In 150 words or less, what’s the story behind your shop?
I started out making envelopes out of old books. I’d rip out a page and fold and glue it into an envelope - then I sold them wholesale to retail shops. People loved them and wanted cards to go into the envelopes. So I started ripping up all sorts of books and making collage style cards and envelopes. Eventually I realized that I liked doing that more than I liked my job at a big box electronics store, so I quit my job. The next step (in order to have the time/money balance) was to start printing the cards. Juggling designing, selling, printing, packaging, shipping, invoicing, etc. became too much - so, I decided that instead of setting up a bigger physical shop and hiring employees, complicating my life even more, I would join the CafePress world and continue to design, but accept their help with the rest!

How do you find inspiration for your designs?
Life is funny. There are incredibly ridiculous situations that we have to muddle through - sometimes people are so unreasonable you just think ‘this must be a joke’ and in a way it is - it is your joke that you can laugh at. The same thing that can just make you so mad can also be really funny if you just look for it - and nothing makes a person madder that when you laugh at their bad behavior - that’s the secret added bonus. Next time you get cut off in traffic, just laugh your head off - aggression like that to me is so funny - ‘yes, you are better than me now, you are in front, congratulations!’

Where do you go to design and work on your shop?
I don’t have any fancy equipment - but a comfortable chair is important to me. If I can move that chair near a nice view and have a cup of coffee beside me, well, all the better.

What’s your background (are you an artist, business person, homemaker, ninja)?
You name the labor intensive, meaningless, mismanaged, unsatisfying, horrifically scheduled, cruel and unusual line of work and I will point to it on my resume.

What are you working on, in your shop, right now?
I have 80% of my designs up, I would like to get that last 20% up - and I would like to have more products in each section. Since I started out just doing greeting cards, not all of my designs are transferable to say, a t-shirt - so I have to rework some designs to fit that sort of product.

What has been your proudest moment as a Shopkeeper, so far?
It did feel good to receive my order and realize that the greeting cards are a great quality. I’m very picky about texture and color - and CafePress nailed it!

What design tool can you not live without?
My scanner.

Any final thoughts to our readers?
May we all have enough money to walk away from horrible work situations without fear of starvation, homelessness or beerlessness.