I am a lactose intolerant 40 something year old who has been married for years and lives in Chorley. I work full time and craft in every spare minute I get.
I have two rabbits (one is an indoor bunny) and a budgie and a tortoise. As I absolutely love Coronation Street all the animals are (and have been in the past) named after Coronation Street characters. The rabbits are called Leanne and Graham and the budgie is called Fred and the tortoise called Vera.
I love card making and knitting predominantly, having had a fascination with all things paper from an early age. Mum remembers me sitting in my playpen with a catalogue just ripping the pages out and making a mess! Mum went to art college when she was younger so I think this is where I maybe get my arty-ness from.
I absolutely love the colour pink and have recently done a blog posting about it.
I am in the process of creating a craft studio in the spare big bedroom. All the walls are painted candyfloss pink! I am just saving up a bit of money to buy a desk and then a lovely rug for the floor and get dad to put my shelves up (because hubby is against all things DIY! lol) and then it will be all systems go. I presently craft all over the house, predominantly in the living room but would love a dedicated room to call my own where I can leave everything out and get organised.
I started making cards when I visited a craft shop about 15 years ago and got bitten by the bug. I don't think there were many card makers out there then, as people were interested in cross stitch at the time. I decided to make cards and also do a bit of a cross stitch and then as time has gone on I have developed a keen interest in knitting - knitting socks and shawls mainly for family and friends and the odd baby item here and there.
My inspiration for the cards I make comes from the world around me although I do watch a lot of craft programmes on TV and avidly search the internet for all things paper/card making. I have travelled abroad quite a lot, especially the Caribbean, and after seeing turtles on a beach in St Kitts and visiting a butterfly park on two visits to Aruba that is why butterflies and turtles feature on some of my cards.
Most of the images I use in my cards come from CD's (which all have angel policies and are completely copyright free for me to use and sell). I especially like CD's produced by Joanna Sheen as the images on them are timeless.
I spend most of my free time visiting craft shops in the local area looking for papers, ribbons, glitter and gems that I can use to jazz up my cards.
I opened by Folksy shop in August last year and although I haven't had many sales yet, I am hopeful now that I have a blog and have joined Twitter that the sales will come, because my views on my Folksy page have gone up as a result of doing so. At the moment I only sell on Folksy and to friends and family but have in the past done a few craft fairs in the local area, but have had to stop doing the main craft fair I did every month for six months due to changes made by them which means all stalls are outside. I suffer from ill health (Fibromyalgia) and my body would not let me stand outside for hours at a time in the wind and rain and cold. Brrrr. Lol. I will continue to look for other suitable venues to sell my wares and in the meantime will continue on Folksy, as we are a friendly community who offer support and guidance to all. My plans for the future are to open another shop on Folksy selling handknitted socks for babies and adults, doing more craft fairs, and also to try lots of new things for my cards including parchment craft. I would say that my favourite cards in my shop are:
http://www.folksy.com/items/1250525-Handstamped-Medallion-Butterfly-Card?shop=yes
http://www.folksy.com/items/1249945-Watercolour-Painted-Poppy?shop=yes (which is a one-of-a-kind handpainted card by my mum)
http://www.folksy.com/items/1056937-Wedding-Card-?shop=yes
http://www.folksy.com/items/749437-Turtle-Decoupage-Card?shop=yes
http://www.folksy.com/items/1337861-Butterfly-Card?shop=yes
I also have a blog http://www.cardswithadifference.blogspot.com
My favourite shop on Folksy is Onestoppampershop. I bought some candles from her at Christmas (chocolate fluff) and they were divine and I also recently won some of her candles on a blog giveaway (orange and cranberry) and they too smell beautiful.
Thank you Tanya for taking the time to write this fabulous post... if you want cards with a difference, visit @cardswithadiff
L xx
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