​

Hi, I'm Michelle and I own and manage "Gitter Up! gifts and craft supplies store".

Here's how the story of Glitter Up ! Gifts and Crafts, unfolded.

​

I started crafting in 2011 when my first baby was born and thoroughly enjoyed working with the array of glitter and Leathers that were available, however as the market prices started to increase, I then looked at the markup and the price of supplies I was paying and thought I could source these myself. Boy, how did I underestimate how much time this took up? Putting my crafting business to one side In and overtaking mine and my husband's bedroom with crafty supplies, I made good buy choices and boy did I make some bad ones - we mainly at this time stocked ribbon supplies however my husband was becoming increasingly agitated of the constant mess of ribbon rolls around the home. 

 

A few years later as our family expanded with the birth of baby number two and then three, our craft supplies grew each month, with more products available, but also more stock requests too. In 2018 we first started to stock our Glitter fabric. In 2019 We converted our outbuilding to create a studio to hold stock and allow us to cut, print, pick and pack all under one roof the best bit is being a mom of three I could work this around the children at home. 

​

With the Birth of Baby number four in 2019 and even more ambition to make this little business a success, my husband and I looked at ways to start reducing so many individual items, still only selling through Facebook at this time it was becoming more time-consuming as likes and followers were increasing daily,

Having four babies now meant very little time on my hands to answer everyone's messages and requests and I needed to free up some time to have a happy medium of being a work-from-home mom and allow the business to naturally grow.

​

 The first online site "fabriclicious" took off in 2020 when COVID struck and the UK was in a permanent lockdown. More and more people took to crafting projects as a hobby, but then we lost ourselves trying to compete with so many UK craft supplies and with too much stock on file we lost ourselves. The website became very messy and confusing and also imports due to COVID restrictions were becoming harder to manage. 

 We started finding it harder and harder to compete with other craft sites, The need for endless supplies under one roof, and becoming an Aladdin's cave ourselves,

In the end, we even got lost navigating around our first website as we had so many items and supplies.

​

2022, 11 years on, It's taken us this time to find ourselves, and what works for us.

We've now slim-lined all our products with a great new name, a great new concept and some great supply friendships made along the way that are stronger than ever before. We Invested in our own Printer technology so we can print onsite in the UK which cuts down some supply issues and we can be more reactive to requests and trends, and then stock core crafting supplies to meet the need of most craft projects, but only stock excellent quality products from reliable suppliers.

​

We now focus on sourcing on-trend items every season but as we slim line holding stock  - we aren't sitting on dead stock and don't need massive stock room storage space except for the core stock supplies we hold, a lot of our ranges as printed In-house we can ensure we reduce our carbon footprint and only produce what is required, hence that also has a positive impact on our price ranges too.

​

Remember though as we can now be very reactive, some products except for core ranges are often exclusives and limited so they won't last and may be gone forever when they go. 

​

We have streamlined categories and slimmed down on range and stock, but we've teamed up with some exceptional specialists and stockists, from UK Wholesalers and Reliable Overseas suppliers.

to be able to produce In house UK printed faux leathers and other printed craft fabrics. You won't find it here if it doesn't meet the quality standards.

​

The best thing is it's easy to shop from and you can pay all under one basket. ​​​

We hope you enjoy shopping with us, A Big thank you for Supporting our Small Business and remaining to support small. Regards Michelle