12 Profitable Crafts to Make and Sell

If you love making things and want to earn a little extra money, these are the most profitable crafts to make and sell. Turn your hobby into a side hustle!

Selling things you make is a fantastic way to enjoy earning money. You’ll be spending your time crafting and creating and then earn a profit on it. It won’t even feel like work.

Before you jump into starting a small business as a crafter, consider how to make the most profit. Some projects will be too expensive to create or aren’t very popular, making them tough to earn money with.

That’s where this guide comes in! In this guide, you’ll discover the smartest crafts to make that will earn you the most money.

How to Decrease Costs

The people who make the most money from their arts and crafts are the ones who keep their costs low. This includes wasted time and expensive materials. If you want to make a high profit, decrease your expenses first.

Pick out crafts that you can make for a low price. This includes all the supplies and tools you use to make them. In this guide, I’m focusing on the crafts that have lower overhead.

Another thing to keep in mind is how long it takes you to make each craft. If you can make more items, you’ll earn more money. That’s why I included things on the list that are relatively quick crafts.

To decrease your costs, keep an excellent record of how much you spend on supplies and tools. Try to find other places to buy them that will save you money. Track your time too. Then, try to find ways to save time – maybe buy some supplies pre-made or find workarounds that speed up the process.

Crafts to Make and Sell for a Profit

Now that you know how to keep the costs low, let’s look at the crafts that will make you the largest profit. The ideas on this list have a relatively low cost of goods and are pretty easy to make too.

This list is not exhaustive. Just browse Etsy, and you’ll see tons of other ideas that aren’t here. Take the things you love to make and find a way to sell them. It will fill you with so much pride!

1. Digital Products

Arts and crafts don’t have to be a physical product. If you enjoy graphic design, turn this passion into a profitable side-hustle. The costs are pretty low; you just need a computer and a design program or two.

People love ordering printables online. This can span a huge spectrum – from printable invitations to graphics for website owners.

Here are a few of the different kinds of digital products you can sell for a huge profit:

Pinterest Templates in Canva
Party Invitations
Wall Art
Planners
Calendars
Greeting Cards
Stickers

2. Jewelry

There are lots of low-cost materials you can use to make jewelry and sell them online. Yarn, beads, and even cloth are all pretty affordable and give you excellent profit margins. The thing that will help your jewelry to sell the most is making your designs unique. Help it stand out from the rest.

These types of jewelry are some of the best-sellers:

Earrings
Necklaces
Keychains
Bracelets

3. DIY Trays

People love decorating their homes with breakfast trays. It’s a hot trend that isn’t going away anytime soon. You can buy either unfinished wooden trays or upcycle trays you find at thrift shops. These beautiful trays can go for a nice price!

4. Decorated Office Supplies

More and more people are working from home. This means they want a way to make their home office look inspiring and beautiful! If you want to create something that’s in high demand, make things that can go in someone’s office. The sky is the limit here. I’ll share a few ideas, but don’t stop with them; think of other things people might want.

Clipboards
Mousepads
Bulletin Boards
Wall Clocks

5. Hair Accessories

Hair accessories also use relatively low-priced materials. You can either niche-down and only make things for babies, women, teens, or make hair accessories for any age.

Hair accessories include any of the following ideas:

Decorated Bobby Pins
Hair Bows
Headbands
Barrets
Scarves
Hair Clips

6. Reusable Bags

If you love to sew, consider making reusable bags. This makes the list because the materials are affordable, and bags are some of the easiest sewing projects. There are lots of different types of bags you can make too, like any of these:

Makeup Bags
Travel Toiletry Bags
Reusable Sandwich Bags
Wetbags for Cloth Diapers
Grocery Bags

7. DIY Planters

The more time people spend at home, the more they will be interested in growing house plants. There are lots of ideas for making planters that you can sell. If you buy planters in bulk or on sale, you’ll save even more money and increase your profit imagine.

Here are a few ways to make planters for succulents or houseplants:

Painted Pots
Macrame Planters
Painted Ceramic Pots
Make Clay Pots

8. Soap

The ingredients and supplies to make soap are relatively low. You might have to buy a few things upfront – like soap molds – but in the end, you can sell soap for a high-profit margin.

If you want to make and sell soap, use natural ingredients, and create combinations that people will love. Here is an excellent guide on how to make and sell soap.

9. Candles

Making and selling candles is another well-paid craft. The supplies are pretty affordable, but you’ll need to consider the cost of shipping the candles so they don’t break.

Clean-burning soy candles are a hot item from small businesses.

10. Knit/Crochet

If you know how to knit or crochet, consider selling your creations. The demand is constant, and the supplies are relatively affordable (unless you buy expensive wool yarn).

There are endless amounts of things you can make if you knit or crochet. Here are just a few of the most popular ideas:

Toys
Coffee Cup Cozies
Scarves
Blankets
Hats
Hairbands
Knitting Patterns

11. Vinyl Crafting

Investing in a Cricut Machine or other vinyl cutting machine will pay off big. There are so many things you can sell if you have one. Personalized items that you make with a Cricut sell for higher amounts than their non-personalized alternatives.

Here are the best things you can make with a vinyl-cutting machine.

Wall Art
Personalized Cups
Signs
Shirts
Bags and Totes

12. Party Decor

Finally, consider making and selling party decorations. You can make so many different kinds of party decor out of things like paper, yarn, and tissue paper. It doesn’t cost a lot, but you can sell these packages for a good profit because you’re saving people time. If you sell themed packages, you’ll sell more than if you just sell individual pieces.

Here are a few of the most popular party decor you can sell:

Garlands
Signs
Party Favor Boxes
Balloons
Streamers
Pom Poms
Centerpieces
Selfie-station Background and Props

Where to Sell the Crafts You Make

Another part of making the most money and keeping your costs low is finding an affordable place to sell your stuff. I’ll share the top three places that most crafters use. Choose the one that you’re the most comfortable with – it’s not worth it to waste time trying to get something to work.

Etsy

The most popular place to start selling your crafts is Etsy. They have an in-depth tutorial that shows you how to set up your shop for the first time.

The fees are reasonable and well-explained. You pay a small listing fee, transaction fee after it sells, and an off-site ads fee if you make a sale from an Etsy ad. You can earn a decent income with an Etsy shop.

It does take marketing to draw people to your shop, which is probably the biggest drawback.

Shopify

If you want a stand-alone online store, Shopify is the best choice. This beginner’s guide explains everything you need to know. Basically, you choose a unique URL, and your shop can rank high in search engines with enough SEO work.

A Shopify site does cost a small hosting fee. There are three pricing tiers, depending on how much you plan to sell and how robust you need your website to be.

It’s straightforward to set up and use. If you are comfortable with computer software, then it will be simple for you. If you aren’t, then you might want to ask someone to help you set it up.

Facebook Marketplace

Finally, if you want a free way to sell your crafts, and you don’t want to invest any time in maintaining or updating a website, use Facebook marketplace. These selling tips are the best I’ve found!

Setting up a Facebook page is free and easy. Then, you can start listing and selling your items directly on Facebook. You have two options – sell in person or ship to people. Pick the one that you are most comfortable with.

The downside to selling on Facebook marketplace is that you won’t rank in search engines. That means that if someone is looking to buy homemade cards, they won’t find you when they Google it. This is a significant downside if you want to grow and scale your business someday.

Crafts to Make and Sell: Final Thoughts

When you are trying to choose which crafts to make and sell, always look at the cost of the supplies and how long it takes you to make them. You should also consider the shipping costs. Then, choose crafts that are inexpensive, fast, and easy to ship. If you do this, you can earn a nice profit on the things you sell!

You really can’t put a price tag on the pride and happiness you’ll feel selling things that you created! It is definitely worth all the financial and time investments you put into it.