I’m a 28 yr old Mom of 3. After my first son was born, I decided to step down from my soul sucking full time job so that I could spend my time raising my son, rather than raising my bos’s salary. So, I quit and took a job waitressing at night to make ends meet.
I love a house full of people, it brings me so much joy to see people I love all relaxing and having a great time together. I always tried to have something special made for my guests, be it someone’s favorite dinner or dessert or their favorite candy. With my son, I seemed to be entertaining alot more often so making dinner for a house full of people became expensive, so I had to cut back on that, I began making home made candy & desserts to leave out for everyone instead. Everyone loved it and they soon began asking me to make some of the candies as party favors for them, I was happy to do it.
Then came my son’s baptism. I wanted to hand out something personal but different to say thank you to my guests for coming. I searched the internet and came across a site that had personalized candy wrappers. I thought it was a great idea and the prices looked good enough, so I ordered.
To my dismay, it turned out that there were all kinds of hidden charges, like a $25 charge to submit my own design idea, another .10 cents for each foil that I ordered, high shipping charges and a rush order fee if you wanted the item within three weeks! Yikes, those fairly priced 20 wrappers turned into a $50- order and that didn’t even include the chocolate bars! When I finally recieved them, they weren’t even that nice.
I thought, “Hey, I could do these so much better myself” so I began to explore how to do them on my own. Luckily, I had a friend who was a software developer. She helped me develop a program that allowed me to create my own designs and labels. I had a computer background and was always known for creativity, so the design process came easy to me.
At first, I just made the wrappers for my own and some friends events. Occassionally I would bring some holiday wrappers into work. I began getting requests for party favors and got such positive feed back for all of my candies and chocolate wrappers so I decided to take my hobby a step further.
I had to build my business from the ground up, since I didn’t have a dime for start up money. That meant learning all about HTML, Java script, graphics design, building a website and installation – so much more than I bargained for! It took about a year of self teaching and trial & error, but in 2006, my site, www.ChocolateTreasureChest.com was finally launched! Soon after, my hobby became my full time work from home “mommy business” and I was able to quit my job waitressing (just in time too, I was pregnant with my second son).
My site has come a long way in the past 3 years. I started off with about 200 designs of personalized chocolate wrappers, now I offer over a thousand plus free custom designs! I don’t think it’s fair to charge a fee for a custom design, my job is to provide favors that suit your needs and fit perfectly with your theme, if it’s not listed, I want to make one especially for you.
I still sell my chocolate lollipops, they are mostly on a request basis and I have just listed my delicious chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate dipped Oreo cookies.
Everything comes with a personalized tag, making them fantastic edible favors for every event – with a personalized tag you can custom design these to be used as favors for Baby shower, birth announcements, baptism or Christening, Communion, confirmation, bar/bat mitzvah, sweet 16, debutant ball, engagement party, bridal shower, bachelorette or bachelor party, Wedding reception, eco-friendly place cards, anniversary party, retirement, corporate event, fundraisers - you name it & I can create a favor for it!
We recently expanded our line to include (all personalized) hot chocolate mix favors, hot cappuccino mix favors, lemonade favors, coffee favors, cookie and muffin mix favors and more!
Now you can go green with our eco-friendly favor and seating card product line!
I am still working just as hard on building www.ChocolateTreasureChest.com into a place for you to find quality, affordable party favors, as I was when the site was first started. I will continue to try and improve my designs, content and overall concept every day.
I value feedback from my clients, so if you have any suggestions or comments, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear from you! Thank you again for stopping by and I hope you enjoy our blog!
Awesome site, Loving the blog, keep the ideas coming!