“It started with one frame I made for myself, and now I’m making them for customers who want to preserve their own memories or give them as gifts,” Ella Wilsdon tells PEOPLE

NEED TO KNOW

• Ella Wilsdon, from Lancashire, England, turned a keepsake made from her son’s newborn cards into a thriving business — all while on maternity leave
• After her TikTok videos went viral, orders quickly took off, and she began earning more than she did in retail 
• The 24-year-old now runs the business full-time from home while raising her son

Ella Wilsdon thought maternity leave would be a temporary break from her retail job, not the beginning of an entirely new career.

While at home with her newborn son, the 24-year-old spontaneously decided to turn the congratulatory cards friends and family sent to celebrate his arrival into a personalized picture frame for his bedroom. But after sharing her creation on TikTok in April 2026, the video took off, and strangers began asking if she could make one using their own special cards, too.

Suddenly, Wilsdon found herself juggling a growing business alongside life with a newborn, with orders coming in faster than she ever imagined — and when it came time to return to retail, she had a surprisingly good reason not to.

“I didn’t want to feel like I had to choose between earning money and spending time with him, so being able to do both is something I’m really grateful for,” Wilsdon tells PEOPLE. 

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The idea behind Little Keepsake & Co came from a desire to hold on to a special part of her son’s early days.

Rather than putting his newborn cards away in a box, Wilsdon decided to arrange them into a frame that could be displayed in his bedroom. She then shared the finished product on TikTok, never expecting it to go viral, let alone attract any customers.

“Everything happened so quickly, and I hadn’t planned to start a business,” Wilsdon recalls. “I set up my Etsy listing in about 10 minutes while my son was awake and in bed, just to see what would happen. As more orders came in, I realized it could become something much bigger.”

Within a few months, Wilsdon’s videos kept gaining attention — even attracting interest from big influencers — giving her a reason to build beyond Etsy and launch her own website.

Her work, which ranges from $22 to $87, gives other families a way to turn meaningful newborn memories into something they can display or gift to someone special.

“Customers send their cards to me, and I use the fronts to create the finished keepsake,” Wilsdon explains. “The idea is to preserve the actual cards and turn them into something they can display.”

As her business grew, however, her original plan to return to retail began to feel less appealing, and by the time she was due back in August 2026, the business was earning more than her previous job. 

Wilsdon officially left her position and chose to run Little Keepsake & Co full-time, despite knowing that self-employment comes without the same security or benefits as traditional work.

“It was a big decision, but being able to stay at home with my son was always my main goal, and this business has made that possible,” Wilsdon shares, although she notes that her working hours are far from conventional.

“My day mostly revolves around my son, and I fit the business around him as much as I can,” she explains. “I do what I can during the day while he’s awake, but most of my actual work gets done in the evenings once he’s in bed.”

Balancing motherhood with customer messages, packaging and orders can make for “long days,” and she admits that some days are harder than others. Still, she is determined to keep everything organized while maintaining the quality of each frame.

Looking ahead, Wilsdon hopes to grow the business further and plans to eventually bring in help as orders increase. More than anything, she wants to keep the flexibility that made taking the leap worthwhile.

“Being able to earn more than I did in my previous job while working around my family is something I never expected to achieve,” Wilsdon tells PEOPLE. “I’m proud that I’ve managed to build something for myself, especially when it wasn’t even something I planned to do.”

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