Being a person who makes things and hope other people like them enough to buy them, I try to support other people who are trying to sell their handmade items.

I like to support local artisans here in Nova Scotia as much as possible, as well as Canadian artisans in general.  I have also ordered items from the US and other countries as well.   If it’s handmade, and looks to be well-crafted, it’s fair-game

Last month, I ordered a few cards from an artist in Toronto.  At first I was thinking that she made prints off of originals, but after handling the actual cards I think she handpaints each individual card  I love that!  She runs marathons for charity, and donates the proceeds of her work to whatever race she’s preparing for.  I think that is a grand idea, as those fundraiser marathons can have a pretty substantial minimum to raise.  I was very happy to help her along with her goal, especially since the charity that she’s raising money for right now is the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada, diseases that members of my family have had to deal with.

Here are three of the cards that I ordered:

I ordered them from a shop on iCraft.ca.  The shop is called hand painted cards.  You can see her shop here: http://icraft.ca/hand-painted-cards She also has a page on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hand-Painted-Art-Cards/152747878086801?sk=info

There are so many people who make cards that one doesn’t need to go to a commercial card shop and buy a generic card.  You can find them on Etsy, Artfire, iCraft, craft shows, farmers markets, etc.  I’m willing to bet there is somebody in your own town that sells their own handmade cards