What on Earth Made Us Order 7,000 Rolls of Kraft Paper?

I'm Jen and alongside my partner, Rob, I own an awful lot of belly band rolls. You might even say we own too many belly band rolls. Certainly, you wouldn't be the first to make that comment.

The Problem That Started It All

Eco Owl Packaging was born out of a frustration I encountered firsthand. I own a greeting card business - Wild Lines - where I sell eco-friendly cards and gifts made using my hand-drawn wildlife artwork. We sell directly to our customers through our online shop and Etsy store, as well as wholesale to card and gift shops.

In the greeting card industry, it is standard practice to sell cards to shops in multiples of six. To package greeting cards for wholesale, you bundle six of each design together and wrap them with a belly band - a simple strip of paper that packages them together neatly - to make the stock easy to count, keep track of and store.

At first glance, it seems like such a small detail. But for anyone in the greeting card business (or selling other handmade products), belly bands are an essential part of packaging.

The Two Belly Band Options (Neither of Which Worked for Us)

When we first started selling wholesale, we quickly realised that sourcing belly bands wasn’t as simple as we expected. We had two options, neither of which were ideal:

1. Custom-printed belly bands from a professional printing company

Custom-printed belly bands are expensive. As a small business, we simply couldn't justify the custom option. The cost is even higher if, like us, you need different sized bands to fit various greeting card sizes and other products, like prints and stationery.

Besides, we didn't think it was necessary to have our branding on the belly bands, when all our information is printed on the back of every card.

2. Cutting strips of kraft paper by hand

For years, we cut kraft paper into strips by hand to use as belly bands. The task was time consuming (and tedious!) and the strips were inconsistent. We surveyed greeting card publishers and found they were doing the same - we were all stuck wasting hours every month manually slicing paper sheets with scissors or a guillotine.

There had to be a better way.

Why Didn’t Belly Band Rolls Exist?

We imagined a simple solution: thin rolls of kraft paper that could be easily unrolled and cut to size. But when we searched everywhere for such a product, it didn’t exist.

So, we set out to make it ourselves.

The Unexpected Challenge of Making Kraft Paper Rolls

We thought the process would be straightforward. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.

We contacted every large paper manufacturer in the UK. Nothing.

We reached out to toilet roll manufacturers. No luck.

We visited local printers and experimented with their machines. Still no solution.

We even researched whether we could cut rolls of kraft paper ourselves. That led to some, shall we say, interesting attempts:

🚨 The Angle Grinder Incident: In a moment of DIY optimism (or desperation), we tried using an angle grinder to cut a kraft paper roll. The result? Burnt edges, jagged cuts and an overpowering smell of scorched paper. Needless to say, it wasn’t the solution we were looking for.

🚨 The Guillotine That Almost Was: At one point, we found a manufacturer that sold a tabletop paper guillotine. Perfect, right? Well, that "tabletop" guillotine turned out to be a several-ton industrial machine. At this stage, I still had to be talked out of buying it.

We were running out of options. Cutting rolls by hand wasn’t scalable. Investing in industrial equipment wasn’t realistic.

Reluctantly, with no space for an industrial paper cutting machine that may or may not have got the job done, we looked beyond the UK for a company that could help us.

The Solution (And How We Ended Up with 7,000 Rolls)

Eventually, we found a paper manufacturer that specialised in custom-cut 100% recycled kraft paper. Even better - they had the machinery to cut rolls to the exact width we needed.

We weren’t keen on placing frequent orders from overseas, so, we made the leap and placed a bulk order - which is how we suddenly became the proud owners of 7,000 belly band rolls.

Where are We Now?

Eco Owl Packaging exists to solve a very specific but very real problem for small businesses that need an eco-friendly, time-saving packaging solution.

Our 100% recycled golden kraft paper rolls are now safely stored at a family-run fulfilment centre in Suffolk, where each roll is finished with a recycled paper sticker and packed using plastic-free materials.

Since launching, we’ve saved countless hours of cutting and prepping wholesale orders, and we hope Eco Owl’s belly band rolls will do the same for you.

Who Are These Rolls For?

If you’re a small business selling handmade products, these rolls could be the perfect eco-friendly packaging solution for you. They’re ideal for:

• Greeting card publishers – No more cutting sheets by hand! Prepare your wholesale orders quickly and easily.

• Soap makers – Choose stylish, plastic-free packaging for handmade soaps.

• Stationery brands – Use kraft bands to keep notebooks, prints, or sticker packs neatly packaged.

• Tea towel & textile sellers – Add a finishing touch and securely wrap fabric products without excess packaging.

• Crafters & gift wrappers – Perfect for scrapbooking, rustic décor and DIY projects.

The Future of Eco-Friendly Packaging

We started this journey because we needed a simple, sustainable packaging option that didn’t exist. Now, we’re excited to share that solution with other small businesses looking to streamline their packaging while staying eco-conscious.

If you’d like to give our belly band rolls a try, you can order online with great multi-buy discounts.

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