Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brenda R. Coone. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Brenda, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

The mission at MsCraftprincess Designs is to help people express thoughtfulness and kindness through imagery and sentiments that make those they care about feel loved.  We believe in spreading hugs one handcrafted greeting card at a time.

I live this mission every day. Having the opportunity to design cards that people want to keep, and on many occasions frame, assures me that the receivers feel the love that went into each card design. I pray over each card I create because I understand that for my customers, greeting cards are more than just a piece of cardstock. They are connection points and are used to convey important messages and invoke strong feelings.

When someone contacts us to design a custom card, I start by asking a series of questions about the recipient and our customer’s relationship with them.  This helps tremendously in the design process and helps to ensure that I design something uniquely for them.  Knowing the feeling to be conveyed  is very important.

To be a part of so many celebrations such as birthdays, retirements, promotions, new homes, first communions, new babies, etc. is such a blessing and I am truly grateful.  This is seeing our mission in action.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I have always been crafty.  I enjoy crocheting, making jewelry, t-shirts, tea towels, and a little watercoloring.  I started my papercrafting journey making scrapbooks and later mini albums.  I took a cardmaking class in the early 1990s and quickly realized that this was something I really loved doing.

Sending greeting cards to family and friends is something I have always enjoyed. Whether it’s to celebrate a birthday, birth of a new baby, promotions, retirements, thanking someone, or sadly, having to express condolences, I grew up sending cards. As I got older, I noticed that the offerings in the marketplace were not exactly what I was looking for so I started making my own cards.  I would often make cards for friends to give to their loved ones as well.  

After retirement, I founded MsCraftprincess Designs (MsCraftprincess) in September 2019, to fill the gap that I noticed in the marketplace.  In addition to custom work, MsCraftprincess offers a large variety of ready to ship handcrafted greeting cards along with a selection of personalized gift items. 

Something I am keenly aware of is that handcrafted greeting cards are a connection point between the sender and the receiver. They create a greater emotional impact than a digital card. They make the receiver feel more socially accepted and less alone. Greeting cards also allow the sender to connect with the receiver on an emotional level that an email or text simply cannot come close to. When designing cards, I approach my designs with these thoughts in mind.

Working with raw materials like paper, ink, markers, adhesives, stamps, dies, embossing folders, etc. is something that I truly enjoy.

The company’s vision is to inspire compassion and connectivity in communities all across the world one greeting card at a time.  Our tag line is, “Giving a handcrafted greeting card is like giving a hug!”  We like  to say that we make paper hugs.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Our customers are family at MsCraftprincess Designs, and we value their opinions. We send emails three times a month where we share what’s going on in the company and ask their opinion on new product ideas from time to time. After all, if we release a product that our family isn’t interested in, we are not using our time and financial resources efficiently.

In addition to sending emails, we invite our family to email us and let us know what’s on their minds and they do.  We view these conversations to be vitally important in building relationships.  Anyone who isn’t interacting with their customers is really missing out on an important opportunity.

Social media is another way that we communicate with our family. We share our products as well as launch polls on social media to gain information.

Keeping an open line of communication lets our email family know that they are important to us. Whether they make a purchase or not, we value them and are grateful that they choose to spend time engaging with us via email and through our social media channels.  They choose to spend time with us and we don’t take this for granted.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is difficult for me. Before establishing MsCraftprincess Designs, I was not on social media and my learning curve has been quite steep. It is my opinion that in order to be reach a larger audience, incorporating social media in our business is paramount to its success.

I have learned to just post what feels right to me. The “experts” say that people on social media want to know, like, and trust the business owner before they purchase from them. I am learning to share a bit more of myself as time goes on.  I am sharing more of my silly, quirky side and I am amazed at how this resonates with our audience.

One piece of advice I would give to anyone starting to build their social media presence is to not feel compelled to post every day or multiple times of day. Along with posting content, you must engage with those who comment and like your posts as well as those who message you. There is a balance between being active on social media and actually designing and creating my products, so I have chosen a schedule that works for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mscraftprincessdesigns.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/mscraftprincess
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/mscraftprincess
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brenda-r-coone-b970b317/
• Other: tiktok: www.tiktok.com/mscraftprincess

Image Credits
Chelsea Stokes