A note from Belle & Boo's Co-founder

Hello, I’m Kate, co-founder of Belle & Boo.

I've been feeling a little left out lately, so today I decided to come out of the woodwork, say hello and start telling you a little more about what happens behind the scenes at Belle & Boo on a more regular basis. It might not always be riveting stuff, but the more I think about it, the decisions we make here every day are all made in hope that you can enjoy Belle & Boo more and more, so I hope you find it interesting and enjoy coming with us on our journey.

I’d also love to hear from you too, whether you a customer, crafter, independent business owner or just someone who loves what we do and fancies a chat I’d love to hear form you. My email is kate@belleandboo.com

 Who is Behind Belle & Boo?

We may have mentioned before that Belle & Boo are just a few. The core team is me, Clare, and Jess. At Belle & Boo Jess pretty much runs the studio single handily, she is however also an amazing illustrator, and you can see some of her work here.

When Clare is not behind her Mac creating new products, talking with you on social media or any of the other great tasks she may be carrying out (Clare is pretty much responsible for anything creative)  she is looking after her two gorgeous girls who are just 1 and 3 and if that does not keep her busy enough she also creates music and videos for children with her husband Simon. Check out Planet Custard.

Clare and her girls	Jess and her family

My girls are now 11 and 12, they are Belle & Boo advocates through and through and partly the inspiration behind my post today. I am sure you will hear from them soon as they are dying to show you the new Belle & Boo quilts I bought home the other day!

Belle & Boo is more than just three...

Of course, we are helped by some other talented people, such as the utterly brilliant Mandy who draws all the amazing art and originally co-founded Belle & Boo with me. As well as illustrating for Belle & Boo, Mandy works on her own art projects and commissions - prepare for some oohs and wows when you look at her Instagram page @mandysutcliffeart. 

The fabulous Rhiannon helps create our collections of enchanting fabrics @rhiannonsouthwell and has a wonderful business called Blossom and Brush which offer stylish window films as an alternative to net curtains.

We also recently started with fabulous Anna who owns Neon Digital Clicks. Anna was a big fan of Belle & Boo when her son was little and so it is a real treat for us both to work together.

In the last couple of months our beautiful photos and imaginative 'how to reels' have come from Hollie Evans and her daughter Flora who together capture the heart of Belle & Boo perfectly.

Oops, I nearly forgot... Buddy and Areno are our office dogs!

 

Where the brand is at...

The brand has changed quite a lot in the last two years, strangely the pandemic allowed me to take a step back and reassess what is it that makes Belle & Boo unique. When Belle & Boo first hopped onto the page, we envisaged a brand that had the two characters at the chore, a world of playthings, books, gifting items and potentially even TV. Since Belle & Boo began, and with the help of some partners, we have wonderfully managed to create most of these things (except the tv!) .

You will find on the website that you can buy some Belle & Boo books,  there were 6 picture books in the series but for now 4 are out of print and we only have a small number of play products such as the jigsaw and craft kit available but with only a small number in stock they won't be around much longer.

 

There are also some precious baby gifts available, but Clare and I were only discussing today how maybe it would be nice to offer these to you at a special price in time for Christmas which would also give us the room in the studio for new products that we hope to bring to you in Spring.

 

 

The plan for the near future

So, what's the plan... For now, it is to bring your more fabrics collections so you can continue to amaze us with your craft projects and interior spaces - hopefully we will explore offering the fabrics in different materials too. We also want to trial some homewares such as duvet sets, cushions and perhaps some storage bags and the like. Our thinking is that not everyone, including me, is a dab hand with a sewing machine but would like to enjoy Belle & Boo. I’ll be bringing you more news on these soon and asking for your thoughts.

We will continue to bring you art prints, postcards, wallpapers, wall stickers and creative downloads too but if there is anything else you would like to see us explore then just let me know.

Lastly, I wanted to let you know as to where we are with Black Friday. We won't have big discounts on our website over that weekend, mainly because if we do it would put such pressure on the business. Our current ranges are not mass manufactured but bought locally in the UK. Now although I can't promise that will always be the case, for now we love that it is, but it does mean unlike other big retailers we don't have the margins to discounts them. When we will bring the occasional offers your way and as I mentioned earlier, we have a special price for our baby ranges in the next few weeks.  Sorry if that was not the news you were expecting. I do hope we can win you over with great quality products and customer service instead. I'd like to think a Belle & Boo product is not just for Christmas but will be passed down through the ages and bring lasting memories to all.

That's all for me for now, but I hope to chat again soon. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any thoughts you would like to share!

Kate x