Customer Spotlight- Lalightcreations

Posted on 12th April 2018 by Emily
Filed under Customer Spotlight

I'm Lucy of lalightcreations. Based in Northampton, I sell a selection of handmade stationery through my Etsy shop and also at local craft markets and fairs. My products are all handmade by me or are reproductions of my paintings and prints. I am currently trying to find ways of recycling through my craft, using tin and aluminium cans and packaging that would otherwise be thrown away. 

1. What has been your businesses big achievement so far?

The best thing for me about crafting is the opportunity to be endlessly creative and constantly finding new ways of doing things and new ideas. I like to work independently and can spend hours in my craft room. It's like an Aladdin's cave for me!

2. What's your favourite part about what you do?

The best thing for me about crafting is the opportunity to be endlessly creative and constantly finding new ways of doing things and new ideas. I like to work independently and can spend hours in my craft room. It's like an Aladdin's cave for me!

3. How did you first get into paper crafting?

I'm a musician (cellist) by training and I still spend the greater part of my time in this career. I got into drawing and art via my daughter's interest in the subject. She's an excellent artist and I wanted to be able to share a little in that. Fours years ago I began learning to draw and paint, having never done much of this before, and found I could do it and got a huge amount of enjoyment from it. Having said this, I was a paper crafter from a young age! As a child I would spend hours drawing and making "paper dolls" with extensive wardrobes! I was also a stationery addict from a very young age.

4. We love how colourful your designs are, where do you get your inspiration from for these?

Colour is my thing!! The brighter the better. I know it's not for everyone, but I can't get away from it. I love nature, gardening and photography. I take my inspiration for colour from nature; flowers, leaves, sky, sea. I take a lot of photos wherever I go of anything and everything that takes my eye.

5. How long does each product roughly take to make as they include your own watercolour paintings?

Most of my products take several hours to create. I do use watercolour and also monoprinting. Often, I will have a few sessions of painting or printing and then spend a lot of time working out how to incorporate these into my designs for cards, notebooks, tags etc. I rarely use anything pre cut so everything is entirely bespoke. It is time consuming, but I love doing it.

6. Do you have any crafting techniques do you want to try or improve this year?

I have been learning calligraphy and hand lettering and I would like to get on and practise this a lot more this year. I am currently very into using my Gelli plate for printing and I'd also like to get better at this. Other than that, painting and drawing is a neverending learning curve.

7. What is your favourite craft tool?

I have many favourite crafting tools so it's hard to pick a favourite. But, I think it would have to be my Sizzix bigshot plus die cutting machine. I use this all the time and it's totally invaluable.

8. What is your favourite papermilldirect product and why?

I love the quality of all of the products from papermilldirect. The colours are so vibrant. I mostly use the card as a backdrop for my paintings and designs as you can see in the photos. I use the thicker paper to make customised, handmade envelopes. The card that I use the most though is the white super smooth 300gsm card. It's beautiful and so versatile.  I also love the colour of the post box red card. I've used this in the Valentines shaker card.

9. What advice would you give to someone wanting to sell their own handmade crafts?

In terms of advice, I would say just go for it. Find something that you really want to make and try to perfect your skills in that area. I'm still trying to narrow down what I do as I just like doing everything! Etsy is obviously a good place to sell, but it does take time and dedication which is hard if, like me, you have a demanding job to do at the same time. That's why it's so important to become expert in one area I think, then you can focus your time on that and become recognised for it. I have done local craft fairs. Again, I would choose carefully which fairs or markets you choose to sell or exhibit at and make sure they're a good fit for the product that you're selling.

If you would like to see more of Lalightcreations work check out their Instagram and Etsy pages. 

Tagged: Customer Spotlight