Nappy Cakes

becs

Shelly that's terrible! How an earth can someone think that is even right! Surely everyone has the right to use ribbon they buy in any way they want!
I didn't bother with ebay because there are too many on there now and also alot of really cheap ones which I don't want to try and compete with as I like to put alot into the cakes rather than them just be nappies and ribbon. I also think unless people know what a nappy cake is there aren't going to be that many people looking on there!
Glad to hear the stall is bringing you more orders. I've designed a leaflet with photos of 3 of the cakes on that I've done. I'll get them printed up then people can take away the leaflet to show other people or jog their memory as to what the cakes look like. Not making too many to take as I think it will be mainly a leaflet giving exercise but that's fine.

Shelley3774

becs wrote: »

Shelly that's terrible! How an earth can someone think that is even right! Surely everyone has the right to use ribbon they buy in any way they want!
I didn't bother with ebay because there are too many on there now and also alot of really cheap ones which I don't want to try and compete with as I like to put alot into the cakes rather than them just be nappies and ribbon. I also think unless people know what a nappy cake is there aren't going to be that many people looking on there!
Glad to hear the stall is bringing you more orders. I've designed a leaflet with photos of 3 of the cakes on that I've done. I'll get them printed up then people can take away the leaflet to show other people or jog their memory as to what the cakes look like. Not making too many to take as I think it will be mainly a leaflet giving exercise but that's fine.

I think thats a really good idea to put pictures of the cakes on the leaflets because people really want to see what they look like. Yours are gorgeous so I'm sure that once you are out there the orders will come flooding in. I think there must be a baby boom at the mo because i've been inundated this week.
Its taken me since May to get this busy through word of mouth but its definitely worth it. Give it a few weeks and it will pay dividends.
Like you I wouldn't even bother competing on Ebay - I like to put more in the cakes but if people are advertising much cheaper ones you just can't compete because people obviously look at the price first. To be honest you'll probably find like me that you'll be busy enough without having to advertise on there anyway.
Before I had the confidence to make my own cakes my best friend had a premature baby which was a real shock and I was just not prepared. So I ordered one from a particular website and paid £60 for it. Shock horror. Anyway the cake arrived and was absolutely lovely but it did not contain any items of clothing and I was a bit disapponited with the ingredients. After seeing it I thought well i'd have a go at making them but I will do them different. I ordered baby ribbons, spotty ribbons and gingham ribbons to get started. It turns out that the emails are from the woman I bought the cake off. She stated that my cakes are too similar to hers ( well i will agree that we both use nappies!!!!LOL) apart from that everything else is totally different. I use different toys, blankets, ingredients etc. She asked me not to use Hello Baby ribbon cos she uses it on her cakes. The cake I ordered though had personalised ribbon????? I didnt know she used hello baby ribbon. She even tracked me down via my facebook account !! Bit scary or what???
She obviously can't handle competition although I would hardly call myself that. Suprisingly though there were others on Ebay selling cakes with Hello Baby ribbon and i emailed them and they had not had any emails from her!!!!!
It really upset me at first but I just ignored it and let her stew in her own juice. It really annoys me when people got nothing better to do than send intimidating emails. Everyone on here encourages and praises everyone for their efforts why can't everyone be like that??:mad:

becs

I totally aggree Shelly, it seems so pointless. There seem to be alot of people on here and on the internet doing Nappy cakes and yet we all know by talking to friends and family how many people even know what nappy cakes are , that the market is far from saturated! My attitude is if you want to sell more than other people you have to make yours different and offer people something that others don't. At the moment though as there is no local competition I'll just stick to what I like doing! She's obviously not confident enough of her own product if she feels threatened by someone using the same ribbon! How ridiculous.
Hope your orders continue to come flooding in. Hubby is becoming doubtful about how sucessful this could be! It's very early days and need to give it some time as you say for word to spread. Did have a potential lead on a shop window the other day which I need to find out more about. It seems they do a shop window for local crafts so need to see how that all works but could be a very good one as in a perfect location!

moonpenny

Hi Shelley

Am gob - smacked about the ribbon thing. What right has anyone to tell you what you can't use. At some point, I bet we will all use some of the same. It's unnavoidable! As for cakes being similar - that's the nature of the "craft". You have plain ones with ribbons, or clothes on outside or everything on outside. There is only so many variations you can do regarding the actual design of the thing.

As for the "hello Baby" ribbon. I bought some from a local market stall last week. She hasn't got sole rights to using it or it wouldn't be freely available.

Shelley3774

Thanks Moonpenny and Becs I found the whole thing really upsetting. What made me really mad though was on her website she stated she decided to make them after she was bought one herself!!??!! So its a case of pot calling kettle black actually.
The nature of nappy cakes itself obviously means there is a similarity but i made sure that every ingredient was different, blankets were different, toys different, I even use my own combination of ribbons. But she did not like the fact that I use hello baby and spotty ribbon. I couldn't believe the cheek of her and as such i've had to make my facebook group private.
I don't even sell online but she obviously sees me as a threat!!!:mad::mad::mad::mad:

Shelley3774

CandyB101 wrote: »

Oh my god, she obviously doesnt think that 'great minds think alike'. Well at least by word of mouth, I'd of thought that they'd be for people nearer to home, so hopefully you wouldnt have the hassle of posting them.
You sound like you are doing really well with them, keep up the good work :T

I wonder how many of you are now thinking about hosting your own baby showers, lol .............

Hey, maybe you should report her to ebay, you've got the emails to back it up!

Thanks Candy I never thought about reporting her to Ebay - i emailed her back and didn't hear anymore until about 3 weeks ago when she stalked me out on Facebook after I created a Nappy Cake group on there. I couldn't believe that she took the time to match up my email address with an order I placed from her last April. I had to make my group private now and i've blocked all her emails. Didn't even bother replying she obviously enjoys intimidating people:mad::mad:
Its like Nappy Cake Wars LOL. I'm just not like that at all I would never be nasty to someone else just because they are doing Nappy Cakes. How sad is that?
In fact 3 of my customers have now decided they might start doing it??!!?? Well theres nothing I can do about that you've just got to accept that you don't hold the copyright and its tough s*** really

kr15snw

Oooh theres a nappy cake group on facebook?

Shelley3774

kr15snw wrote: »

Oooh theres a nappy cake group on facebook?

Yes theres lots on there - another good way of advertising for free!!! Have had to make mine private though so only my friends are on there :rolleyes:

soblivion

Shelley, ask her for her copyright details, as far as I'm aware the only nappy cake that has a copyright is the knit and crochet one from gourmet crochet as it's a pattern. I would tell her until you've seen proof of this you'll continue to use which ribbons you choose. Artistic license and all that.
Some people get right up my nose:mad: Yours are obviously nicest or it wouldn't have provoked in the first place;)
So pleased you're doing so well selling them.

Shelley3774

soblivion wrote: »

Shelley, ask her for her copyright details, as far as I'm aware the only nappy cake that has a copyright is the knit and crochet one from gourmet crochet as it's a pattern. I would tell her until you've seen proof of this you'll continue to use which ribbons you choose. Artistic license and all that.
Some people get right up my nose:mad: Yours are obviously nicest or it wouldn't have provoked in the first place;)
So pleased you're doing so well selling them.

Thanks so much Soblivion i really appreciate your comment. She quoted copyright and stated she put the ribbon combinations together!!!! I've decided its best to ignore her so i've blocked all correspondence from her. She wants to be careful though because under the protection from Harrassment Act if I feel I am being harrassed I can report her to the police. So i've always got that in my favour