I’ve added a new driving test card to my Etsy items. A lovely customer of mine, who I’ve done some custom portrait cards for before, recently asked me whether I had any cards suitable for someone who had just passed their driving test. I didn’t, but thought it would be a great addition to my range, so this is what I came up with…
Long before I started selling on Etsy I’d been dabbling in all sorts of arts and crafts over the years and also had a go at selling some of them when I was making more than I could possibly use myself. I’ve sold via websites, at home parties, at small craft fairs and markets and via word of mouth and tried everything from creating mohair teddy bears and jewellery to decorating wooden products with pyrography. Most of this was just for fun and to help a hobby pay for itself and give me a bit of extra spending money while bringing up my children.
Now that my children are older (they’ll be off to uni soon – yikes!) I have less family commitments and I’ve also structured my life so that I have more time to do the things I want – like drawing 🙂 The downside is that by reducing my working hours I obviously also have less income, so to keep my lifestyle viable I’m using Etsy to sell the cards and prints I create with my drawings. Why did I choose Etsy? There are loads of reasons…
Last year I cut back on how much time I spend on my day job to focus on spending more time doing work I love, with the hope that eventually it may turn into an income. I realise I’m extremely lucky to be able to do this, as my day job does pay very generously for a part time role (and which I do actually enjoy), but I’ve still had to make quite a lot of spending sacrifices and I’ve made sure I have a bit of a buffer saved up for unexpected expenses.
I had a bit of fun this week doing an Elvis drawing – one of my stick figure portraits complete with blue suede shoes… Continue reading Elvis Drawing – Thank you very much
What am I – an illustrator, artist, maker or doodler? There’s a podcast I often listen to that interviews people who sell what they make on Etsy. It’s called Etsy Conversations and one of the questions the host Ijeoma often asks her guests is how they describe themselves – as an artist, a maker or a crafter. It’s a question I love to hear the various answers to, but it’s one I feel quite uncomfortable answering myself.
Continue reading Illustrator, Artist, Maker or Doodler?
