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Finding Creative Inspiration

Finding Creative Inspiration

I have to admit that I’ve really been struggling with finding creative inspiration the last few months. I’ve had a few hard knocks this year and they really sapped my energy physically, mentally and emotionally. I just couldn’t seem to get excited about drawing, or anything much at all. And if you follow me on social media you might have wondered if I’d given up altogether. Social media is hard work for me even when things are going well so I pretty much disappeared for weeks on end 😆

I won’t bore you with the details of everything that’s gone wrong so far in 2022. I’m sure you’ve got enough of your own problems and hassles to deal with! But here’s what I’ve been doing to try and get my mojo back creatively…

Taking a break

I have a part time day job which covers the majority of my bills so am lucky that I can take it easier in my greeting card business occasionally without getting in a financial panic. The guilt makes it hard to do though! There were some days when all I was accomplishing was processing orders and I felt really ashamed of myself. Here I was in the very fortunate position of being able to do something I love and I was completely neglecting it…

I did step back regardless though. Between doing my day job and dealing with everything that was going wrong, I honestly didn’t have the energy not to. And at least feeling guilty and ashamed could be done on the sofa without any effort on my part!

I went for plenty of walks, cried a lot, whinged a lot and generally felt sorry for myself for ages. I still do sometimes! Hopefully it’s better than being in denial and then having a breakdown later on when everyone else has forgotten about it all…

I heard something on a Daily Pep podcast the other day about how when life gives you lemons you really don’t need to feel bad if you don’t want to making f**cking lemonade 🤣 – and I’ve totally taken this to heart!

Taking the time to grieve and opt out of life for a bit has helped. I can now see what I hope is the light at the end of the tunnel. And not the headlamps of another metaphorical lorry about to smack into me… 😁 I’m starting to look forward to stuff again so hopefully taking a break was the right thing to do.

Finding creative inspiration by experimenting

Another thing I’ve been doing to help me with finding creative inspiration again is experimenting. Even before all this happened I’d gotten in a bit of a rut in terms of my drawing style and card designs. I decided to try a few things that were completely different, with no pressure to fit in with the rest of my brand.

Here are a couple of the drawings I did…

Finding creative inspiration - camping illustration
finding creative inspiration - hammer and nail

It really helped. I found myself losing track of time while drawing again, which used to always be the case but hadn’t happened for a while. I’m going to keep doing this – making time for drawing whatever I feel like however I feel like!

Remembering the good stuff

Last week my favourite squeeze and I went camping together and it was fantastic. Getting back to the simple stuff like barbecuing our food, trying to stay warm in front of an open fire and going on long walks in beautiful surroundings reminded me of the things that make me happy and that there is still loads of stuff I enjoy and look forward to. I got back exhausted but feeling more inspired than I have in ages.

I’ve realised that to stay inspired I need to keep focusing on the stuff I love. Drawing what I think I should be drawing just leads to boredom or burnout. Drawing things I enjoy drawing and experimenting with new styles and techniques is how I can go about finding creative inspiration – and stay motivated.

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How to choose a Valentine card

How to choose a valentine card

Are you wondering how to choose a Valentine card for someone new? Whether you’ve just started seeing each other or you want to make your intentions clear to someone you fancy, it can be nerve-racking picking the right card.

Sending a Valentine when you’re not together yet

OK so you really fancy this person and you think they might like you that way too, so you’ve decided to send them a Valentine. But what if you scare them off by giving the wrong impression or you’ve misread the situation altogether?

If you’re at the point where you want to make your intentions clear, then I say go for it. If it turns out that it’s not going to happen then at least you know and you won’t waste any more time pining for them… But here are some tips to hopefully reduce the angst a little 😆

Choosing a funny card that you know will make them laugh is a great way to keep things light and avoid that “I’m desperate, please love me” vibe. And who isn’t attracted to a sense of humour?!

Alternatively a card that highlights a shared interest you have or reminds them of an in joke between you can be a great option. The right card might just make them realise how perfect you are for each other 😁

ValANTine Card
Scrummy Card
funny valentine card
You Prick Card

Choosing a valentine card when you’re a new couple

This can be tricky as you’ve only just started going out and you might not be quite sure yet how serious it is. After all if you go in with fully soppy mode and they don’t even get you a card (or vice versa!) it could feel a little awkward.

Again, humour is always a great way to avoid any awkwardness. How about a card that jokes about how lucky they are to have you?

Another reasonably safe bet is choosing a sexy / naughty card. (I’m assuming that you’re still having pretty great sex in these early days!) It’s hard to go wrong with this unless you’re a very repressed couple or have taken a vow of celibacy…

If you’ve known each other a long time but have only just started getting romantically involved, then you can always choose a card that highlights this. You can probably afford to get a bit more mushy in this situation too, though you’ll know best whether that feels appropriate or not!

naughty valentine card
Your Pace or Mine
Happea Valentine
octopus favourite squeeze card
Favourite Squeeze

I hope this helps you with how to choose a Valentine card for someone new! I’d love hear your thoughts on this post, so come on over to Instagram or Facebook to have a chat. And why not check out my range of Valentine cards right now to see if you can find the perfect card for your new squeeze? They cover a range of interests and there’s usually a bad pun or two thrown in for good measure 😁

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Highs & lows of running a greeting card business

Rollercoaster - the highs and lows of running a greeting card business

I love running a greeting card business! There are so many different aspects to it, from drawing and creating the card designs to learning about SEO and marketing, and from managing a website and other selling platforms to getting the orders from each printed, packed and posted off as quickly as possible.

It’s not all fun and games though, so I thought I’d share a bit about the highs and lows of running a greeting card business, particularly a one man band business like mine.

The good, the bad and the ugly of running a greeting card business

The Good

It’s terrific to be able to do something creative and have other people like my creations enough to buy them. Coming up with new ideas, drawing the illustrations and then making them into card designs really is fun. I get to draw whatever I like, come up with silly puns to match and then see my cards in physical form when they’re printed.

And every single time I get an order I still feel that little buzz of excitement. Also, (insider info alert) both the WooCommerce and Etsy apps make a little cha-ching sound every time an order comes in – how fun is that?! It’s great when I’m sitting at the pub, out for a run or watching telly (not even working) and I hear that sound 😁

Another good thing is all the stationery, gadgets and tools I can justify buying for my business 🤣. Lovely card stock and sticker paper to drool over, my iPad and Apple pencil and my shipping label printer are just a few of the things I’ve been able to buy. They all make my business better and/or more efficient so I don’t have to feel guilty for splurging on them!

I also love it when I get great feedback from customers, whether it’s for existing cards or for custom cartoon designs. I often get to hear the back story when I’m creating cartoon portraits – who the card is for and why. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to know that that so many people out there love each other enough to go to the trouble of ordering such a personal card or gift 🥰

And one of the best things about my greeting card business is the lovely people I’ve met through it. I have some very lovely loyal customers who come back again and again (you guys are the best!) And I’m also part of a group of greeting card businesses owners. We cheer each other on, celebrate each other’s successes and help each other through the tougher times. I’ve never met any of them face to face but now think of some of them as very real friends. After all, friendship is knowing that you’ll be there for each other through both good times and bad…

The Bad

Although most of it is fun, there are still some aspects to running my greeting card business that aren’t. There are some very monotonous tasks involved in getting my products listed on my website, Etsy or wholesale platforms.

Bored Over It GIF by CBC - Find & Share on GIPHY

Trying to come up with an original description for each product (which has to be different on different platforms too), creating mockups of the card designs and uploading those, and filling in all the info for each card – ugh! These would be the first tasks I’d outsource if my business grew too big for me to manage on my own. But though these aren’t my favourite tasks, they’re a small price to pay for loving what I do overall!

It’s also hard not to take it personally when I go through a quiet patch. Greeting card sales can be quite seasonal and it’s easy to get paranoid when sales slow down during the summer. I sometimes think that it’s all falling apart 😆. But then Christmas comes along. And then Valentine’s Day. And I remember that as the business is growing overall there’s no point agonising over individual months being quieter. So I try to use these times to get ahead on stuff I won’t have time for when it gets busy.

And the Ugly…

There’s only one truly awful part of running a small business. It’s when you do everything you can to make a customer happy and they still assume you’re out to scam them… This week I had a bad review from someone in the US. They didn’t realise I was shipping from the UK and thought I was a scammer when the card didn’t arrive within a few days. And I’ve had a bad review from someone who was disappointed in the size of the card. This was despite the dimensions being listed in the item description and in the photos. There was also being a video of me holding the card (though perhaps they thought I had enormous hands 🤣).

I do sometimes make mistakes. But whether it’s my fault or not I’ll always do everything I can to sort things out and make my customer happy. So it is hard when people leave a bad review without getting in touch first to see if I’ll make things right. Especially when it was something out of my control or a mistake on their part! But I’m learning to just have a good cry and move on…

Sad Ice Cream GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

Luckily these customers are very few and far between. The overwhelming majority of my customers are really wonderful and their lovely feedback makes everything worthwhile 😇.

  • review that makes running a greeting card business worthwhile

Running a greeting card business is 99.99% wonderful

So although there are a few lows to what I do, the highs are very much in the majority. I love running a greeting card business and feel very lucky to be able to do it. I’m so grateful to both my terrific customers and my ‘Cardies’ group for helping me get to where I am. I can’t wait to see where we’re headed in the future. Love you all!!!

[Roller Coaster Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash]

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Tips for remembering birthdays

Being good at remembering birthdays is one of those things that some people are great at and others suck, but most of us are somewhere in between. I’m generally quite good but have had a couple of really serious gaffes where I’ve forgotten a friend’s important milestone birthday and these still haunt me! This post is to help both of us out – I never want to forget again, and I’m sure you’d love some tips on remembering birthdays too.

Make sure you KNOW the important birthdays

This is the obvious first step – if you don’t even know when someone’s birthday is, you’ve got absolutely no chance of remembering 😁

Make sure you have a record somewhere of all your friends and family and their birthdays and fill in the gaps. I went through a stage where I got used to Facebook reminding me about birthdays, so I stopped adding to my own list. This is how one of those gaffes I mentioned happened! I stopped using Facebook as much and missed a good friend’s 50th birthday as a result.

These days it’s probably easiest just to keep a record on your phone – because we pretty much have our phones with us all the time… As soon as someone mentions their birthday just take a few seconds to check whether it’s on your list and if not add it right there and then.

This will help you avoid another ‘learning the hard way’ experience I had (I’m telling you these things so you know I’m not judging you!) I asked someone when their birthday was, it turned out to be in a couple of week’s time, but I didn’t make a note. So although I knew their birthday was coming up but couldn’t remember the exact date and felt too embarrassed to ask again…Luckily we had another mutual friend who could fill me in but how bad would it have been if I’d not sent a card when I’d specifically asked for the date?!

Set reminders for remembering birthdays

It’s all very well having a list of birthdays, but you still need a reminder. Unless you fancy memorising them all, in which case here’s how to do it. For most of us though, reminders are definitely the way to go.

If you use a calendar then the easiest thing is to just add all the birthdays to this together with a notification. You can usually also make them recurring, so that you don’t have to add them in again every year.

This little reminder just popped up while I was writing this post!

For friends and family that I would send a card to or buy a gift for I always add a notification at least a week beforehand as well as on the day. For those I just want to remember to wish happy birthday to a reminder on the day or just before is fine.

If you don’t use a calendar then something like Remember the Milk is great for this. You just make a list of everyone’s birthday and say when/how you’d like to be notified about it. It will then send you an email or notify you on your desktop or the app. You can make these recurring too. It’s also useful for remembering other stuff like dentist appointments, booking MOTs, etc. There are also dedicated birthday reminder services and apps around so hunt around until you find one that suits you.

Non-digital reminders

Would you prefer a more paper based system? Perhaps you’re trying to move away from all the digital clutter that sucks you in. Perhaps you’re not as attached to your phone as most people. Or maybe you just get so many digital notifications and reminders that end up missing some of them….

In this case an actual paper calendar, planner or diary is just as useful. As long as you remember to check it regularly! Write all the birthdays in before the beginning of each year. Perhaps use a highlighter or stickers to make them stand out too.

You could also write all the birthdays on separate mini post-it notes. If you include the name and date then you can just move them across each year.

A lovely perpetual wall calendar from Not on the High Street that would be perfect for birthday reminders (this is an affiliate link)

Otherwise a perpetual calendar like the one above works well, and saves you the hassle of updating each year. You can also get desktop or printable versions, so choose the one that’s most likely to work for you. It only works if you actually see it, use it and pay attention to it regularly!

I read somewhere that in the Netherlands you’ll often see a list of birthdays opposite the toilet. It might seem a bit strange, but at least you know you’ll definitely see the list several times every single day 😆

Become the best at remembering birthdays

It’s worth the small amount of effort it takes to find and set up a system that works for you. Decide whether a digital or paper based system will suit you best and sort it out. Believe me, it’s so much nicer when you’re no longer living in fear of forgetting a birthday. We all like to feel special on our birthday and when someone remembers mine it always gives me the warm fuzzies 🥰

Giving or sending a card to show you’ve remembered someone’s birthday (and cared enough to do something about it) is one of the simplest ways to make someone feel special. So set those reminders now, shop for the perfect birthday card and spread the joy!

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My Greeting Card Business – looking back on 2020

Greeting Card Business_Review

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas despite the restrictions. This is my last post of 2020 so I thought chat to you about what this past year meant for my greeting card business and for me personally. This post is a bit more personal and serious than usual, but you’ll get to know me a bit better by seeing that side of me 🙂

Trying to be positive about 2020…

We all faced challenges of one type or another during this weird year. I was lucky enough not to lose anyone to the pandemic. I did worry a lot about my parents though, particularly my Dad’s health which makes him especially vulnerable even if he just gets a cold, never mind something as serious as the coronavirus. He’s now been one of the first to get the vaccine so that’s a bit of comfort to me.

There have been some things that turned out well for me though, so it wasn’t all bad. So rather than focus on all the negatives I’m going to tell you about some of the good stuff, especially as it relates to my greeting card business!

Working from home

I work part time at my day job and the first big change was that I started working from home during the first lockdown. My boss was actually brilliant as he’d already decided we’d both work from home a week before the lockdown was even announced, so we’d been taking stuff home and were more prepared than some.

This has actually worked out really well for both of us. Instead of working three full days a week in London, I now work every afternoon. This helps my boss as he has the support he needs everyday. And it’s great for me, as I now get every morning to work on my greeting card business! I’ve loved the consistency of this and I think it’s really helped me to take the business more seriously. It’s also meant I can get orders turned around and posted quicker, which is good for my customers too 🙂

Trying new things in my greeting card business

I’m really NOT a phone person, I’d never used FaceTime before this year and I’ve always tended to avoid cameras and video as much as possible. This year though, there was often no other way to stay in touch with the people most important to me. As a result I’ve gotten more comfortable with calling people and hopping on Zoom or FaceTime video calls. This has also made me slightly less terrified of being on camera or video which has been positive for my business as well as my social life… I even did an Instagram Live video where I was interviewed about my greeting card business! That would have been inconceivable to me a year ago 😱

Since then I’ve noticed that when I post a photo on Instagram with myself in it, I get a lot more people jumping in to comment. So I’m planning to be braver next year and get on camera more. That way I can get to know you and my other customers and followers a bit better as we chat more often.

This year I also decided to join a ‘mastermind group’ specifically for greeting card businesses. It’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done for my business. I’ve learned a ton, found some new online buddies who understand what it’s like, and really started to focus on growing my business and being much more professional.

Seeing the value in greeting cards

I always used to think that greeting cards were kind of frivolous. That designing them was a fun hobby for me, but not really contributing anything great to the world. This year has really changed my mind about that. People have really turned to greeting cards as a way of keeping in touch, sending love and celebrating with those closest to them when they couldn’t be there in person. I’ve had from customers who have said how amazing it was to be able to send a personal message to someone special. This  has really reminded me that greeting cards play a key role in relationships when people can’t be together.

I’ve even found myself sending more greeting cards than usual. If you subscribe to my newsletter you’ll know that in the past I’ve tended to only give cards on the most special occasions, but this year has been different. It’s been a brilliant way of reminding someone that you’re still thinking about them even though you haven’t seen them for what feels like AGES!

So now I’m really proud to be creating a product that makes people feel terrific! I’ve been working on my next collection for the new year and have really tried to design cards that will cheer people up and make them smile (or perhaps even giggle), whatever is going on. I can’t wait for you to see it!

Greeting Card Business_Review
I really hope that this year also brought you a few positives as well as whatever challenges you had to face. Thank you for all your support throughout. Looking forward to chatting to you more in the new year. Let’s hope that 2021 will be a bit less crazy!
Happy New Year!!!