Today we’d like to introduce you to Korin Sutherland.
Hi Korin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 2007, I started my clear stamp company/brand, Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps, after being unable to find a similar product that met my needs. I was a stay-at-home, homeschooling mother of three boys at the time, and stamping and paper crafting were what I enjoyed doing not only for myself but as a way to bless and encourage others.
I had been a consultant for a direct sales company in the paper crafting industry for over three years with a downline and many wonderful customers, so my hobby of stamping and card making had already become a side gig. It was my wonderful customers and friends in the industry who encouraged me to start my own stamp company and I guess, as they say, the rest is history.
My first online “storefront” was a blog that quickly turned into a full-fledged website, sweetnsassystamps.com. From the start, I knew I wanted my stamp company to be an avenue for sharing my faith and pointing others to Christ so our line contains many faith-based stamps and designs.
In 2015, we launched a new line specifically for Bible art journalers called Creative Worship. Bible journaling has become a wonderful way for Christian creatives to connect their love of art with their love of God’s Word and we are honored to be able to help our customers worship God in a creative way with art and verse.
In 2017, a job change for my husband we moved from South Central Pennsylvania to the beautiful Low County of Georgia. Being that my business at the time was online, moving operations to another state wasn’t a huge deal. We celebrated our 10th year in business that year!
In 2021, it was becoming very evident that my home-based business was outgrowing my home, so we took a leap of faith and opened our brick and mortar location, The Stamper’s Boutique in April. We are now celebrating one amazing year in our new storefront.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
A smooth road? Is there such a thing?
It has definitely not been smooth, although God is faithful and He has always seen us through those bumpy times. Even now, with a strained economy and lots of uncertainty for the future. we rely on His faithfulness to see us through.
Typical struggles have been and really continue to be at times… finances and just getting the word out so we can grow our customer base. Starting the brick-and-mortar with an already established and successful online business has been huge.
I know we wouldn’t have the physical store without it. We are blessed to ship to customers all over the world!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I don’t often consider myself an artist, although that is what I am, maybe because I am also a product designer, which is where my art gets used the most.
I am the lead illustrator for my stamp line so I draw and create product designs (digitally now, although that wasn’t always the case) and then submit them to my manufacturer, who is also in Georgia for production. They then create the physical product and ship it back to me.
From there I and my team package and barcode our products to sell online and in our store. I use our products, as well as products I simply resell in our storefront, to create “samples”. These samples serve as inspiration for our customers who purchase said supplies to use in their own creations. Our customers are cardmakers, art journalers, scrapbookers, Bible journalers, and so on.
As I mentioned before, we are a Christian company, so I would say I am most proud of the variety of faith-based products we offer. We hear from so many Christian stampers who are thrilled to find our products so they, too, can share their faith and encourage others.
In addition to the supplies we carry, we also sell handmade greetings cards, which I like to call mini works of art. Each one is handmade by myself or one of my team members so you won’t find them in the grocery store, dollar store, or mall.
We love fostering and encouraging the creative side of each individual (we ALL have one) and we do that in our Creative Classroom at our brick and mortar location. This classroom is a happy place for so many!
We offer our open classroom during our regular business hours (as long as nothing else is on the schedule) which allows people to come in and use our room and most of our tools and supplies for a small hourly rate. We also regularly host classes, workshops, and retreats, AND we rent the room out for parties and other events.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I have found that joining local business organizations and plugging in wherever possible in the community is a great help not only to me but in turn I can be a help to others.
Small business is hard and it is so necessary for us to stick together and support each other.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: thestampersboutique.com and sweetnsassystamps.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestampersboutique/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thestampersboutique
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/sweetnsassystamps
