We Made a Wish started life as a shop selling cards and gifts for adoption and other family celebrations. I’ve never thought of myself as particularly good at art or crafts. When we were preparing for introductions with eldest, I struggled to find appropriate cards and gifts for her foster carer. The ones I found were either American, or didn’t have the wording on I wanted.
So, with some help from my creative mum and sister, I designed a card and framed print which we gave to the foster family. They loved it and We Made a Wish was born. Things have grown quite a lot since that initial design. All of the cards and framed prints were hand made by me. This proved to be time consuming and in terms of a business, not cost effective.
At the start of this year, I decided I needed a break to rethink how my business was going to move forward. Writing and the magazine are my passions. But with only so many hours in the day, something had to give. So, I’ve now re-opened the shop, with a reduced range. For the time being, the handmade cards and framed pictures are not part of what we sell. But there’s still plenty of loveliness from prints to clothing keepsakes. Here’s a look at some of what we sell.
One of the reasons I started the shop was because I wanted to create a record book of our journey to meeting the girls. Again, the only one I could find was American. I ordered it but didn’t feel that it did what I wanted it to. So I set about creating my own.
The record book comes as printed sheets of paper in one of four designs. You can then use them to create your own beautiful record of meeting your child, from the first photo you saw of them, to introductions and your first year together as a family.
We have a range of prints which come either as downloads or physical prints. They make lovely gifts to celebrate families, however they came together. The downloadable prints make perfect last minute gifts as you can print them yourself so no need to wait for the post.
I think my favourite range is our clothing keepsakes. My sister makes these from treasured items of clothing to help keep safe the precious memories they hold. We have blankets made from the clothes both children wore during introductions. Seeing them brings all the memories from that time, flooding back. Clothes can be made into a blanket, cushion, bag or initial.
New additions to our collection are reusable fabric products. We stock fabric kitchen roll, wipes and gift bags. The wipes can be made in your choice of colour using 100% cotton fabric. They are towelling on one side and patterned fabric on the other. Perfect for cleaning up your home and the kids in a way that’s kinder to the environment.
The reusable gift bags can be made from plain or patterned fabric with a Christmas or birthday theme. Perfect for reducing waste and mess at Christmas and birthdays. They also make wrapping presents much easier and hassle free. They come in a range of sizes and colours.
Let me know if there are any products you’d like to see us stock. I’m hoping to be able to create some printable cards which are less labour intensive than the hand made ones. Click here to have a look at our full range.
