# Handmade and crafts > Jewelry, prints, candles and makes. Presentation sells the piece, so packaging is part of the product. Handmade buyers pay for the story as much as the object. Tissue, a sticker and a card turn a package into a gift, and they cost cents an order. Most makers ship small, light items in padded mailers or small boxes. Candles, ceramics and glass travel in a box, with fill between the piece and every wall. ## How to pack it - Wrap the piece in tissue and close it with a sticker. - Use a padded mailer for flat or soft items, a small box with padding for anything that breaks. - Add a thank-you card with your shop name. Avoid: Loose glass or ceramics in mailers. One drop at the sorting center can break them. - **[Acid-free tissue paper, 100 sheets](https://sellersetups.com/us/product/tissue-paper)** ($10 to $16): A sheet of tissue costs pennies and changes how a $20 vintage shirt feels on arrival. - **[Kraft bubble mailers, #0, 100 pack](https://sellersetups.com/us/product/padded-envelopes)** ($16 to $28): Enough padding for a lipstick, a small figure or a sealed booster pack, with no box to fold. - **[Small corrugated boxes, 25 pack](https://sellersetups.com/us/product/single-wall-boxes)** ($12 to $25): Use these for boxed toys and beauty sets that a poly mailer would crush, when double-wall board costs more than you need. - **[Bubble wrap, 12 in x 175 ft](https://sellersetups.com/us/product/bubble-wrap-roll)** ($15 to $30): A long perforated roll costs several times less per foot than the small packs sold at the post office or a drugstore. - **[4 × 6 in thermal labels, 500 fanfold](https://sellersetups.com/us/product/thermal-labels-fanfold)** ($8 to $16): Fanfold stacks feed flat behind the printer and hold more labels than a roll. 4 × 6 in matches the label size USPS, UPS and the marketplaces print. - **[Thank-you stickers, roll of 500](https://sellersetups.com/us/product/thank-you-stickers)** ($6 to $10): A sticker sealing the tissue makes the package look finished before the buyer opens it. Swap to custom stickers with your shop name once the brand settles. ## Shipping per order - USPS Ground Advantage, under 1 lb: $6.93 to $8.95. Clothing, cards in a mailer and other small items under 1 lb. Tracked, with $100 insurance included. - eBay Standard Envelope: $0.82 to $1.40. Tracked letter for eBay cards and flat items selling under $20, up to 3 oz. - USPS Ground Advantage, 1 to 2 lb: $7.61 to $13.42. Shoes, jeans and boxed items up to 2 lb, tracked with $100 insurance. ## The kit a maker needs first Start with a pocket scale that weighs to the tenth of an ounce, because most handmade packages are light and the shipping rate turns on small differences. Add a pack of small jewelry or presentation boxes, tissue paper and a roll of thank-you stickers. A label printer can wait. Most makers ship a handful of orders a week at the start, and a home printer copes with that. Buy one once you’re cutting and taping labels most evenings. ## Packing so it arrives like a gift Wrap the piece in tissue, seal it with a sticker and add a handwritten card. That takes under a minute and it’s the part buyers photograph and share. Earrings and rings go in a small box inside a padded mailer, so they don’t slide to a corner and bend. Candles, ceramics and glass go in a box with paper wrap on every side, with enough padding that nothing moves when you shake it. Keep fragile wrapping and gift wrapping as two steps, with the protective layer outside the presentation. ## Storing makes and materials apart Finished stock and raw materials end up in the same drawers unless you separate them. Keep sellable pieces in labeled clear bins or boxes, one per product line, and keep supplies somewhere else. Give each listing a short code and write it on the box or bag. At 10pm you can then pick an order by code instead of rummaging through near-identical pieces. ## Photos that show scale and finish A small light box gives you clean, even shots of jewelry and small makes on a kitchen table. Take one plain shot, one in the hand or on a model, and one close-up of the finish or texture. Buyers ask about size more than anything else. Put a coin or a ruler beside the piece in one photo, and state the measurements in inches in the listing. ## Selling live and in batches Live selling suits makers who can show the process: pouring, stringing or glazing. A phone on a tripod and a clip-on mic are enough to start, with a soft light so the color reads true. If you make in batches, list the batch together and say so. Buyers accept a made-to-order wait when you state it plainly in the listing. ## Growing past the first 50 orders At this point packing time starts to compete with making time. Pre-fold boxes and pre-cut tissue in a quiet hour, so packing an order becomes a two-minute job. A thermal label printer and Etsy labels or Pirate Ship, which pull in orders from your shop, save you copying addresses. Order custom stickers or printed tape once your shop name and look have settled. ## Common mistakes - Shipping rings loose in a padded mailer lets them bend at the corners, so put them in a small box first. - Guessing weights pushes you into the wrong rate, so weigh every finished package on a scale that reads ounces. - Photographing on a busy patterned cloth hides the piece, so shoot on plain white or a single neutral surface. - Leaving sizes out of the listing brings returns and questions, so give measurements and show scale in a photo. - Buying 1,000 custom boxes before your look has settled wastes money, so start plain and brand with stickers. ## Setups - [Etsy handmade studio setup](https://sellersetups.com/us/setups/etsy-handmade-studio): A light box for clean product photos, plastic-free packaging that feels like a gift, and a spare room laid out to make, wrap and ship 10 to 40 Etsy orders. ## Questions ### Do I need branded packaging from day one? No. Plain mailers with tissue and a sticker look deliberate. Move to custom printed stickers or tape once you’ve settled on a shop name and a look. ### Can I ship candles? Yes, within the US. Wrap the jar, box it with padding and keep it upright if you can. Hot weather softens wax, so avoid leaving packages in a warm car. ### How much should I spend on packaging per order? Keep it to the materials you’d miss if they weren’t there: a box or mailer, tissue, a sticker and a card. Price your work with packaging included, rather than treating it as an extra. ### Can I ship handmade soap and bath products? Usually yes, but some ingredients and liquids have rules. Check USPS Publication 52 on hazardous and restricted mail before you list, and seal anything that could leak in its own bag. ### Do I need a light box for jewelry photos? Yes for small, shiny pieces, because it softens reflections. Daylight by a window works too, if you shoot at the same time of day so colors stay consistent. ### Should I offer gift wrapping? Many makers already wrap every order, so a gift note option costs little extra. Etsy lets you offer gift wrap and leaves the price off gift receipts.