Charonel Designs

This month's interview is with a fun, feminine, beachy kind of shop. Sue and Elissa have an endless amount of items in their shop with a little something for everyone. Read all about them and Charonel Designs.

Etsy Paper: Tell us a little about yourself.
Charonel Designs: We are a mother daughter team that lives in sunny Texas. We have 2 furry assistants (our cats Cheeto and JJ) who like to supervise and help us with our shop projects. Sue operated a wedding cake business for 10 years and Elissa used to be a stamping demonstrator and still works full time as a business analyst. When we aren’t crafting, we love to go to antique shows and visit fun little towns all over Texas. We come from a creative family and inherited some of our creative ability from Sue’s mother who was an artist and teacher. 

    

Etsy Paper: When did you open your shop on Etsy?

Charonel Designs: Our shop was created when Sue’s wedding clients expressed interest in having custom wedding invitations and favors created for them. After Sue closed her wedding cake business in 2009, we decided to migrate our paper creations to an online store and we found Etsy.com.

Cake Bunting

     Etsy Paper: Tell us about your shop.

     Charonel Designs: We create invitations, table numbers, favor boxes and gift tags for parties, weddings and special events. Wedding cake and cupcake toppers are a favorite too.

     

Etsy Paper: How did your shop get its name?

Charonel Designs: We used the family name Charon and added the first two letters of Elissa’s name to come up with Charonel and then added the Designs.

Etsy Paper: What inspires you?

    Charonel Designs: We are inspired by our many travels together and apart. We love the beach and the ocean and spent many years in Florida. Traveling to the Caribbean is a favorite past time and we draw a lot of inspiration from the islands and the wonderful tropical colors and themes. Our tropical table numbers and gift tags are some of our most popular designs. Sometimes we are inspired by wedding trends and wedding cakes. 

Tropical Gift Tags

Etsy Paper: Is there a certain color or motif that you are repeatedly drawn to?
Charonel Designs: We are always drawn to tropical motifs, the beach, the ocean, seashells. Paris and shabby chic are favorite go to styles as well. We also like creating fun projects with a Texas or cowboy theme, naturally influenced by where we live. Aqua and pink are favorite colors we are drawn to. Roses seem to be a re-occurring theme as well, inspired by the roses in our garden.

Rose Favor Box

Etsy Paper: What is your favorite technique/ your "specialty"?
Charonel Designs: One of our specialties is paper shoes decorated with bits of lace, buttons and vintage trims. We created a paper shoe one Halloween for a candy favor. We decided to try decorating these paper shows like little Marie Antoinette shoes. We found vintage lace, trims and velvet flowers at an estate sale and local fabric shops and started to incorporate them into our shoe designs. We once had someone order 75 of them for New Year’s Eve masquerade ball, those were extremely fun to do!

Etsy Paper: How did you learn your craft?

Charonel Designs: Art has always been in the blood for both of us. Sue’s mother was an artist and teacher and always had a creative project going on from sewing, drawing, crocheting or china painting. Elissa started stamping when a friend invited her to a stamping class. She soon caught the bug and became a demonstrator teaching classes for 3 years. Through that experience, she learned techniques for working with paper. This transitioned easily into making paper items for brides. Sue has always loved to cook and bake and always took creative classes like pottery and painting. When she lost her job, she started a business making wedding cakes. When she closed the cake business she started to help Elissa with the paper creations. 

Etsy Paper: What is your first crafting memory?

Charonel Designs: One of Sue’s favorite memories was when she was a little girl, she made 120 Easter hats for family members at a family reunion. They were made from paper plates and roses fashioned from colored Kleenex.

One of Elissa’s favorite memories is her grandmother teaching her how to crochet and also decorating her bicycle for an Easter parade using colored tissue paper roses.

Etsy Paper: Do you have a special space for your crafting, or does the kitchen table do double duty?

Charonel Designs: We have a craft room in our house that’s used to store the many stamps, packages of paper and spools of ribbon we use. But we do the actual crafting usually in the living room or at the kitchen table. We enjoy watching Hallmark movies when we create! We generally spread out for as long as we need and then clean it all up when we are done!

Etsy Paper: What number is the most items you've made in one sitting?

Charonel Designs: We had an order from a corporate client for 3000 business card holders. Every single one was cut and embossed with a leaf impression by hand. It took us 4 weeks to get it done working nights and weekends!

Business Card Holder

    Sue and Elissa sure do make a great team and it shows in their shop's items. By the way, Charonel Designs has 927 reviews with a 5-star average, that speaks volumes. 

Until next time,

Jenni

Etsy Paper

Team Captain

Sky Goodies

Welcome to February. This month I have a favorite of mine, Sky Goodies. Misha and Amit are super unique and very talented. Read their interview here.

Etsy Paper:  Tell us a little about yourself.
Sky Goodies:  My name is Misha. I'm a graphic designer. I'm married to my classmate from design school, Amit Gudibanda. He's a product designer. Together we started a design firm called Sky Design 10 years ago, and 3 years ago we started Sky Goodies. We live in a little village inside the bustling mega city of Mumbai, with our six year old daughter, Ashi. We work from a little cottage which is our office and studio, and we have a small team to help us manage the growing business.

Etsy Paper:  When did you open your shop on Etsy?
Sky Goodies:  We opened the Sky Goodies Etsy shop in 2013. We started listing paper printables for DIYs in our Etsy shop, by September 2013. 

Favor Box

Etsy Paper:  Tell us about your shop.
Sky Goodies:  We design and create paper giftables. The majority of these are DIYs, which one can print at home or buy in physical form as pre-cut and pre-creased kits. We love making happy colourful products which can be used after making, or given as handmade gifts. We also make whimsical hand-drawn 'doodle' planners and notebooks. All our products aim to make the owner happy. My husband and partner, Amit, works out templates and I work on graphics. Although our work overlaps a lot, and we depend on each other for feedback and inspiration.

Etsy Paper:  How did your shop get its name?
Sky Goodies:  The word ‘Sky’ had special meaning for Amit and me; starting our careers traveling in Mumbai local trains, jam-packed with people; it was all bearable as long as we could catch a glimpse of the sky through a window. ‘Sky’, to us, represented freedom and space, without limits. Our first venture was named simply, ‘Sky Design’. ‘Sky Goodies’ was our second venture, keeping ‘Sky’ from before. ‘Goodies’ refers to the attractiveness of our products, and ‘the goodies’ is also what our friends call us (short for our last name, Gudibanda). 

Etsy Paper:  Name the top crafting items that you cannot live without.
Sky Goodies:  I need lots of colorful paper, craft glue, a craft knife, ruler and a small pair of scissors at all times. A black ink pen is great to doodle ideas with, in a smooth page notebook. I carry a notebook all the time to sketch in. 

Notebook

Etsy Paper:  What is it about paper that draws you to create with it?
Sky Goodies:  Paper is available easily everywhere: that's the best part. It is inexpensive and comes in a huge variety of colors, patterns and finishes. When I was young I didn't have access to DIY kits or hobby sets, but my father always gave me lots of waste paper from his office, and that was my playground. I love the smell of fresh paper and the feeling and texture of it. I like making paper products because it can be moulded into many forms. I also like the fact that paper has a limited life and you need to handle it with sensitivity and care. If while making something, you go wrong, there is no 'undo' button. One has to deal with the setback; it's great learning for children as I think the ability to deal with failure is important for happiness. 

Etsy Paper:  Are you a clean or messy crafter?
Sky Goodies:  I am an extremely messy crafter (and person!). While I like my designs to be precise and perfect, I cannot function in clinically neat places. My desk is full of color, odds and ends I have collected, notes and reminders to myself, and all kinds of pens and tools for paper crafting. I am a squirrel when it comes to paper and hoard all kinds of it. While cutting and pasting I clean up a part of my desk but it soon becomes a mess again. I try to be neat but have made my peace with the mess, as I like the chaos of color and it helps me think. I have 5 notebooks going on at any point and mostly can't find 3 of them :) but it's nice to come across old ideas suddenly and get inspired about something else. 

Etsy Paper:  Is there a certain color or motif that you are repeatedly drawn to?
Sky Goodies:  Yes. I love colorful Indian Street and Pop Art. Like old Hindi film posters which were hand painted. Or colorful firecracker packaging printed cheaply and showing bizarre motifs. I love the intricate quality of ornamentation in Indian art. I also love matchbox art, because it surprises me with it's craziness and whimsical character. They use fully saturated colors and bold combinations. All of these find their way into our products. 

Wall Calendar

Etsy Paper:  Where do you feel at peace, free from all the pressure of family and work?Sky Goodies:  I feel at peace among hills and forests, away from the concrete jungle of Bombay. In places where there is no sound of traffic. Amit and I drive out of town with our kid in our car often on weekends, and picnic in the wilderness. We love going for long rambling walks, where there are no people; just trees, birds, insects and their sounds. We love the early morning coolness and the feeling of fresh grass under our feet. We like trekking; it makes things very simple; it's the just about surviving, walking till you reach your destination and enjoying the journey. We love showing our daughter beautiful places, paddling in streams and feeding birds and fish. My favourite place is the Himalaya Mountains; they are so majestic and awe-inspiring, it is humbling to be among them; I can feel the presence of God when I am in the mountains. 

Etsy Paper:  What have you learned the most about life from your craft?
Sky Goodies:  I have learned that I am happy while making things that give others joy. The letters and reviews from customers telling us how they enjoyed the paper crafts with their children and families; how they made handmade gifts for loved ones; these are very valuable to us. Earlier we worked for many years on big, important and glamorous corporate and advertising projects; the projects were successful and the business was great, but the work did not make us so happy. Making small paper toys is far more fulfilling because I know they create joy for their owners. I have therefore learned that giving and making are probably the two most important parts of being happy in life. 

Sky Goodies has a style so unique. The items have a way of showing the personalities of Misha and Amit. Take some time to browse their shop and possibly create your next printable craft. 

Until next time,
Jenni
Etsy Paper
Team Captain 

Belle Pivoine

As the New Year begins, I wanted you to be able to see one of the most gorgeous shops we have. Belle Pivoine's items are light, romantic, and many will stop you in your tracks. Fransisca, the shop owner, clearly transfers her personality to the pieces in her shop. 

Etsy Paper:  Tell us a little about yourself.
Fransisca:  My name is Fransisca. I’m from Indonesia, living in Pringy, France with my husband; Guillaume, and our 4 feet kids; Boubou (a dog) and Chacha (a rabbit). I love living in France even though I miss Indonesia. Those are really two very different countries. 

Art Print

Etsy Paper:  When did you open your shop on Etsy?
Fransisca:  I opened our Etsy shop in Dec 2014 with help from Guillaume, 4 months before we got married. Actually I thought to open one a couple of years before but I was still studying French intensively everyday and didn’t have lot of time to do it. So, in 2014 I finished my study and start to open Belle Pivoine on Etsy. We started when we wanted keep our love story in an illustration that we will cherish forever; our illustration couple and our wedding invitation.

Etsy Paper:  Tell us about your shop.
Fransisca:  Belle Pivoine creates designs, illustrations, handmade cards, invitations, art prints and paper goods. We love to make it personalized or customize it, we always love something that is personal. All our products are made by hand with care and love. We are committed to provide excellent quality handmade products that evoke or celebrate key moments in people's lives, products that could inspire them, give them joy and good humor. All our products, from design, illustration, printing, cutting, folding and packaging are made by hand with love in our apartment based in France. We use high quality materials to obtain well-made and beautiful products.

Card

Etsy Paper:  Why did you decide to become on Etsy seller?
Fransisca:  Since I was young I love to draw, and have some experience working as designer in a stationery shop at Jakarta. After that, I wanted make my own stationery shop and have my own business. I read a lot of reviews about Etsy and articles about shops that grow their businesses and started at Etsy. So when I get married and moved to France, I had lot of time to think about opening a shop on Etsy and have my husband support me, so we decide to become Etsy sellers.

Etsy Paper:  How did your shop get its name?
Fransisca:  I really love flowers, romantic, beautiful and pretty things. One of my favorite flowers is peony, and I chose to write it in French because, for me, French sounds so beautiful and romantic. I wanted a name that reflected the style of our product too. So I felt Belle Pivoine was perfect. 

Wedding Set

Etsy Paper:  Do you have a favorite quote to share?
Fransisca:  Dreams do come true. Yes. "Dreams really come true when you really believe it with all your heart, believe you have received, and feel the things that you want as already yours, feel good, be grateful". I experience it when I come to Paris for the first time, found and married my true love, Guillaume. 

Etsy Paper:  What is your favorite thing about Etsy?
Fransisca:  It’s not a massive product, it’s handmade. They sell and buy direct from the artist, that’s why items in there are unique. 

Etsy Paper:  Where do you feel at peace, free from all the pressure of family and work?
Fransisca:  In a garden full of flowers, green grass and blue sky, I feel peaceful and alive. Smell the flowers, lie on green grass and take a deep breath under the blue sky, there is happiness. I dream to have Belle Pivoine’s studio in the middle of a garden.

Etsy Paper:  What is your favorite item to make, the one that makes you smile just thinking about working on it?
Fransisca:  Custom couple Illustration; I really love drawing two people in love. When it’s finished, I take time looking at it and feel happy before packaging and sending it to our client. 

Custom Couple

Etsy Paper:  What has been your favorite comment from purchasers about your product?
Fransisca:  It was from Claire in UK, she’s a mother and she ordered a personalized print “Little Princess Dream BIG" Personalized Art Print for her daughter. She said: “I am so pleased with this print. It is just gorgeous. Fransisca was amazing. She listened to my requirements and made sure I was 100% happy with the final version. A beautiful print that I know my daughter will cherish forever.” Yes, we want our client feel 100% happy with our product, and we want create beautiful goods that people will cherish forever and her comment is a proof that we accomplish that. I'm so thankful.

That is what most Etsy sellers work to accomplish, items people will cherish forever. What an amazing shop! In such a busy world, it's nice to see something a little more refreshing than the usual.

Until next time,
Jenni
Etsy Paper 
Team Captain

SnowdonPrints

This month I couldn't resist featuring a long time Etsy Paper Team member. Little did I know, the shop owner of SnowdonPrints lives a highly creative life.

Etsy Paper: Tell us a little about yourself.
Alexandra: My name is Alexandra Snowdon. I live just outside Manchester in the north of England, right next to the Peak District National Park. It's a lovely area with lots of beautiful countryside but I do enjoy having the buzz of the city close by! I live here with my husband Charlie who has his own hand printed T-Shirt business 'Chucks Original Tees'. He also sells on Etsy so it's a pretty creative household. When we're not printing and drawing we love to go hiking, biking and traveling and that's the inspiration for much of my work.

Bike Print

Etsy Paper: When did you open your shop on Etsy?
Alexandra: I opened my Etsy print shop in 2012, but I didn't actually put any products in it until 2013! I've got another shop on Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/Snowdon) selling hand printed bags and cards and I had my prints in that shop at first but I knew that sooner or later I'd need to separate them out. I eventually got around to doing that in early 2013 and I have to say the print shop now gets most of my attention, that's where my heart lies. 

Etsy Paper: Tell us about your shop.
Alexandra: I sell prints of my hand lettered and illustrated designs. I started off doing mostly screen prints but the house was bursting at the seams with mine and Charlie's screens so I decided to invest in a giclée printer. I love that it's so easy to be able to offer my designs in different sizes to suit all wall spaces and budgets and it also makes it easier to do custom orders too. I still love hand printing but I mostly save that for limited editions these days.

Etsy Paper: When do you find/make time for your crafting?
Alexandra: I'm lucky enough to be doing this full time and I can't tell you how happy that makes me! I was a studio based graphic designer for over 20 years and all that time I secretly yearned to be a self employed illustrator. I finally went back to uni in my late thirties to do an illustration degree, fitting it in around my graphic design job. It changed my life. Two years after graduating I was so busy selling my illustrations on prints, cards and bags that I was able to leave my job. I've never looked back.

Fresh Start Print

Etsy Paper: What do you have on while you're creating, if anything, and is it tuned to something specific?
Alexandra: I love to listen to music while I'm creating, I find it really inspiring. I'm based in the UK and love listening to Steve Wright in the afternoon on Radio 2. I also enjoy the occasional podcast, especially from Elizabeth Gilbert (Author of Eat, Pray Love and Big Magic) she's so inspiring and Lisa Congdon, I love that she came to illustration later in life and made a huge success of it.

Etsy Paper: Where do you go to find new ideas/products to make?
Alexandra: I find most of my inspiration when I'm travelling and doing outdoorsy things like hiking and biking, they're my favourite things to do after drawing! I've been all over the world but I keep getting drawn back to the US. I love the big American cities and the National Parks there are just breathtaking. Charlie and I love going hiking in the US and heading off on long road trips. 

Campers Print

Etsy Paper: How do you get the word out about your products?
Alexandra: I have to admit I'm a bit of a social media addict! But I think that works in my favour. When I'm working on a new design I often post 'work in progress' pics on my Facebook, Instagram, Flickr and Pinterest pages and I do the same again when I've just uploaded a new print to my Etsy shop. I really love getting feedback on my work, and I've had a lot of illustration commissions from greetings card companies and book publishers who've seen my work on social media, so I would say it definitely pays to get your work out there.

Etsy Paper: Do you have a favorite quote to share?
Alexandra: I do! I love inspirational quotes and they tend to feature a lot in my work. It's hard to pick a favourite but one I've always liked is 'The best way to predict your future is to create it' by Abraham Lincoln. I'm a big believer in creating your own destiny, I don't believe in fate.

Etsy Paper: When your creativity gets blocked/clogged, what do you do or where do you go to get inspired and create again?
Alexandra: If I'm really stuck about finding an idea or progressing one I'm already working on I find getting out of the house and doing some exercise helps. Whether it's a quick run in the nearby countryside or a trip to the gym, I always come back buzzing with endorphins and new ideas.

Alexandra Snowdon

Etsy Paper: What have you learned the most about life from your craft?
Alexandra: You get out of it what you put into it.

I leave you with that amazing statement. As an Etsy shop owner, I can testify no truer words have ever been spoken. I can also say Alexandra and Charlie would agree: A couple that crafts together, stays together. 

Until next time,
Jenni
Etsy paper 
Team Captain