We are a family business located in our home/business building in Guernsey, Iowa.  Please note we do not operate a "brick and mortar" store.  We sell online and through shops and stores only.

 

How did we become a family business?  Well,...............

 

This "card thing" all started because I was trying to come up with a new and different style of cards to make and sell.  One night I was "snooping" around the web and stumbled upon mylar and machine embroidery on fabric.  WOW!  That was beautiful!  My brain jumped from fabric to cards and the experimenting began!  (Those of you who know me know what this means. :-) )

 

The biggest challenges turned out to be:

• finding card stock that would support the embroidery well without being so heavy it was  difficult for the machine to embroider through (I ended up trying many)
• figuring out how to digitize the designs so the outlines would perforate the mylar enough to tear away easily, but not perorate the card stock so much it would tear when tearing away the mylar
• what type of stabilizer worked the best

I was pretty satisfied with the results I was getting when a dear friend and family member had a bad day.  I decided to make her a "Thinking of You" card to brighten her day.  She liked the card so much she showed it to other people.  Next thing I knew, I got a call from her telling me there were several people wanting me to teach a class on making these cards.  I believe my response (after a long silence) was, "Ummmmmmm."  I'd never thought about doing card classes.  After all, I taught computer classes and digitizing software classes, not card classes.

OK, so I taught a card class.  Then another card class, and another and another.  The people who came to the classes said they wanted more card stock and more designs.  I got more card stock ready and made more designs.  Then they said I should put these cards into kits and sell them.  I made and sold kits.  I was fortunate enough to have great friends and family who were willing to come and help during those "Oh, my goodness!  How am I ever going to get all this done?" times.  My 73 year old Dad was even packing kits!

Soon those "Oh, my goodness!" times were happening almost daily. It was clearly time for the card business to become more of a "we" business than a "me" business.  Those great friends and family members still come and help, and remember that dear friend and family member who had a bad day?  Now I get to work with her almost every day.  All of this has made me more excited than ever about the cards and card kits!

I am truly blessed with wonderful friends, family, and supporters. I am truly grateful for each and every one of them!

THANK YOU to all of you who have made this journey possible!

Sincerely,

Carrie Williams