Do I take the plunge and try to sell my stuff? Tips and Advice welcome.

[Flubba]

To cut a long story short, I no longer work and I have started to make things to fill the void of work and to save money compared to shop-bought things.
I'm not particularly good, but am coming on and also sold a few things at a Christmas fair which boosted my confidence.

I am now in a position where I would love to be able to sell things, but not sure a) whether my stuff is good enough to sell, b) if it is, do I do it casually on a hope-and-see kind of a basis or do I go the full hog and make business cards/labels for my things, sell on Folksy or Etsy, sign myself up for craft fairs etc ~ or would that all end in disappointment?

I made about £140 profit from the Christmas fair (not counting man-hours!), so have some money to put into 'marketing' if I were to go down that route.
I started a blog about my stuff (predominantly as a reminder to me of how I made the things I've made) so you can see some of the things I've made...
Made By Yours Truly

Please be candid. I am thick skinned :o
Any advice or tips very welcome.

Well done on the Folksy shop!

Business cards are good - for under £10 you can get 500 of them, then you have an easy way of giving people your contact details, whether that's at a market or at the school gate, supermarket, play group - whatever.

Use the kids shamelessly!! Make things for them that they love, they can carry around, wear, etc - train them up to say 'Thank you, my Mummy made it, she sells them too :) ' DH too if you can think of anything!!

Other things to think about:
Insurance - try direct line, normally costs about £5/month but depends on whether they'll cover you. You need product liability etc.
Taxman - you have 3 months from starting up to register as self employed.
Trading standards - if you're selling toys then they have to be safe. Call TS and they should talk you through the process but you'd need to keep technical files on the things you sell and have these available at fairs for people to see if they want to.
Look up about CE marking your stuff - basically self certifying that it meets relevant safety standards.

No advice and tips but your stuff is looovely so definitely go for it!

Well I've done it - I've put my first few things up for sale at my Folksy shop :o At least they're out there now.

Now I need to get on and do some serious stuff like RueDe has suggested.

Thanks again for your help and comments.

(I also need to invest in a decent camera - and an iron )

:o

Looks great Flubba.

I hope you get some sales soon.

Just ordered that book mummyisamonster - thanks for the recommendation.