Artist feature: Lisa "fairycardmaker"

Here is the 3rd winner of MsBittyKnacks Blog Artist Feature

"the creative force behind fairycardmaker"

Lisa

 This artist is based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. She is a Chartered Accountant; a "position of quality control where she has authored responses on behalf of her firm to invitations to comment put out by the Accounting and Assurance Standards Board in Canada." She also does training for her division and currently is "sifting through 10 years of scattered training material to compile it all in one firmwide Wikipedia-type information base, along with a handful of teammates." She is very passionate about her career and stated " I have always had a love for writing and my career comes first."

5 Mini Notecards - Blue and Black Button Flowers

Busy as a bee as she may be, she clearly has a deeply embedded artistic streak, one she gives 100% credit to being inherited from her father, whom she says "liked oil paintings" and that is not even considering the influence her sister who does acrylics, watercolours and as she says "draws very well" must have had. But, Lisa began her journey into the art world with a fascination of comic books and paper dolls. She admits "paper has always been my addiction." 

Train Engine Paper Die Cut Green Scrapbook Embellishment

She was presented to scrapbooking which 6 years later advanced into handmade cards. The motivation to sell her handmade items originated by her desire to aid shelter dogs. So, Lisa came up with doing some crafts workshops for a fee. She found a local dog rescue, and joined the line-up of fundraising events, but, as she says "the only problem was ending up with lots of kits left over from these classes" and this is when she decided to sell the excess production.

Card with Removable Corner Bookmark - Firebloom

She had heard of Etsy via a scrapbooking board and of iCraft on an Etsy forum and founded her shop fairycardmaker where one can find handmade cards, original die cuts, room decor and magnets.

Birthday Card - Pink/ Purple Summer Breeze

 She says "I like my bookmark cards because I like things that are functional but the paper quilled dragons are the most unique and have been the best." All items that are related to the charity workshops receive a percentage of the proceeds and any inventory excess is donated, usually to the Alaskan SPCA thrift shop.  

Card with Removable Bookmark - Butterfly Garden - 10 percent to SOAR charity

When asked where she get her inspirations she simply said "Stamps,  rubber or digital, it doesn't matter. Line drawing style stamps remind me of the days when I used to draw. The designs usually spark an idea, drawn from memories of how I would use an image or how an image made me feel.  Some stamps, though, are just so pretty I end up buying them!" Also, particularly color inspiration she admits in liking to look at home decor magazines. Now, when the artist blog wiggles himself out she squashes it by doing challenges, she explains " there are a lot of scrapbooking and card making challenges out there. I like sketch challenges the best but there are also theme challenges and colour challenges. Growing up, I loved to play Scrabble with my mother. We never kept score, we just tried to make big words. It was fun re-arranging the tiles to see what words were available to me and then figure out how to fit them on the board. Sketch challenges are the same way for me.  I am given pieces or elements and it's up to me how to arrange them for my design."

Baby Card Gender Neutral Quilled Teddy Bear Angel

The best advise Lisa can share with all artist and sellers is to "never undersell yourself! Volume selling means nothing if every item is sold at a loss!  Do some homework before you start a business.  Being passionate about your work is not the end of the work; it's only the beginning." For her, the best marketing strategy carried out was commencing her blog. She admits being a shy person and since she "loves to write" she says "I say more through my fingers than my mouth!"

Round Butterfly Magnet - Citrus Colours

What does HANDMADE mean to you??

"Handmade means a living, breathing person translated passion into product and a living breathing person put careful thought into their purchase, seeking just the right fit.  I once pointed out the flaws in my drawing to my Aunt and she said to me that she would never have seen them if I wasn't beside her pointing them out. Even if she could pick them out, she said that those flaws are what makes our work unique.  A human is flawed. Those minor variations in our work is the little sign post that "a human was here"."

Quilled Fox Monogram F Room Decor

Lisa's Favorites:

Handmade Shop: A Day for Daisies

Holiday: Halloween

Materials: "I love paper of course!" Also, stone and clay "I am always drawn to earthy things."

Colors: Blue and white "because it's a blank slate."

Techniques: "I love layering die cuts to make dimension. I may get in to layering stamps but it always seems more finicky to me than die cuts!"

Anniversary Card - Quilled Snails in Teal

Fairy Teacup - Blonde

At the present time Lisa doesn't have any current goals. But she is "hoping that,
 one day, a few decades from now, I will retire from my career and have something to fuel a steady stream of creativity to ensure my brain in continually challenged and continually learning!"

You can find, chat, like, and follow this wonderful artist at: