17 Best Crafts To Make And Sell Online

Making and selling your crafts online is one of the best ways to run a side hustle these days.

With online marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon Handmade, it’s never been easier to sell the crafts you make at home to customers all over the world.

And just like that, you’re a global business! 🌎

In fact, it’s so easy to sell online nowadays, that the difficult part is actually coming up with ideas for marketable crafts in the first place.

That’s where we come in.

We get hundreds of emails and messages a month asking for advice on DIY crafts to sell. Not to mention that a few of our staff have already run successful online crafts businesses before joining the team.

So we’ve rounded up the best crafts to make and sell online.

We’ve included the pros and cons of each option, as well as the necessary practicalities of what you need to get started with each one. Hopefully you’ll be able to easily assess what crafts will work best for you and your circumstances.

Let’s get straight into it…

Best Crafts To Make And Sell Online

Vinyl Decals

As this is a vinyl cutting blog, it makes sense that our first suggestion for crafts to sell is vinyl decals.

Chances are, you already own a vinyl cutting machine and have plenty of experience of churning out decals for your own hobby or home crafting endeavours.

We love selling vinyl decals as they’re generally super easy to design and make, and you don’t need a huge space to set up a small business with them like you would with larger projects.

Making vinyl decals is one of our favorite options as it requires very little seed money to set up and get started and — as they’re so popular on Etsy — you can generally start making a nice fat profit straight away!

Are you considering launching a vinyl cutting business?

Make sure you check out our comprehensive 130+ page guide ‘How To Launch A Successful Vinyl Cutting Business

It includes everything you need to know to launch your own vinyl cutting business and start making sales today

Find out what really works, and what doesn’t — how can you come up with design ideas that your audience will love, and pay you for?

Find Out More And Get Started Today

What You Need To Get Started:

• A suitable vinyl cutter
• Vinyl
• Cutting mat
• Design software or SVG designs
• Postage and packing supplies

Pros

• Easy to design and make
• Low start-up costs
• You don’t need a large space in order to operate
• Decals are always popular throughout the year
• Quick and easy to ship

Cons

• Decals don’t sell individually for as much as larger products

Custom Mugs, T-Shirts, Tote Bags, Cushion Covers…

The next step up from simply making and selling vinyl decals is to attach those decals to a plain mug or t-shirt (or anything for that matter!) and selling it as a custom product.

This way, you get around the ‘con’ we listed for selling vinyl decals, in that you can charge a lot more for a custom designed product than you can for a simple decal. In the customer’s mind, they’re buying a stand-alone product — if they buy the decal, then they still have to do half the work of affixing that decal onto something.

As such, your customer base is a little larger — vinyl decals are mostly favored by crafty people already operating within the industry, whereas a custom-designed mug, for instance, will be bought by anybody and everybody.

Of course, it’s a slightly more expensive set-up as you require more materials and space to operate. You’ll have to decide whether the pay-off is worth the initial investment.

If you’ve got the Cricut Maker and are considering selling custom clothing, make sure that you check out their brand new Infusible Ink System. This is an ink sublimation transfer system that’s easier and longer lasting than the usual HTV transfer and makes for more impressive and professional results.

What You Need:

• Everything detailed in #1
• Mug/t-shirt blanks for you to transfer your decals onto

Pros:

• You can sell each product individually for a much higher price
• Still easy to make and sell
• Appeals to a wider audience as it’s a ready made product
• Popular throughout the year but demand will especially rock up during the holidays as people search for gifts

Cons

• Requires a slightly higher initial investment as you need more materials to get started
• Requires a little more space to operate and store supplies

Candles

If you’re looking for a bit more of a challenge but want to make and sell crafts that will sell for serious bucks, then candle-making could be something to get involved in.

It’s a completely different kettle of fish to making vinyl products but is equally creative and fun.

You’ll certainly need a lot more space to launch a candle business so make sure that you’ve got a dedicated craft room or work space to really get stuck into it.

One of the best things about making and selling candles is that people will spend serious money on well-made products. Think carefully about fragrance and ingredients if you really want to tap into the luxury market.

Plus, you can use your craft cutting machine to create some beautiful labels once your candles are made!

What You Need:

• Candle making wax
• Candle wicks
• Fragrance/essential oils (you’ll probably want a variety of these)
• Thermometer
• Spatula
• Double boiler
• Containers (make sure they’re heat proof!)
• Postage and packing supplies

Pros:

• Can command a high price
• Relatively low cost to make (that means juicy profits!)
• Easy to personalize and get creative
• Very popular throughout the year but especially during the gift-giving season

Cons

• You’ll need a lot of space to create
• Not as quick to make as vinyl related products

Party Decorations

More and more people love to buy handmade decorations when they’re throwing a party — whether it’s bunting, cake toppers, favors or gift boxes.

There’s definitely a market for you to create party decoration packages based on certain themes and sell them to party planners.

These paper crafts are easy and relatively cheap to make when you’ve got a craft cutting machine. You just need the creativity to come up with the different themes!

What You Need:

• Craft cutting machine
• Cardstock
• Decorations and embellishments
• Cutting mat
• Design software or properly licensed SVG designs
• Post and packing materials

Pros:

• Not a lot of competition
• Lots of opportunities for creativity — a great venture for would-be party planners!
• Can sell decoration packages for high prices
• Low cost and quick to make
• Popular throughout the year but especially around major holidays

Cons:

• You may need lots of space for storage if you’re selling lots of different packages

Jewelry

Jewelry is one of the ultimate crafts to make and sell online.

Not only can you charge a high price for quality products, there’s practically no limit on what you actually can create. Necklaces, bracelets, earrings, anklets, rings… and there’s so many styles and designs even within these categories too!

One thing we would say is that jewelry making isn’t for everyone, no matter how crafty you are.

To make genuinely good jewelry that will command a high price online, you ideally need at least some experience and expertise — and often, high quality materials that might be out of reach for your average crafter.

Of course, that’s not to say that simple and plain jewelry doesn’t have an audience… it definitely does.

We’d recommend experimenting with creating jewelry for yourself and friends/family before you decide to sell it online, as it is more labor-intensive than most of the other crafts on this list.

If you already have a Cricut Maker, why not experiment with making and selling leather jewelry — it’s definitely having a moment right now!

What You Need:

It really depends on the type and design of jewelry you want to make but here’s a rough guide

• Wire cutters
• Pliers
• Jewel hammer
• Tweezers
• Bead reamer
• Kiln
• Wire/fabric/string
• Jewels/beads/embellishments
• Postage and packing supplies
• Cricut Maker (if selling leather jewelry)
• Cricut Knife Blade
• Leather

Pros:

• Can sell for a lot of money if you position yourself in the luxury market
• No end to the creative opportunities in jewelry making!
• Popular all year round but especially in the gift-giving season
• Cheap and quick to ship

Cons

• Labor-intensive
• Requires some experience and expertise

Pottery

Similar to jewelry making in that it really requires a little expertise, pottery is another DIY craft to sell online.

Whether you’re making pots, mugs, vases, bowls, plates or whatever, there’ll always be a huge market for homemade pottery online.

Ideally, you’ll already have plenty of experience throwing pots and the like before you try to sell them online — customers demand a level of professionalism and you’ll get bad reviews if your shapes aren’t up to scratch.

If you don’t have any experience with actually making pottery but fancy yourself a dab hand at decorating, you can always buy pre-made, blank dishware that you can then paint and glaze before selling. You will still need access to a kiln but this will be far less labor-intensive than making the pottery from scratch as well.

What You Need:

• Pottery wheel (if making the pottery yourself)
• Clay (if making the pottery yourself)
• Shaping tools (if making the pottery yourself)
• Ceramic paint
• Ceramic glaze
• Kiln (or access to one)
• Postage and packing supplies

Pros:

• Can sell for a high price online
• Lots of creative opportunities
• Popular throughout the year
• Painting and glazing requires less expertise and experience than making the pottery from scratch

Cons:

• Labor intensive
• Difficult to pack and ship
• Requires plenty of space to operate

Cards

Returning to a craft that you can make with your craft cutting machine, homemade cards are a very easy and lucrative market to start making money in.

Think about it — are there any occasions nowadays that aren’t marked with a card to friends and family? Birthdays, Christmas, Mothers’ Day, Graduation, New Baby, Engagement, Marriage… the list could go on and on.

Cards are one of the easiest things to make, particularly if you’ve got a craft cutting machine like the Cricut, Silhouette or Sizzix models. All you need is a little bit of creativity and you’ll find it easy to stand out from the market.

What You Need:

• Craft cutting machine
• Cardstock
• Decorations and embellishments
• Cutting mat
• Glue
• Postage and packaging materials

Pros:

• Easy and cheap to make
• Popular throughout the year
• Easy to sell in bulk — particularly around Christmas
• Quick to make if you already have a craft cutting machine
• Easy to make a name for yourself if you focus on quality and your brand

Cons:

• Don’t sell for a lot individually so you’ll need to sell a lot to make a big profit

Stuffed Toys

If you’re a dab hand at sewing and wondering what might be the best crafts to make and sell online, it’s well worth considering stuffed toys.

Well made stuffed toys are loved by kids the world over, and parents love buying unique gifts that only their child will get to treasure. It’s an easy market to break into and you don’t have the amount of competition to contend with as most of the other crafts on this list.

If you already have a Cricut Maker 3, you might know that making small stuffed toys is one of the things that you can easily do with this incredible machine. There are a large number of stuffed toy projects available to make for free within Cricut Access and the brilliant rotary blade will cut all fabrics beautifully, like butter, to ensure a professional finish on your end product.

Just make sure that you have a commercial license for any design you use that’s not yours so you’ll be able to  legally sell it online.

What You Need:

• Fabric
• Sewing machine
• Stuffing
• Cricut Maker (optional) or a good pair of fabric scissors to cut out patterns
• Design software or SVG designs
• Postage and packing supplies

Pros:

• Huge number of creative opportunities
• Customers will pay high prices for unique, well made items
• Not as much competition as other craft markets on this list
• Cutting patterns is quick and easy with the Cricut Maker
• Popular throughout the year but especially during the gift-giving season

Cons:

• Requires a small investment in start-up costs thanks to supplies
• You need a fair amount of space to operate and store inventory

Bath Bombs

Everyone loves a bath, right? And people definitely love bath bombs.

You might think that it’s complicated to make and sell bath bombs but, just like candles, they’re surprisingly easy to produce once you’ve got all your supplies ready and lined up.

They don’t generally sell for as much as other more labor-intensive crafts on this list, but people tend to buy more of them as they’re cheap and make such good gifts. That works well for you too as the maker as they’re so easy to make in bulk.

Bath bombs generally appeal to a wider and younger audience than simply selling bar soap so you should be able to find an audience easily.

And remember to play around with colors and fragrances if you really want to stand out from the crowd!

What You Need:

• Mixing bowl
• Molds for shaping
• Baking soda
• Citric Acid
• Fragrance/Essential oils
• Cosmetic colors
• Postage and packing materials

Pros:

• Cheap and easy to make
• People love to buy bath bombs in bulk, particular around the holiday season
• Very popular right now thanks to Lush and other trendy cosmetic stores
• Lots of opportunities to personalize with color and fragrance
• Relatively easy to ship if you have the right packaging materials

Cons:

• Don’t sell individually for as much as the more labor-intensive crafts on this list

Birdhouses

A little off piste here, but birdhouses are an amazing craft to make and sell — particularly if you’ve already got some experience with woodworking.

And, of course, birdhouses can be sold not only as houses for birds in your garden, but also as a home accessory like a key holder.

They’re a little time consuming to make compared to some of the easier crafts on this list, but they can be sold reasonably highly — especially during the holiday season.

What You Need:

• Cedar/cypress wood (untreated and unpainted)
• Galvanized screws
• Wood paint
• Wood glue
• Drill
• Saw
• Sanding material
• C clamp
• Packing and posting supplies

Pros:

• High quality and unique birdhouses can be sold at a high price
• Lots of creative opportunities
• Not as competitive a market as some of the other crafts on this list
• Popular during Summer months

Cons:

• Labor intensive
• Less appeal and demand than for some of the other items on this list
• Requires lots of space to operate
• Expensive to ship

Headbands

One easy craft to make and sell that’s enduringly popular is headbands.

Quick and easy to make, these sell in bulk and appeal to a variety of women across a multitude of ages. Headbands are particularly popular at the moment with babies and toddlers, but have a universal appeal regardless of age.

Even better, they require relatively few supplies and materials so start-up costs are low and you don’t need a large space to get started. If you use really quality materials (think: organic) you can also charge a premium so make some nice profits straight off the bat.

What You Need:

• Fabric
• Sewing machine
• Cricut Maker or scissors to cut patterns
• Post and packing supplies

Pros:

• Lots of demand for high quality, creative products
• Popular throughout the year but especially come gift-giving season
• Low start-up costs
• Don’t require a large space or lots of materials to get started
• Large profits to be had, especially if you use quality materials
• Lots of creative opportunities to stand out

Cons:

• Lots of competition for established brands — look for ways to stand out!

Art Prints

This ones for all you artistes — art prints are always popular and a great way to start selling your crafts online.

There’s really no end to the wall art you can sell. Some people run successful businesses simply transferring stock images to canvas and cardboard, but if you really want to stand out it’s a good idea to use your own designs.

Photographers in particular are probably the best equipped to sell their own art prints as you already have a  portfolio of images to use.

You will need some money to really get started though as it’s imperative that you use a high quality art printer and specialist paper material to really sell at a professional level. Using your home printer simply isn’t going to cut it here.

You Will Need:

• Artwork/photography that you have a commercial right to use and sell for profit
• Pigment based printer
• Acid free paper
• Backing board
• Pigment ink
• Camera/scanner
• Photoshop or other editing software
• Post and packing materials

Pros:

• Unique, quality artwork can sell for very high prices
• There are a huge number of online marketplaces to sell your wares (Etsy, Society6…)
• It’s a great way to get your name out there as a photographer or artist
• Easy to sell multiple prints of the same image
• Easy to make once you have all the supplies

Cons:

• Some start-up investment is needed for a quality printer and supplies
• Best suited to people who are already photographers and artists

Keychains

One of the things we love about the Cricut Maker cutting machine is the fact that it can cut a variety of different materials, including thicker, sturdier materials like wood, leather and matboard.

That makes it ideal to make items like keychains — items that sell really well on sites like Etsy.

Everyone loves unique keychains, so make sure that you’re thinking creatively in order to score plenty of sales.

Materials are a little more expensive compared to simple paper crafts, but they can sell for good prices if you focus on quality and uniqueness.

What You Need:

• Cricut Maker
• Cricut Knife Blade
• Cutting Mat
• Design software
• Wood, leather or matboard materials
• Keyrings
• Postage and packing supplies

Pros:

• Easy and quick to make when you use the Cricut Maker
• Good quality pieces can sell for good prices
• Easy to ship
• Lots of room for creative expression

Cons:

• Materials may be expensive (remember to buy in bulk for the best discounts)

Baby Bandanas

If there’s one area where people are prepared to spend a lot of money, it’s in the baby market.

We love spending money on bits and pieces for baby. And while it can be difficult to compete with the major brands on clothing and muslins, there is one area that’s ideal for handmade crafters: baby bandanas.

Bandanas are quick and easy to make, but more importantly super cute — just make sure that you’ve got a good model when you’re photographing your products for Etsy!

Make sure to experiment with different colors, fabrics and textures to really make your brand stand out.

What You Need:

• Fabric
• Sewing Machine
• Cricut Maker or quality scissors to cut out patterns
• Post and packing materials

Pros:

• Quick and easy to make
• Well made and unique pieces can sell for high prices
• Cheap and easy to ship
• Doesn’t require a large work space to operate
• Popular throughout the year

Cons:

• Lots of competition — work hard to stand out!

Paper Flower Bouquets

One craft that we’re seeing increasingly more demand for around wedding season are paper flower bouquets.

Anyone that’s already organized a wedding will know just how eye-wateringly expensive flowers can be, so it’s no wonder that some people are looking elsewhere for their bouquets.

This is where paper flowers come in — when they’re made well, they can be astonishingly beautiful, and even mistaken for the real thing. Not to mention that they’ll last a hell of a lot longer than a natural flower bouquet!

You can charge really high prices with paper flower bouquets, but they must be enduringly high quality and stand up to scrutiny in wedding photos for years to come. Now is not the time to scrimp on materials and expertise!

Also bear in mind that the very nature of them being used in weddings means that you’ll probably be taking almost 100% custom orders.

What You Need:

• Craft cutting machine
• Cutting mat
• Paper, cardstock and other suitable materials
• Floral wire
• Craft scissors
• Detail scissors
• Floral adhesive
• Curling tool
• Wire cutters
• Postage and packing materials

Pros:

• Individual bouquets can sell for a lot of money = fat profits!
• The joy of collaborating with a bride and groom on their wedding
• Lots of opportunity for creative expression
• Increasing demand

Cons:

• Demands exceptional quality
• Need to deal with custom orders
• Difficult to ship

Wreaths

If you’re looking for a seasonal craft to make and sell, you can’t really go wrong with wreaths.

Just like with the paper flower bouquets above, many people are going off the idea of a traditional wreath which are very expensive and often barely last out the Christmas season, and instead are looking for something that they can pull out and use again and again over the years.

It’s easy to pick up artificial wreaths at crafts stores, and then it’s up to you how you wish to decorate it.

Crafters who already own a craft cutting machine often opt to make their own paper and card decorations to decorate a plain wreath, adding their own decorations and embellishments along the way.

What You Need:

• Artificial wreaths
• Paper and cardstock
• Craft cutting machine
• Cutting mat
• Decorations and embellishments
• Glue gun
• Postage and packaging materials

Pros:

• Quality wreaths can sell for good money
• Lots of opportunity for creative expression
• A fun way to get into the Christmas spirit!
• Increasingly popular

Cons:

• Seasonally popular only
• Require lots of space to operate and store
• Difficult to ship

Purses and Bags

Our final favorite DIY craft to make and sell is purses.

This is another area where people are searching high and low for unique and original handmade items — great news for crafters like us!

While there are lots of handmade purses on the market, the truth is that most of them are low quality and boring. There’s definitely room for someone to move in with well made and creative products. Just wait for the profits to start rolling in!

Making purses is also a great avenue for finding fans and followers on social media. It’s easy to brand purses and you should have no problem finding a bundle of ways to express your creativity with them!

What You Need:

• Fabric
• Cricut Maker or high quality scissors to cut patterns
• Sewing machine
• Design software
• Zippers
• Chains
• Decorations and embellishments
• Interfacing
• Interlining
• Post and packing materials

Pros:

• Lots of opportunity to make impressive profits with the right product
• Lots of opportunity for creative expression
• Easy to stand out from the rest of the market
• Popular throughout the year but especially during the holiday season
• Can make regular stock as well as taking custom orders
• Easy to brand and build a following

Cons:

• Fairly labor-intensive
• Requires a dedicated workspace for operation and storage
• Upfront cost for materials may be expensive

Are you considering launching a craft business?

Make sure you check out our comprehensive 130+ page guide ‘How To Launch A Successful Vinyl Cutting Business

It includes everything you need to know to launch your own vinyl cutting business and start making sales today

Find out what really works, and what doesn’t — how can you come up with design ideas that your audience will love, and pay you for?

Find Out More And Get Started Today

What do you think are the best crafts to make and sell?