Card Making

Paperwhite Creations is a fairly new homemade greeting card and gift business, and right now, our main focus is on card making. We’ve made cards for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Birthdays, Babies, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thank You, and Just Because occasions. We are hoping to make more cards for different occasions soon; weddings are at the top of our list, and then invitations as well.

We take pride in the fact that our cards are unique; we design them all ourselves and make them by hand together. No two cards are exactly identical and that’s how we feel we make the cards personal and special.

We thought we’d share with you our card making process

Before we start making cards we always decide on a “category” whether it be a holiday or any other occasion. We come up with a flexible number of cards to make and then brainstorm and design together by sketching them out or by discussing our ideas. At first we didn’t use our time so wisely in the early stages of making cards. We would spend time coming up with an idea, make the card, and then move on to the next, not very efficient, but you learn these things as you go along.

 

 

Once we have the designs we start pulling out material: colourful cardstock, embossing powder, glue, scissors, stamps, etc.

 

Then we decide on a card and go for it. Nicole is the paper lady always pulling out different colours of cardstock and matching them together as I sit in the comfy chair and give my opinions.

We both have different jobs that we enjoy and are better at. Nicole has the mathematical mind and is good at measuring, so she uses the paper cutter to cut the cardstock to the right sizes and measures everything that will be included on the card. I enjoy stamping and embossing and then colouring the images if needed; I think it is so neat how you heat up a stamped image with a heat gun and then the finished product looks so polished.

Basically after we have all of the parts of the cards cut and prepared, we put the card together and take pictures of it and then post it on Etsy for people to see and hopefully buy.



 

 

Hello My Name Is...

Hey! Nicole here, I’m the other half of Paperwhite Creations. I was born, raised and still live in lovely Victoria. I have two amazing parents, a younger brother, and a pet dog. I love reading, playing board games, crafting, baking, watching old movies, listening to and playing music, and hanging out with friends and family. I recently graduated from UVic, where I studied Mathematics and Physics. I also participated in a two month Bible School program in Sweden, through Torchbearers International. Now I’m starting my own business, Paperwhite Creations, with my really great friend Samantha.

A long-time pastime and passion of mine is art and crafting. My mom is a very creative and artistic person, and while I was growing up she would always encourage me to be creative, and make things myself. I’d always have so much fun with my mom painting, colouring, cutting, pasting or whatever other crafty thing she had up her sleeve! I studied art all through high school, and enjoyed learning about using different mediums, especially pottery and mosaics. I still like to explore different ways to express my creativity. I’m hoping to do this through Paperwhite Creations with our cards and also in the forms of bath and beauty products, paper making, and any other creative ideas that may come our way.

 Music is another interest of mine...I love both listening to music, and playing music. I enjoy listening to a number of different musicians/bands and would be hard pressed to pick an ‘all-time favourite.’ However, Sanctus Real, Switchfoot, Hyland, TobyMac, and Sara Groves are a few that I really enjoy. I also enjoy playing the piano and clarinet. I’m no expert, but I have fun ‘tickling the ivories’ every so often. I played the clarinet from 6^th grade all the way through university. I still pick it up and play every once in a while, although maybe not as much as I should!

My faith is also very important to me. It’s a part of who I am, and without God I don’t know what I’d do, or where I would be right now. I certainly don’t think I’d be starting a business! I like to spend time both participating in, and helping with church groups. I help out every week with a kids program called Awana, and really enjoy be able to interact with the kids. I also like helping out in my church’s nursery, and on the welcome team, as well as participating in Bible studies.

I’m super excited to embark on this business venture with Samantha. I’m so glad I have a friend with similar interests, and the drive, determination and passion to live a dream! If you would have asked me when I graduated high school what I would be doing in 6 years, I’m not exactly sure what I would have said…but I do know that it wouldn’t have been starting a business! I can’t wait to share our journey as well as ourselves, our ideas, and our interests through this blog.

God bless.

Nicole