Have you ever looked at something handmade and wondered what actually happens between clicking “Order” and the parcel arriving at your door?
Because I can assure you, my baubles don't arrive at Georgina Kay Designs magically filled with glitter, personalised and wearing their ribbons.
Although at Christmas, I occasionally wish they did. 😂
Every personalised glitter bauble that leaves my workshop starts life completely plain.
No glitter.
No name.
No ribbon.
Nothing that makes it yours.
Then, somewhere along the way, your order appears on my screen.
And that's where its little journey begins.
So today, I thought I'd take you behind the scenes and show you exactly what happens when you order one of my personalised Christmas baubles.
Step One: Your order arrives
This is where it all starts.
You might be ordering:
Baby's First Christmas
Our First Christmas Married
Our First Christmas in Our New Home
A family bauble.
A teacher gift.
Something for a much-loved pet.
A remembrance bauble.
Or perhaps simply a beautiful personalised decoration with somebody's name on it.
Whatever you've chosen, the first thing I do is look carefully at the personalisation you've supplied.
Names.
Dates.
Wording.
Colour choices.
Design options.
And yes, sometimes I can tell immediately that somebody has accidentally typed something twice or autocorrect has been helpful.
Where something genuinely doesn't look right, I'll always try to check rather than blindly making something that looks like an obvious mistake.
Because once it's made, it's made!
Step Two: Choosing the bauble and glitter
Now we get to the fun bit.
Colour.
My signature personalised glitter baubles are 80mm shatterproof baubles, which means they're wonderfully substantial on the Christmas tree without the worry of traditional glass.
And then there's the glitter.
Oh, the glitter.
Over the years my colour collection has grown rather considerably.
What started as a selection of colours has become something that could probably now qualify as a small glitter library.
There are traditional Christmas reds and greens.
Golds and silvers.
Pinks and purples.
Blues.
Pastels.
Bright colours.
Deep colours.
And shades for people who know that “blue” simply isn't a specific enough answer. 😂
Choosing the colour is one of my favourite parts because it can completely change the personality of a design.
Step Three: The glitter goes INSIDE
This surprises quite a few people.
The glitter isn't stuck to the outside of my baubles.
It's inside.
That means you get all the sparkle without covering yourself, your carpet, the dog, the cat and everything else within a three-mile radius in glitter every time you touch it.
Anyone who crafts with glitter will understand just how significant an achievement that is.
Once glitter has entered a house, glitter basically owns the house.
Putting it inside also gives the bauble that gorgeous, completely glitter-filled appearance while leaving the outside smooth for the personalised design.
Each one is prepared individually rather than simply pulled from a shelf ready-made.
Step Four: Creating your personalisation
This is the stage where a pretty glitter bauble becomes your bauble.
Your chosen wording is prepared and cut from premium outdoor-grade vinyl.
Depending on the design, there may be names, dates, snowflakes, stars, hearts or other little details to add.
And this is also where handmade really means handmade.
The designs have to be prepared, weeded and applied carefully by hand.
Some are wonderfully straightforward.
Others contain enough tiny pieces of vinyl to make me question several of my life choices. 😂
But those little details make such a difference to the finished design.
Step Five: Applying the design
This is one of those jobs that looks incredibly easy when it's done properly.
You take the vinyl.
Put it onto the bauble.
Done.
Except…
baubles are round.
Vinyl is flat.
And flat things aren't naturally enthusiastic about being wrapped around round things.
Everything needs to be positioned carefully so that names sit correctly and the overall design looks balanced.
With larger designs, different elements may need to be applied separately.
After making thousands of baubles over the years, you develop a fairly good eye for where everything needs to sit.
But I still check them.
Because handmade shouldn't mean “that'll do.”
Step Six: The ribbons 🎀
This is the finishing touch that really brings everything together.
Each of my glitter baubles is finished with two coordinating ribbons.
The colours are chosen to complement the glitter and the design, and I love this stage because suddenly the bauble looks complete.
Sometimes customers choose their ribbon colours themselves.
Other times I'm trusted to choose something that works beautifully with the bauble.
Either way, those two little ribbons make a surprisingly big difference.
And if you've ever wondered why I'm so particular about ribbon…
You should see the amount of it in my workshop.
Actually, perhaps you shouldn't.
We can all continue pretending it's a perfectly reasonable quantity.
Step Seven: The final inspection
Before your bauble goes anywhere near its box, I give it a final check.
I look at the personalisation.
I check the spelling against the order.
I check the design.
I check the ribbons.
I check the overall finish.
Because by this point I've spent time making it, but you're the person who is going to open that box.
And I want that moment to feel special.
Step Eight: Into the gift box
Once I'm happy, your bauble is carefully packaged.
My personalised glitter baubles come presented in a black gift box with tissue paper, which does two jobs.
Firstly, it makes the bauble lovely to give as a gift.
But perhaps even more importantly, it gives you somewhere safe to keep it after Christmas.
Because I don't want these baubles to be bought for one December and then forgotten.
The idea is that when the Christmas decorations come down, your bauble goes safely back into its box.
And next December…
out it comes again.
Hopefully for many Christmases to come.
Step Nine: Off to its new home 📦
Then comes the slightly strange part for me.
After all that work, I close the box.
Pack your order.
Add the finishing touches.
And send it on its way.
The bauble I've spent time making disappears from my workshop and heads off somewhere completely different.
Perhaps just a few miles away.
Perhaps hundreds of miles away.
And most of the time, I'll never see it again.
But I love thinking about what happens next.
Meanwhile, back in the workshop…
One bauble doesn't sound particularly dramatic.
But during Christmas season, multiply that process by hundreds.
And then thousands.
There are orders waiting.
Baubles being glittered.
Designs being cut.
Vinyl being weeded.
Names being checked.
Ribbons being tied.
Boxes being assembled.
Parcels waiting for Royal Mail.
And me somewhere in the middle of it all, probably wondering where I put the scissors I was holding approximately eleven seconds ago.
This is the side of a small handmade business that customers don't always see.
There isn't a production line hidden behind the workshop door.
There isn't a warehouse full of staff.
It's me.
I design them.
I make them.
I personalise them.
I package them.
And when you send a message asking a question…
Yep.
That's me too. 😂
Made to order really does mean made to order
One thing I think is important to explain is that I don't make thousands of personalised baubles in advance.
I couldn't.
I don't know what names you're going to choose.
I don't know which colour you'll fall in love with.
I don't know whether somebody is going to ask me for:
Sophie's First Christmas 2026
or
Grandad's 80th Christmas
or
Our First Christmas with Pickle the Cockapoo.
And that's rather the point.
Your bauble doesn't really exist until you order it.
Then I make it for you.
There's something I still find quite special about that.
Why handmade takes a little longer
We live in a world where we're increasingly accustomed to ordering something tonight and expecting it on the doorstep tomorrow.
Handmade works a little differently.
When you place an order with a small handmade business, somebody actually has to make the thing you've just bought.
During quieter periods, that can happen very quickly.
During the Christmas rush, there may be a queue of other personalised orders waiting to be created too.
That's why my processing times can become a little longer during peak Christmas season.
It isn't because your order is sitting forgotten somewhere.
Quite the opposite.
It's waiting its turn to be individually made.
And I'd always rather allow myself the time to make something properly than rush it simply to get another parcel through the door.
From a plain bauble to part of your Christmas
That's the journey.
A plain 80mm bauble arrives in my workshop.
You choose a design.
You choose a colour.
You give me a name, date or message.
I add the glitter.
Create the personalisation.
Apply every little detail.
Add the two ribbons.
Check it.
Box it.
Pack it.
And send it to you.
Then something rather lovely happens.
It stops being mine.
It becomes yours.
It hangs on your Christmas tree.
It appears in your family photographs.
Perhaps somebody unwraps it on Christmas morning.
Perhaps it's marking a baby's very first Christmas or celebrating somebody who won't be sitting around the table this year.
And then, when Christmas is over, it gets packed away with everything else.
Until next year.
That's the bit I love most
Making something beautiful is lovely.
Selling something I've made is obviously rather important too – otherwise Georgina Kay Designs would be a spectacularly expensive hobby. 😂
But knowing that something I've sat and made with my own hands might appear on somebody's Christmas tree year after year is probably my favourite part.
I've been running Georgina Kay Designs since 2013.
That means there are baubles I made more than a decade ago that families may still be hanging on their trees today.
That's quite an extraordinary thought.
Some of the babies whose first Christmas baubles I made aren't babies anymore.
They're growing up.
And their baubles are growing older with them.
So the next time you open one of my little black boxes and see your finished bauble inside, you'll know exactly how it got there.
Not from a factory production line.
Not from a warehouse shelf.
But from my workshop…
made one at a time, especially for you.
Georgina x 🎄✨