These luxury handmade cards are made on top quality 300gsm board and are sized overall at 160mm square. All cards come cello-wrapped with a pearlescent envelope. Priced at £1.70 each trade (£4.00 RRP) the designs come in sixes.   

Blue Eyed Sun is a highly successful small business now in its eighth year of trading. Its brands include the Gift of the Year award-winning SUNCATCHERS cards, best-selling handmade card ranges: KALEIDOSCOPE and BRIGHTON ROCK, and their unique handmade GLASS ENAMEL cards. They sell to design-led shops across the UK and around the world. Customers include: John Lewis, Paperchase, Cards Galore, Harrods and Fortnum and Mason.  With fast turnaround of orders and friendly service as standard and agents across the country, this range must be seen.
 
Blue Eyed Sun Trade Sales Only:
01273 823003 

Blue Eyed Sun designs and manufactures quality design-led handmade greetings cards in Brighton, England. We distribute wholesale greeting cards to the retail trade in the United Kingdom and around the world. Please note that we do not sell to the public. 

 In July he successfully completed the London 10K in a time of 51 minutes raising £630 for Marie Curie Cancer Care. This time he completed the Brooks Brighton 10K and fundraised for local charity The Rockinghorse Appeal which helps thousands of sick children every year. To support Jeremy’s efforts with a donation, please visit www.bmycharity.com/jeremycorner 

Blue Eyed Sun have launching a lovely new range of handmade cards called VELVET. Available to contemporary shops looking for extra special handmade cards, there are 80 gorgeous handmade designs covering all major occasions including birthdays, numbered birthdays, weddings, new babies and Christmas.

This contemporary handmade card range features beautiful watercolour drawings, with each greeting card individually hand-glittered and sprinkled with sequins. All VELVET cards are 160 mm square, come with a colour co-ordinated pearlescent envelopes and are cello-wrapped and barcoded. Available in sixes, these beautiful designs RRP at £4.00. With fast turnaround of orders and friendly service as standard and agents across the country, this card company is a must have for your shop.

Blue Eyed Sun designs and manufactures quality contemporary handmade greetings cards in Brighton, England and distributes them wholesale to the retail trade in the United Kingdom and around the world. Please note that we do not sell to the public.

Telephone Blue Eyed Sun on +44 (0)1273 823003 or visit www.blueeyedsun.co.uk/velvet.html

Have you ever wondered; how does an aspiring card maker go from practising their hobby at the kitchen table to seeing their creations on the shelves at Paperchase or even Harrods? With hugely successful companies like Hallmark around, you’d be forgiven for thinking such ambitions were pie-in-the-sky. Not so it seems. With more and more ranges of handmade cards appearing in our shops the future has never looked rosier for the independent makers with original ideas. Even people who never saw their crafting as anything more than a hobby have found themselves propelled into the industry by the huge demand for quality hand made cards. We’ve talked to three such crafters who’ve taken their hobby to the high street and discovered the secrets behind their success.

ALL FIRED UP

Brighton based card company Blue Eyed Sun was started two years ago by artist Jo Kirby with her partner Jeremy Corner. Their designs feature water coloured backgrounds with exquisite enamelled decorations, each one fired by Jo herself. You’ll find them on sale in top-end stores like Selfridges and Fenwicks, but making a living wasn’t something Jo initially set out to do, and the business emerged through a series of ‘happy accidents’.

“Since I was a child I’ve made cards for family and friends all the time, but it was very much a hobby,” says Jo. She discovered by chance their commercial potential: “A friend and I were running a tiny second-hand clothes shop in York. We wanted to utilise every available surface, including an interior door that we decided would be great for displaying cards. The trouble was we didn’t have any money to buy any stock, so I made some instead. They ended up becoming the best selling things in the shop!”

Originally a jewellery making technique, enamelling is the art of fusing glass onto metal, and was a hobby Jo’s father introduced her to when she was young. “He had a kiln that he would sometimes get out on rainy days,” she recalls. “About twenty years later whilst clearing out the loft he discovered the old kiln, and was about to chuck it out, but fortunately at the last minute offered it to me.” Having created some similar cards to the ones she sells now, Jo observed that of all of her designs it was these that attracted the most comments.

DOWN TO BUSINESS

With the shop eventually closing for various reasons, Jo moved to Brighton and in 1999 decided to go into business selling something she could make. “There were lots of possibilities but in the end cards were what I chose.” Her initial step was to take a range of cards to shops around Brighton to get some opinions. “We also had an appointment with the card buyer at Fenwicks who gave us loads of good advice.” Having taken the comments on board and revised the designs, Jo and Jeremy were ready to enter the marketplace, and the first collection by Blue Eyed Sun was launched at a trade show called Top Drawer in May 2000. The venture has blossomed rapidly into a thriving small business that now sells to shops across the UK. While the backgrounds are mass printed, the trademark enamelled motifs continue to be fashioned and fired by Jo.