How to Start a Craft Side Hustle Around the Kids

*Collaborative Post

I’ll be honest, before I started making and selling personalised keyrings from my kitchen table, my “side hustle research” mostly involved scrolling Instagram at midnight, feeling overwhelmed, and doing absolutely nothing about it.

If that sounds familiar, I get it. When you’re juggling school runs, mealtimes, laundry, and everything else that comes with having kids, the idea of starting any kind of business feels like adding another job to an already full plate. But here’s the thing I wish someone had told me sooner: you don’t need a studio, a big budget, or five free hours a day. You need a simple product, a repeatable process, and a couple of focused hours a week.

That’s what a craft side hustle actually looks like when you build it around family life rather than fearing a disruption to family life because of side business priorities.

Why Personalised Products Are a Smart Starting Point

There are loads of things you could make and sell, but personalised items have a few advantages that make them especially practical for parents working around kids.

First, the unit cost is low but the perceived value is high. A keyring with a child’s photo on it, or a fridge magnet with a school logo, feels like a thoughtful, personal gift, even though it costs very little to produce. That margin is what makes the whole thing viable.

Second, there’s repeat demand built in. Think about it: leavers’ gifts, teacher presents, wedding favours, new baby keepsakes, sports club awards, Christmas stocking fillers. These aren’t one-off purchases. Every year, every term, every season, people need them again.

The model is straightforward. You buy blank components in bulk, things like keyring casings, badge shells, or magnet blanks, and then add your own artwork, photos, or designs using a standard home printer. You’re not manufacturing from scratch. You’re assembling. UK wholesale suppliers like My Accessories sell blank keyring, badge, and magnet components specifically designed for this kind of small batch production, so you’re not hunting around trying to make random parts fit together.

What You Actually Need to Get Started

One of the biggest myths about starting a craft business is that you need a lot of equipment. You really don’t. Here’s the short list:

A computer and a home printer (inkjet is fine to start). Blank components, keyrings, badges, or magnets depending on what you want to sell. A cutter and basic assembly tools, which usually come included in starter packs. Design software like Canva, which is free and more than good enough for most projects. And some simple packaging: recyclable pouches, small boxes, or printed sleeves to make things look professional without spending a fortune.

The main thing is that starter packs exist specifically so you don’t have to piece together supplies from five different websites. If you want the full breakdown of how a ready-made setup works, this guide to starting a personalisation business in a box walks through the entire workflow from design to dispatch. It’s worth a read if you’re the kind of person (like me) who needs to see the whole process laid out before committing.

Finding What Sells (Without Guessing)

This is where a lot of people get stuck. They spend weeks designing 30 different products, launch everything at once, and then wonder why nothing sells. Don’t do that.

Start with one product type. Just one. Most people start with blank keyrings because they’re compact, durable, and easy to post, but the same process works for magnets, coasters, and badges once you’ve nailed your workflow.

Make 10 to 20 samples. Show them to other parents at the school gates, post a few photos on Instagram or in local Facebook groups, or take a handful to a school fair or craft market. Pay attention to what people actually ask for rather than what you think looks best. The designs I was most proud of? Not the ones that sold. The simple, clean, photo-based keyrings outsold everything else by miles.

Seasonal moments are your friend here. Leavers’ season, Christmas, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day all create natural demand spikes where people are actively looking for affordable, personal gifts. Time your first test batches around one of these and you’ll get much faster feedback on what works.

Once you’ve found a winner, you scale by reordering blanks and reusing your templates, not by adding complexity. Same process, more volume. That’s it.

Fitting It Around Family Life

This is the bit that matters most, because if it doesn’t work around the kids, it doesn’t work at all.

The trick is batching. Instead of trying to do a little bit every day (which, with kids, means doing nothing most days), block out one or two focused sessions a week. Maybe Tuesday evening is your design and print session. Thursday morning during nursery hours is assembly and packing. Friday you post everything. Done.

Your workspace doesn’t need to be anything special. A kitchen table, a shelf in the spare room, a corner of the dining room. As long as you can set up, work, and clear away without it taking over the house, you’re fine. I keep everything in one plastic box that goes under the stairs when I’m not using it.

Set realistic turnaround times with customers too. If you promise next-day dispatch, you’ll be stressed every time a child gets ill or plans change. A 3 to 5 working day turnaround gives you breathing room without putting buyers off.

Where to Sell and How to Get Your First Orders

Your first 10 sales will almost certainly come from people you already know. That’s completely fine. It proves the product works, gives you real photos to use in listings, and gets you your first reviews or testimonials.

After that, the main channels worth focusing on:

Etsy is the lowest friction option for personalised and handmade goods. The audience is already there and searching for exactly the kind of products you’re making. You don’t need a perfect shop on day one, just clear photos, honest descriptions, and sensible pricing.

Local craft fairs and school events let you sell face to face, which is brilliant for getting direct feedback and building confidence. You’ll also pick up repeat customers and bulk orders (PTAs, sports clubs, small businesses) that you’d never find online.

Instagram and Facebook work best when you show the process, not just the finished product. A quick video of you assembling a keyring or cutting inserts gets far more engagement than a flat product photo. People buy from people, especially from other parents who clearly know what they’re doing.

Word of mouth through school WhatsApp groups and parent networks is genuinely powerful. One happy customer showing their keyring at pickup can land you 15 orders for the end of term.

The Honest Version

A craft side hustle won’t replace a salary overnight. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. But it can become a genuine, growing income stream that fits around your family rather than competing with it.

The key is keeping things simple. One product. One process. One focused session at a time. Get that right, and the rest builds from there.

*This is a collaborative post. For further information please refer to my disclosure page.