Save the date: A New Workshop is coming October 29-30!
In July 2025 I announced I was closing out 90% of my product line to focus on digital products. This may have seemed sudden, but it was a long time coming. The last 4-5 years have brought a lot of struggle, and the results of which have taken me down a path I never expected.
I launched my first product in 2015. It was just a little art print, but it opened the door to a business I never dreamed of! The art prints quickly expanded into more - The Lettering Prayer Journal, greeting cards, calendars. My home quickly filled up with all the products I was voraciously creating. In 2016, I launched to the wholesale market. I dreamed of seeing my products in stores! And that dream quickly became a reality. I was offered a book deal with a publisher and then Dayspring wanted to license my Lettering Prayer Journal. It was the stuff dreams were made of!
The first delivery of Lettering Prayer Journals® to my garage
I was really just ramping up into the wholesale space in 2019 and early 2020. I absolutely LOVED going to tradeshows in Atlanta and having a booth, meeting boutique owners and other entrepreneurs. Buyers placed orders for their stores. It lit me up. Every show brought bigger opportunities. Then the world changed overnight. I wasn't ready for it. Nobody was.
By that fall, we started homeschooling our 2 children full time. It was something I felt called to do, not something I ever planned to do! There is joy in obedience, but that added responsibility absolutely drained me. Suddenly I couldn't sit down and create and work on building my brand for 6 hours a day. I had two kids to teach, math to fumble through, and constant activities to keep them busy. No longer did I have a quiet, creative space to flourish in.
Instead of being energized by my business, I felt drained by it. At that time I remember praying and asking God to at least help keep my business afloat while I took a step back to focus on my family. It was the right decision at that time.
Fast-forward 3 years and the business did stay afloat. But it wasn't flourishing or thriving. I kept making excuses for why sales were down and why I wasn't creating new products. I had put tradeshows on hold because they took so much time away from the family. As a result, wholesale orders were drying up. Everyone wanted to know "What's new?" But the truth was I was swimming in greeting cards and sermon notebooks and devotionals already, and I didn't want to create NEW product when I still had so much OLD product inventory. And truthfully, I just didn't have the energy to create anything new anyway.
I felt like the creativity had been sucked right out of me.
It was this constant cycle of frustration.
Gripped with fear of change and indecision, I did nothing.
When we moved to our farmhouse in 2023, I stacked the boxes up on the third floor of my new house, and decided to ignore them.
Until I couldn't anymore. The knowledge of all those devotionals and sermon notebooks and Truth Cards and greeting cards...just sitting there in boxes. It was depressing.
I can see now God was allowing me to struggle to bring me to this next chapter.
First ever-ever tradeshow book at Americasmart Atlanta in January 2018
My tradeshow booth at Americasmart in Atlanta in January 2020
My last tradeshow booth at Americasmart in January 2022
My dear friend Danielle (from Imperfect Dust) had been telling me for years to create some digital products. I had laughed it off for years - "That's not for me." "I love physical products!" But in the fall of 2024, after years of struggle and my business literally slowly dying, I finally started to pay attention.
Danielle and I met in 2019 at the Americasmart tradeshow. I had a booth in the temporaries, and her art was being represented by a company in the showrooms. Somebody told her I was there, and since she knew who I was from Instagram, she came by to say hi. I don't remember much of that meeting. But that was a God-ordained event in my life. Danielle and I began messaging back and forth a little on Instagram and struck up a friendship.
In 2020, we found more in common and began conversing daily on an app called Marco Polo. We talked every day. She inspired me with her business ideas and marketing skills and her positive attitude. She got me to try out live video on Facebook! I would never have had the nerve to try that on my own.
So after 5 years of watching her pivot in her business and try new things without the paralysis of fear that I felt, I finally broke down and created an online hand lettering course. I had wanted to do it for YEARS but fear had held me back. Danielle encouraged me forward.
2020 Feature in Stationery Trends Magazine as a "Designer to Watch"
Despite having the course, I pushed forward with physical products. And after looking at my product sales in the fall of 2024, I was incredibly depressed. I remember walking the streets near our AirBNB at a mastermind retreat (that Danielle leads) praying and crying to God that my business was dying. Did He want me to give it up? What did He want me to do? I was feeling aimless and even a little hopeless.
I didn't have any quick fixes or ideas. It didn't come to me overnight. But I told the Lord I was open to whatever it was. It started some soul-searching. How had God gifted me? How could I share my gifts and be a good steward of them?
My Faith and Lettering book published by Worthy Inspired in February 2018
Over the next few months, God gave me the idea for the Scripted Faith Collective, a library of hand lettered template designs with new designs dropped each month. Instead of creating product and storing it in my house and working to sell it, I could create and turn my designs over to subscribers and let them create their own masterpieces! I could encourage creativity and bless others in the process.
The Scripted Faith Collective was launched January 29, 2025. Immediately I wanted to put all my energy into creating designs and showing people how to use them. I felt my creativity reignited when I saw what subscribers were creating with the designs.
God again spoke to my heart that it was time to pivot. But STILL I resisted. Maybe I could find a buyer and sell my product in bulk. I held tightly. Product still wasn't moving. A closeout company approached me. They offered me pennies for my products.
That was the last straw.
That night at midnight, on a complete whim, I typed out an email to announce I was closing out my products and scheduled it to send the next day, July 1. I woke up in the middle of the night in a sweaty panic, wondering if it had already gone out.
There was so much resistance to this change.
But where there is resistance, God is often at work.
The email went out. I held my breath a little. And over the next few weeks I witnessed a little miracle in my business. It was the biggest month I'd ever had, both on the product side AND the digital side.
After years of barely clearing enough sales to pay my bills and pulling money from savings, in two months I sold through nearly all my product inventory.
When I finally relinquished my way to the Lord, when I finally submitted in obedience, God took care of it. And the relief was immediate.
The Scripted Faith Collective also hit 100 subscribers the same month as the closeout sale. And I believe it was a little nudge from God. A confirmation that His way is better. And He's got this.
I don't know all of what's in store for Krystal Whitten Studio. But I do know this is not the end. It's the beginning of something new.
I can see how each step in this journey was God-ordained. I believe products were 100% what I was supposed to be doing at that time. I also believe the struggle is how God opened the door to something new. I wouldn't have done this without that struggle.
I don't care what I'm doing as long as God's in it!
Here are 5 powerful things I learned in this process. Maybe they'll help you too:
The Faith and Lettering course and the Scripted Faith Collective are my digital offerings I will work to expand. I enjoy teaching lettering and combining it with your faith. It's encouraging and healing and satisfying on so many levels. Instead of designing to make physical products, now I'm designing for others to use on creative projects or even to sell what they make for some extra income. I pray God will use it.
You'll still find a few physical products in my shop for now - Art prints, Stickers, and remaining items I still have in inventory.
You'll also find me creating some digital journals to use to develop your faith. If you're interested in learning more, you can find the links below.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here and supporting this creative business over the years.
With love and lettering,
Krystal, I’ve followed you on Instagram for a few years now, and while I’m not creative myself, I have purchased many of your products. Some, to try lettering on my own, but mostly many for gifts. Your content in general has inspired, and encouraged me in my daily walk with the Lord. I’ve watched your lettering Bible verses videos and they always encourage me when watching to hide God’s word in my heart. From Idlewild church days, switching to homeschooling, raising children, your lettering business, to buying your farmhouse. I’m encouraged by your journey in all that you do. I even decorated the best Christmas tree ever (I got so many compliments from neighbors and family) when you posted a video on how you decorate your tree! It was my favorite tree of all time. I told everyone I knew about it. Thank you for sharing your vulnerability, struggles, successes, all the blessings and for creating an online space for all of us to enjoy! ❣️
Praise the Lord! I’ve been following you and purchasing your products since about 2017. I love and enjoy all that you do and stand for. It’s been a joy following your journey and I appreciate reading the story behind the scenes of this next chapter. Thanks for sharing with us! I’m excited for you!
Thank you so much for sharing your story, Krystal. I have followed you since those early years in 2015 and as a Christian entrepreneur myself, man, this journey has its ups and downs. I appreciate the peek into your story and am excited for what God has in store. I will be hand lettering through September, thank you for the printable!
Warmly,
Amanda (from Move the Mountains, once upon a time ;) )
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Krystal Whitten
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