Artist Interview with Lisa

Interview with Card Maker, Lisa

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

I am Lisa, mom of two silly girls, Ellie and Stella (ages 6 and 3.5) and wife of a even sillier guy.  We live in Brookline, walking distance from Tiny Hanger, which is our new favorite hang out these days.  I grew up in the cosmopolitan city of Hong Kong, attended high school at Hong Kong International School, followed by college at Tufts University then graduate school at Harvard Graduate School of Education.  Over the years, I have had the privilege to be in many fields from corporate retail to international trade to start up business to teaching preschool and elementary school.  Since being a mom, I have created an educational App, Chinese For Munchkins, which teaches kids Mandarin and Cantonese.   In addition, I started Stellie Stationery, a wonderful card company.  The name Stellie came from Stella + Ellie and the girls absolutely love that.  We have lived in Brookline for the past 11 years and have no plans to move for a long while.

Tell us about what you are selling at Tiny Hanger.

I sell handcrafted cards that are unique and fun.  Birthday cards, Thank you cards, Holiday cards, Baby cards and Everyday cards.  All the card stock is super high quality and made in USA.  Please follow Stellie Stationery on Facebook or check out www.stelliestationery.blogspot.com!

What inspires the designs for your unique card?

I get inspiration from all around me.  The changing seasons, the colors in the sky, architecture at every corner, old photographs and interesting patterns found in nature.   My girls inspire me when they create art; splashing paint on paper, making leaf collages, creating finger paintings, designing paper doll outfits and glitter gluing craft paper.  My nephews, Matthew and Jason (ages 9 & 11), also give me useful feedback and new perspective on card making.  They love to mix and match pop-up designs and tell me what colors go better together.  I learned that kids really do have all the answers; their brains just have to be prodded with the right questions.  Children fascinate me everyday with their curiosity, ideas, funny comments and random thoughts!

What inspires you to make your creations/collection?

I started off with Thank you cards and Birthday cards, as they tend to be most popular.  However with growing demand, I started making Baby cards, Anniversary cards, Blank cards, Holiday cards and Graduation cards.  There is a card for every occasion, better yet,  the best ones are for no reason at all, like the unexpected Hello cards.

What else do you do? 

As a kid, I enjoyed creating things and making tangible things with my hands.  When I was a teenager, I started working with clay and later spent a lot of time on the wheel making ceramics.  I enjoyed throwing cups and bowls, glazing and waiting for the final products to emerge from the hot kiln.  Years later, I am making cards on a regular basis and there is so much joy in seeing the paper creations done.  It's nice to know that in some small way, I am preserving the tradition of writing and sending hand-written notes.  It's truly so much more personal than sending an email. 

Three years ago, my friend, Heidi Spurrell and I were looking for a Chinese language App on the iPhone and couldn't find a good one, so we decided to create Chinese For Munchkins.  There are number and animals' cards, matching and counting games.  This App is compatible with Apple iPhone, iTouch and iPad.  The graphics are recently updated in higher resolution.  Please check out www.chineseformunchkins.com! Thanks to all our fans for spreading the word, Chinese For Munchkins has been downloaded all over the world from USA to Denmark, Russia, China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and beyond.  We couldn't say enough Shei Shei or thanks!