clothes to cards to wood signs and don’t even get me started on my DIY hibachi stent!
As a young girl, I LOVED to read [still do] and I could never find enough bookmarks to go with all my books [nerd alert]….so I would simply make my own bookmarks. I started with paint chip samples and pretty cardstock….seemed like a simple solution for my problem at the time and I think that’s what motivated me [along with the strong influence from my grandma] to start making things by hand. You can actually still find handmade bookmarks in all the books we are currently reading.
I also LOVED to customize anything I could get my hands on…jewelry boxes, journals, my old pink caboodle! And with such a unique name back in the ’80s and ’90s, I COULD NEVER find anything with my name on it…specifically those super popular tiny Texas license plates made for bikes. I had to settle for an “Adrian” license plate and use a sharpie to add that extra “A” on the end. That’s when I knew that I wanted to make things for other people so that they didn’t have to settle for an Adrian license plate either!
Cards and ornaments were the very first handmade items I made to give away as gifts. And to this day, I carve out time every year to design and make custom ornaments for every member of my family as well as my friends! When my kids grow up and leave the house, they will have almost 20 ornaments that I made for them to put on their very own tree. ❤
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road to where I’m at now was VERY SLOW. In fact, it took me over eight years just to come up with our name. That was due to the lack of self-confidence I had in myself running a small business. I said that I would not run a business without a name therefore if I didn’t give it a name, I wouldn’t have take the plunge and actually do it. I was scared. Scared of failure. Scared of money. Scared of negative feedback. Scared of doing something big. Scared of being outside my comfort zone. Fear kept me from pursuing one of the best jobs I’ve ever had!
So, if you’re thinking of doing something BIG and outside your comfort zone… you can either drag your feet as I did and miss out on years of opportunity OR you can do just jump right in and get the ball rolling on your great idea! You never know what you’re capable of until you push yourself to do it!
We’d love to hear more about Tiny Acre Crafts.
In our business, it seems like everyone owns a machine and everyone can do EXACTLY what we’re doing which can be very intimidating UNLESS you figure out a way to stand out, be different. And that’s exactly what we did. We took a different route that is not traveled by a lot of people…we went the custom route. We promised NEVER to do anything mainstream unless it was for a specific order.
We started out with monograms for yeti tumblers… actually anything with a flat surface. 😉 Wood signs. Tea towels. Onesies. You name it…we were customizing anything we could get our hands on.
Then, we got our first real shirt order. Oh. My. Gosh. Not only were we excited but we were terrified out of our minds! What if we mess up? What if we press it crooked? What if we melt the shirt? What if the customer hates the shirts? What if we get a bad review? What if we don’t get paid? What if we’re not good enough? All of those things were going through my mind as I sat in front of the 315° heat press with all my L rulers and T rulers and regular rulers on a single shirt to make sure the design was absolutely centered both vertically and horizontally.
Fast forward a little over a year and all those same fears are still there! BUT that’s completely normal when you pride yourself on an amazing handmade product…and we do! We want anything that leaves our shop to be 1. something we’re proud of and 2. something we would personally buy. If it doesn’t meet those standards, we don’t sell it.
We don’t have time to focus on things that will hinder our ability and crush our confidence. We focus on getting our orders filled, quick turn around time, perfect placement, HAPPY customers, and most of all a successful business!
Custom shirt orders have quickly become our bread and butter here at Tiny Acre Crafts. We absolutely LOVE making custom designs whether it’s an inside joke between two friends or custom shirts for a small business event or simply taking a child’s handwriting and using it for a keepsake!
So much of the media coverage is focused on the challenges facing women today, but what about the opportunities? Do you feel there are any opportunities that women are particularly well positioned for?
As a child, I never understood that women faced challenges that men simply do not have. I honestly didn’t even notice it until I went into the military and witnessed how much harder it was for women [in general] to obtain respect and to be viewed as intellectual people. Talk about an eye-opener.
In this business, women have taken over! It’s very rare that you come across a man doing the “crafty” things that we do. But as a whole, the crafty community generally welcomes anyone that wants to jump into this business! I’ve witnessed so many strong women [with successful businesses] help newcomers and show them the ropes!
Everyone has a niche in this great big world and as a woman, it’s important [for me] to help other women achieve their goals and earn a little change for their pocket!
Contact Info:
- Email: tinyarcecrafts@gmail.com
- Instagram: tinyacrecrafts
- Facebook: Tiny Acre Crafts
Image Credit:
Kerry Langford Photography
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