My Batching Process to Save Time Making Wreaths to Sell

Did you know you can have inventory ready to go and on-demand without taking up tons of space and have all your completed crafts ready to sell? Are you wondering how? Read on to learn my batching process to make multiple homemade crafts quickly and easily.

Hey, y’all! I don’t know about you, but when I was first starting to build my business, I quickly realized that some of my wreath designs were more popular than others. In fact, there were a few designs that SEVERAL people wanted to purchase, but I had a problem.

I had only made one wreath of that design.

So the inevitable happened: I spent extra time making additional wreaths of the same design in order to create happy customers. It was good for business, but not an efficient use of MY time.

As you can probably imagine, once I realized that certain wreath designs were going to be more popular than others, I devised a system for batch processing bulk crafts to sell. That way, I am efficient with my time but still delivering high-quality products (and inventory of popular items!) to my customers.

Today’s topic is mostly geared towards Craftpreneurs – anyone who creates an inventory of crafts to sell either at craft fairs or online. I’m going to show you my batching process for creating multiples of a wreath design in a way that will save you time, create happy customers, and help you make more money.

What is Batch Processing?

I’m going to be speaking about wreaths today because that’s what I make and what I know the best. However, if you make a different craft, the same basic ideas can be applied to help you create bulk numbers of your own homemade crafts to sell.

You may be asking yourself, what do we mean by multiples. Well, when it comes to wreaths (or any homemade crafts you sell), multiples are the designs that you can sell over and over. They may even be your “shop” favorite or “money maker!”

As a Craftpreneuer, your time is valuable, right? It’s literally your very livelihood! I am a HUGE advocate of being smart with your time so that you are able to make a living with your homemade crafts, but also making sure there’s time to enjoy doing other things.

After all, that’s a big part of the reason we work for ourselves, right?

This batching process will show you how to make multiples of your crafts to sell without having to store 10, 15, or (gasp!) 25 completed wreaths. It will also help you avoid starting from scratch when re-creating more homemade crafts of a single design.

Designing a Batching Process to Create Multiples of Your Homemade Crafts

First, as a wreath designer, you likely have a favorite base. Some prefer grapevines, and some prefer 15” wirework frames with ties. There are many other base types, but today, we’ll concentrate on multiples for these two.

The basic steps are the same for any multiple crafts you need to create to sell.

Create Your Homemade Craft Design

Do this as you would your one-of-a-kind design. Note the supplies you use to create this design, taking careful notes of the SKU#s and amounts you use.

Take your photos and list in your ETSY shop with a quantity number that you can make with your supplies on hand. For today’s example, let’s say you can make 10 crafts to sell of a certain design with your on-hand supplies.

Find a Large Work Space

Find a work area large enough to start the batching process. You’ll want enough space to put several bases down at the same time. Feel free to use several tables – or even the floor if it’s clean.

Keep Track of Every Item You Use

When you’re batching grapevine wreaths, keep track of every. single. item. When you create your design make note of each pick, spray, florals, and ribbon used. Take photos of your homemade craft and list it for sale on Etsy with the quantity that’s based on the number of supplies you have (for this example, it’s 10).

Store Your (Prepared) Supplies

Here comes the major time-saving part! With this tracking info, do the basic preparation for the remaining wreaths at the same time

Batch Processing Grapevine Wreaths

Although the process is very similar for grapevine and mesh wreaths, there are subtle differences.

Here’s how to batch process 10 grapevine wreaths.

Box or otherwise store 10 grapevines which are the same size as the original design.
Count out and store the picks, sprays, and florals used and needed for 9 more wreaths in Ziplock bags or in the container of your choice. Make sure to have a separate container for the supplies of each wreath – don’t store the supplies for all 9 wreaths together because then you have to count them all out again.
Cut or store the ribbon required to make the bow for 9 more wreaths.
If you used a sign, put a sign in each zip lock (or in a small box) for each of the 9 wreaths.
When you make a sale for your wreath design, now you can quickly create the grapevine wreath.

Batching Process for Mesh Wreaths

Here’s my process to batch process 10 mesh wreaths.

Create the base 10 times and stack.
Cut the number of ribbon tails you need and store them in a bag or box.
If you use a sign, get ten of them prepared (if necessary) with cable mounts and pipe cleaners (to attach to the base with tails), and store them with your ribbon tails.
Now when you make a sale, you are ready to recreate the mesh wreath.

Process for Delivering Multiple of Your Designs

If you sell more than intended and you need to make more than one of your original designs, create an assembly line to make them. Since you have all your supplies already gathered and bundled for each wreath, you can make your wreaths quickly and easily.

Do it in this order:

First the base
Add the ribbon tails
Attach all the signs
Lastly, attach the bows

This process isn’t hard, y’all, although it may sound slightly confusing until you walk through it one time to create your own homemade crafts. You’ll be a master after you do it one time, and batch processing will save you SO much time when you have multiple orders to fill.

If you need any help with centerpiece-making, bow-making, wreath-making, or crafting in general, be sure to check out more of our tutorials on How to Make Wreaths.

We would love to hear about what your batching process is like and if you have any tips! Please share with us over at the How To Make Wreaths Facebook Group.