2020 Year in review

The last few days of the year bring about so many emotions, for the passing year and the one to come. I don’t think any of us could have dreamed up the events that took place these last 12 months, however, as I pause to reflect I am overcome with gratitude. I want to take a moment to say THANK YOU to all of you, our customers and supporters.

In a year where many small businesses had to close their doors and let people go, your support meant we continued to grow, add more jobs and hire a few more team members. Each custom piece you’ve ordered from us, has had a direct impact in keeping our small but mighty team busy. I wouldn’t be able to navigate this year without the help of the other 5 hard-working women in my team and our amazing partners who’ve worked hard to support our growth.

Let's take a little trip down memory lane these past 12 months...

January - We started the year excited about some new products. We launched our Rings after more than 70% of our customers and fans asked for them in our yearly survey. They quickly became a best selling product. We expanded our offerings to ring sets, birthstone rings, initial rings etc.

February - We launched our Paper Clip Chain collection.

March - We launched another amazing partnership with Yearly Company We had planned a fun Pop Up shop in Yearly's new storefront shop in Nashville but due to the rapidly spreading virus we had to cancel our plans. 

April - We became a completely remote from home team. Social distancing, virtual learning, masks and lock downs became the new normal. Vana's DIY Silhouette craft project (featuring her youngest son, aka apprentice, John) went viral and even got featured on The Real Simple. We did our first Virtual Pop up Shop at Waiting on Martha in Atlanta.

May - We launched more new products: the Petite Huggie Hoops, the Dainty Puff Heart Necklace - They continue to be some of our customer's favorite pieces.

June - We launched our It Takes a Village campaign - highlighting a small, Black-owned business we love. One aspect of the partnership was to match purchases from that business, including both product and gift cards, with a gift card to Le Papier Studio. The first business we highlighted was The Little Nomad Shop located in our city of Richmond, VA. With our community's participation, we were able to match $2,950 in purchases with gift cards from our shop.

July - After lots of requests, we launched Affirm - a way to spread payments in purchased over a period of a couple of months with 0% interest. Our Christmas in July brought it record sales! Vana was able to squeeze in more Custom Home Illustration commissions. They sold out in 20 minutes!! We launched the Petite Diamond Cross necklace and sold out of the limited stock in a few hours.

August - Our team continued to grow. Alicia came on permanently as our customer service specialist and Kristi started as our community manager/marketing assistant/official studio photographer.

September - We launched our second It Takes a Village partnership - this time with the adorable little shop Sun and Lace. Owner, designer maker, Briana handcrafts unique, quality leather baby & toddler shoes, bags and accessories from her home studio in Wisconsin. We were able to match $320 in purchased to gift cards from our shop.

September was a month to remember. Most of us embarked on a new way of schooling, the virtual learning. We launched the #LPSMAMAS campaign asking members of our community to share tips and tricks on surviving virtual learning. It became a way for our community member to share and learn from each other but most importantly stay connected and feel heard and welcomed. We shared the importance of keeping traditional alive (like the first day of school pictures) even during a year like 2020.

We also launched our first in the new series of Biracial/Multiracial silhouette contest - and our community picked the 4 winning silhouettes to be used as part of our stock silhouettes. We love the representation of many different races in our work.

October - So many things happened this month. Dylan Dryer of NBC showed a photo of her LPS charm necklace on her insta feed and our website and instagram blew up!! It was only the beginning of the most amazing month - filled with more press like having our entire line of products features on the Today Show shopping page. Last partnership for 2020 with Yearly was so successful. We combined our efforts and donated $1000 of the proceeds from our partnership to Wags for Walk in Nashville. October 15 marked the start of our Holiday Season. By end of the month we were completely book and a bit panicked about having to fulfill all the orders with many of our partners experiencing production delays.

November - Went down in history as the month with the most sales! We hired two more members. Monica and Evin joined out team as silhouette artists. They have been a big help in keeping silhouette proofs rolling and a great help to Vana who's been illustrating silhouettes solo for almost 13 years! We are soo excited to be a team of 6 (well 7 with the occasional help of Nikolas, Vana's oldest son who can fold boxes and tissue paper like a pro!)

Press kept rolling in for our little business. Our silhouette portraits were featured on the Garden + Gun's Holiday issue in the most beautifully curated gift guide  called "a gathering of heirloom quality presents to last a lifetime!"

We made the cut on the Made in Virginia 2020 list of finalist and our Classic Silhouette Charm Necklaces were featured on their November-December Issue.

December - flew by! We assembled, packaged and shipped over 1500 orders this month.

We appreciate your continued support and this year more than ever! Because of you, we’ve also been able to give back to our amazing community, a handful of small businesses and causes we believe in. Thank you for believing in us and trusting us with your heirloom pieces.

We hope that 2021 brings better days, more in-person time with our loved ones and memories waiting to be captured!