Brianna from Mukilteo, Turns Her Hobby into Cash

Hi Mavis,

My name is Brianna. I live in Mukilteo, WA.

I love making handmade cards. I’ve been doing it for about seven years, ever since one of my sister’s friends introduced me to stamping. It’s fun and relaxing, and it saves us money. When I first met my husband, he would go out and spend $5 on a store-bought card every time someone had a birthday or another special occasion. Now, we use my handmade cards instead, and put that extra money into savings.

I used to just make cards for fun and to send to friends and family. Now I also sell them at the tea shop I work at. At first, I thought that I would mostly sell tea-themed cards at a tea shop, but birthday cards are the best sellers (though I still throw in a few tea-related cards just for fun, since I love tea!).

I usually make cards on my day off during the week, so I can get fully into creativity mode. I put on some classical music (usually Brahms), set up all of my supplies, and start stamping. Here is my workspace:

I am usually like everything very neat and tidy, but I let myself break free for a few hours while I’m crafting. I start off by doing a bunch of stamping. This week I was replenishing my rose cards, as well as adding some other new cards to my stash:

Once I’ve finished stamping (and cleaning all the stamps I’ve used – I’m a bit obsessive about that!), I pick out a color scheme for the cards I’m working on. Since I try to be thrifty about how much money I spend on making my cards, I turn to my scrap pile for accent colors:

With the help of my handy paper cutter and a good standard glue stick, it’s time to put the pieces together into a completed card:

This week I designed 36 cards. Now I just have to finish glueing all of them – my least favorite part, since it’s less creative, and a bit time-consuming – though very necessary! After I’ve glued each card, I usually weigh them down between stacks of paper to make sure the glue dries just right. Here’s what a good day’s work looks like in my craft room:

When I’m all finished creating cards for the day (and they’ve finished drying), I pick out the best ones to sell at the tea shop I work at:

The reject cards get put to good use in my personal card stash for whenever I need to send someone a card for their birthday or another special occasion. Making cards saves our household money on buying store-bought cards, and selling them helps me pay for my craft supplies (mostly paper and envelopes at this point – I bought most of my stamps at garage sales!). I love that I’m not spending our household money on my crafting, since it’s paying for itself!

~ Brianna