Blog — "cards"

Recently, the biggest issue that I face at handmade shows are the people that want to take photos of my cards. They see the cards, laugh, whip out an iPhone, and then state to their friend, "I'm totally taking a picture to text to so and so! This is so perfect for them!" This scenario is my biggest pet peeve of shows. To me, it's as if they are stealing my art rather than spending $4 for the actual thing. I tend to get a bit snarky with these people. I have no problem stopping them dead in their tracks with a "No photos please! This is my art and I'm sure your friend would actually really like to be surprised with the real card instead of a text message."

The offender usually puts away the phone and apologizes, but do they buy the card? No. Usually they don't because that wasn't their intention to begin with. This is something that has really bothered me a lot along with random people tagging their friends in my Instagram photos of my cards (ummm, no, I will delete your comment, you cheap jerkface with a face of a jerk!).

While preparing for Richmond, I decided that something needed to be done. I thought about signs that I could make or things that I could say to battle the issue, when I suddenly realized that I should just make a card, obviously! So make a card I did, and I placed it front and center of my display for all to see. Did anyone attempt the photo op this time? No. Was it completely related to the card that I made? That is up for debate. But either way, I was a happier card maker in the end.


And it is true. Wouldn't we all prefer a little surprise snail mail in our lives over a quick text message? Cards are more thoughtful and meaningful than the few seconds it takes to send a text.

I know I'm a few days late with this post, but I've been incredibly swamped trying to get orders out for the last day of shipping before Christmas. Now that I have, I'm taking a breather, remembering to eat lunch for once, and preparing to work on some design projects. However, nonetheless, I still wanted to give a big shout out to Richmond, Virginia and the Richmond Craft Mafia for their amazing...

I know I'm a few days late with this post, but I've been incredibly swamped trying to get orders out for the last day of shipping before Christmas. Now that I have, I'm taking a breather, remembering to eat lunch for once, and preparing to work on some design projects. However, nonetheless, I still wanted to give a big shout out to Richmond, Virginia and the Richmond Craft Mafia for their amazing hospitality, loads of laughs, and creative energy.


I spent this past Saturday at the Handmade Holiday show that the Richmond Craft Mafia puts on and it was easily the best show I've had to date. This was my audience for sure! I was so thankful to have people appreciate my work and LAUGH. I always have plenty of laughs at shows, but this one had quite a few less of those side eyed looks of disgust.  Aside from meeting many new people, I was also able to test out five new cards, four of which will be new for Valentine's Day. You can catch a sneak peek here.


These cards went over extremely well, so I can't wait to share them with you in the coming weeks. And last but not least, I was thrilled to get to meet my friend Ayla! We have gotten to know each other through our blogs and the handmade world, but had never met, and it was a real treat to be able to finally make that connection. She actually wrote a bit more about the Handmade Holiday (and took much better photos as I forgot my camera) on her blog.

As for now, I'm tying up some loose ends for the holidays, working on new designs, and breathing a sigh of relief that I'm done with my holiday shows and will (hopefully) have a little more down time for a few weeks.

It has been a crazy few weeks in my home studio as I've had one of the busiest months this year and have also been working diligently on my new holiday line. After several weeks of work, I'm happy to say that the full line of holiday cards is officially here! Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah combined, there's a bit of everything-- some simple, some funny, a few naughty, a couple bright and fun, and a lot of eco-friendliness going on in there too. Many of these cards are 100% recycled paper content, something I've been striving for recently. While not all of the cards are listed in sets, I am happy to do sets for you if need be, so feel free to get in touch with those sorts of requests! Now, here's a look at the full line of cards. You can click through the photos to find them in my shop!















What do you think of the new holiday line? Which are your favorites? It is hard for me to choose which ones I like the best because they all turned out just as I had envisioned, which is a super exciting thing! Are you preparing for the holidays yet?

I haven't made a whole lot of new cards for my shop lately because I've got another new product in the works that I've been spending the majority of my time on instead. In addition, I've also been working on another new line of cards, but I am waiting for the envelopes for this particular line to arrive. I am feeling incredibly inspired by so many things around me. It seems I have all sorts of ideas these days, and I'm having a hard time staying focused on just one project at a time. I finally have the time to execute some of my ideas and so they are all trying to get out of my system at one time, which sometimes leads to less productivity in the end. I have been trying to continue feeling inspired, but take note of these inspirations instead of diving into them as soon as something pops into my head. Despite an inspiration overload these days, I was still able to get some of these new cards into the shop.

I've been really feeling inspired lately by new card stock and envelopes that I recently purchased, new fonts to play with, and colors that are on trend these days. As I prepare my new line of cards that I'm hoping to launch mid-month, you'll continue to see current color trends, but in a fun and bold way instead of these corals, mints, and purples.

What have you been inspired by lately?