As a creative I am always figuring out how to make "a living" out of my art. I had decided when I started out my journey building a business in art, I would not get into the greeting card game, for the fear it would devalue the rest of my art. BUT... in the months leading up to Christmas 2019, and having decided to do as many Christmas Craft Fairs as I could get into at short notice, I needed some lower ticket priced items to sell and I created a set of Christmas Cards as a test.
To my surprise and delight they sold really well. Sticking to my love of animals and rainbow colours and leveraging the animals that seemed to be on trend last year, I created the set in the photo below and ended up with something different and appealing. I learnt so much in the process; from pricing, how much my market appreciate the great effort I put into creating a product that is eco friendly and sustainable, to the fact that I need to have my Christmas Cards ready a lot earlier for Christmas 2020; among other things,
After the success of my 2019 Christmas Card sales I have decided greeting cards will definitely be part of my ever evolving business plan and I have set myself the goal of creating 4 new card designs a month in 2020. See the result of my efforts in January below.
I wanted to create something different for Valentine's Day and Mother's day but keep the design more general so the cards can be used for other occasions. Don't you just love a beautiful Thank You card, I do! I always have a stash of thank you cards on hand and I love a reason to give a thank you card to someone. Hopefully my cards will be the cards you decide to stash. And the Koala card is a charity card, the Australian bushfires have been so devastating, I want a way to donate towards the rehabilitation of the Koala habitats. All proceeds from that card go to the WWF Bushfire Appeal
My cards are printed on FSC certified board (which means the cardboard comes from a sustainable source), I supply them with craft envelopes and they are packaged in biodegradable/compostable cello wraps. They are all 6" x 6" and blank inside for your own message.
I have so much more to figure out. From what designs I am going to come up with this month to how I am going to develop my packaging so that I can offer box sets of cards, to how and where I am going to sell my cards other than at craft fairs and through my website.
If you are starting out and want to get into creating greeting cards I am happy to share what I have learnt, please get in touch. Deciding on the size of my cards, what cardboard I wanted to print on to finding a printer that was FSC certified and could supply bio cello wraps was a time consuming process. It would be great to be able to save you some time.
If you are still reading this, please leave me a comment and tell me about your card buying habits and what is important to you when you buy a card.
Do you care about the cards you buy being environmentally friendly?
Do you keep a stash of card so you have one incase you forgot someone has a birthday coming up or so that you have a thank you card on hand?
Where do you buy your cards from generally?
What do you think my next set of designs should be?
Thanks for reading and if you like what you see, you can shop for my cards here