Send a card, deliver a smile!

Thinking of You Week - and how my card business began in 2004...

Thinking of You Week, is a special week from 16^th – 22^nd  September 2024 promoting sending and receiving greeting cards to create a wave of happiness around the world. I also thought it was the perfect moment to tell you about how I began making my own greetings cards!

The history of my cards…

Victor, Shannon and Arlo. Some of my 2024 designs - created to make people smile.

I graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in July 2004 with a degree in illustration and the ambition of writing and illustration picture books for children. 

Straight after graduation I was beyond thrilled to get my first picture book contract, and at the same time as working on this I started to exhibit my paintings and screen prints in galleries across the UK.

The galleries who exhibited my paintings asked me if I had any cards and I thought it sounded like a lovely idea! The same day I popped in to my local picture framer and asked if he would like some too. He said YES and I made 6 designs, printed from my computer, I sourced some envelopes and cellophane wrappers (now biodegradable in 2024!) and posted them to three galleries and delivered some to the picture framer. I had 4 ‘stockists’ and it was the start of my little card business!

I've designed cards for every occasion, featuring all kinds of different animals and flowers.

My cards sold well and I soon had to go back with more. The wonderful thing about cards is that people send them to each other. I added my email address and land-line telephone number on to the back of the cards (email was fairly new then!) and every now and again somebody would get in touch to ask if they could buy some, or stock them in their shop. More galleries I worked with also took them on and slowly but surely the card sales and the range started to grow!

Soon my little Canon printer at home couldn't keep up with the demand - (and the cards were beginning to take over our tiny living room!) - so in 2010 I finally asked a local printing firm to help. It was around this time that I built my website and I started to sell a few cards on there too, but mainly I focused on wholesale back then. It all worked quite nicely alongside making my books and exhibiting my artwork.

I think the 'hugs' card is the one I send the most. There's nothing like receiving a hug in the post.

Fast forward 14 years things have continued to grow. I now have over 80 designs including an occasions and a dogs collection. I set up Catherine Rayner Babywear in 2019 and built a much bigger e-commerce website to accommodate my growing product range which now also includes my books, prints, original artwork and brand new mugs! I now send my designs to all corners of the globe and have many lovely international stockists which I find very exciting!

If you would like to know know more about selling my cards in your own store please do get in touch or find me on Faire!

I introduced my 'Dogs' collection in 2022 and began to sell then in special 'Dogs' bundles the following year.

There is scientific evidence to show that receiving a handwritten card makes people feel much more special than receiving instant social media communication. This is because it takes more time, effort and emotional investment to send them – not to mention the special power of handwriting! 

People around the world will be sending cards during Thinking of You Week to raise smiles across the miles and give everyone a positive boost :-) Why not join in?

P.s - For my very organised newsletter subscribers - you’ll be happy to hear that my Christmas Designs are now in the studio and available to buy here. There’s also a special offer - buy 5 and one is FREE!

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