Recommended by me

I thought I would start a feature called "Recommended by me" and it is just that.  Items I have bought either from the web or from a fellow bloggers shop, anything from paper crafts through to artwork, stuff that I have enjoyed and consider well made or just plain gorgeous.  I am starting off with my favourite card artisan Chrissy from Ramblings of a Rusty Mind (Chrissys for Cards)   http://seetalktochrissy.blogspot.com   

I have commissioned work from her and now I have seen her work up close I wouldn't want to go anywhere else.  Sometimes having an image of a card it can be difficult to see just how professional the details are.  The cards I received from her have been to my exact taste, high quality, beautifully finished off and unbelievable value for money.  

So for those of you who don't know Chrissy here's a little insight into the person in her own words :)

I am a self taught card maker.  I started about 3 years ago by doing all the wedding stationery for my eldest daughter.  I enjoyed it very much and gradually bought bits and pieces, and like most crafters got hooked and spent a 'fair' bit of money.  I also did my younger daughters wedding last year.  Initially I did a lot of rubber stamping because my printer did not take thick card.  When I was fortunate enough to choose another printer, that was the criteria.  So I can now print all the sentiments either ready to cut out or directly onto the card.  I could also add my logo onto the back of the cards to make them more professional.

I started off using lots of papers, adding bits here and there and gradually over the past three years have found my style and what I like to do - my motto is "less is more" which works for me.  I walked around the shops and noted down what actually caught my eye which is as you see on my cards the past year.

I don't buy toppers or anything like that.  I like to do my own and try to make the cards personal and individual.

I think that mass produced cards on the High Street are fine.  What I do find difficult are the shops that offer 7 for a £1.  How can one compete with that?  Now that the Post Office has also hiked up their prices, I find it very difficult to ask people for more money than I do charge.  I know that some cards can take me up to 3 or 4 hours if you count the research time, the planning time, the making time.  There is no way I could charge by the hour and I appreciate the people that do buy my cards.  I am very particular and everything has to be just right.

Ah commissions.  I started off selling on the web the cards I made.  If one is prepared to constantly promote then it is probably worth it, but I found I had to spend such a lot of time doing it and also producing what I thought would sell, and it somehow changed the way I worked.  So now I have a blog and a facebook page and if people actually find me and like what they see I am quite willing to make them a card.  

As for commissions, it seems now that is the main area I seem to sell in.  I like doing them if people give me precise ideas, like Penny, who always sends me pictures and then gives me free rein to do some ideas. When I do send some ideas to potential customers I do  worry that they feel obliged to choose one even if they are not sure and I always emphasize that they must be happy with their choice.  Whereas, if someone chose a card that was already made up, I would know that that was what they wanted because they had picked it out - if that makes sense!!

What craft would you like to do?

I would love to be able to paint water colours.  I wasn't bad at school, but over the years have got rusty and not even sure now I could actually do it. 

Describe yourself in 3 words

Me in three words - Creative, Perfectionist and Worrier. 

What advice would you give your 18 year old self?

If I knew at 18 what I would be like at 60 I would have done more.

Here is just a small selection of Chrissy's work

~ Recommended by me ~

 xx