Since I started my online shop and selling greeting cards, I’ve always referred to important occasions to give me ideas to develop my line of greeting cards. I have always thought about designing cards for Valentine’s Day, sketching out ideas and illustrating some designs but it never really came together until this year.
I came up with the idea to paint sign language related card designs about two years ago but hesitated, thinking they wouldn’t sell well. I didn’t have the dough to take that risk as well, or enough skill or confidence to paint hands well enough to be printed on a greeting card! This year I felt more prepared to take the plunge. I painted three different designs, two showing “I love you” in American Sign Language and the third showing “love” in British Sign Language.
I was pretty happy with the new paintings at an earlier stage, but I was still unsure about printing them so I shared a snap on my Instagram to see what my audience thought of them. I received loads of positive feedback and I went ahead and printed them all, along with two lovely hand lettered heart designs saying ‘I heart you’ and ‘Be mine’ that I hoped would appeal to people who may not be interested in sign language!
With this new collection, I felt (and still am) out of my comfort zone because these cards don’t look consistent with the rest of my products on my shop – they don’t have nature elements or one bit of green colour in them. But after seeing how well they have sold, I am so pleased I finally found the courage to bring this idea to fruition. I feel proud to incorporate sign language, my first language, in my illustrations.
I may have designed them for Valentine’s Day but I think they turned out to work well all year round! I hope you love them as much as I do.