A partially-sighted Ramsey woman is gearing up for the festive period by creating hand-made Christmas cards.
Sarah Butler, aged 29, started making her own greetings cards as a hobby and turned her passion into a business in October last year.
Originally from Cumbria, Sarah moved to the island in 2011 and started the business after she had difficulties finding a job.
‘As time went on I was getting more and more frustrated at not being able to get a job. I started volunteering with the Manx Blind Welfare Society and it was then suggested that I should start my own card business,’ Sarah said.
‘I thought I would give it a go and I have never really looked back!’
Working from her home in Ramsey Sarah has a wide range of cards available for this Christmas with designs including Christmas trees, Nativity scenes and snowflakes.
‘It is surprising where you get ideas from. I get them from talking to people, the weather, the time of the year as well as certain occasions like Christmas and Easter - all sorts of things really.’
‘I like to have some sort of tactile element to [the cards] so they are accessible to people who can’t see quite as well.’
Sarah uses a variety of different elements such as wooden buttons, foam shapes and pieces of Laxey tartan in her card designs and cards can also be specially personalised.
To create the cards Sarah uses special dye cutting presses which cut different shapes out. ‘In my whole collection I have about 800 different cutters I can use. Depending on designs and how complicated they are I can make 50 cards a day.’
Sarah’s hand-made cards are available in a number of shops around the island including Celtic Gold in Peel and Mostly Manx in Douglas. As well as this, she attends craft fairs on the weekend which she said allows her to promote and explain the business to the public.
‘It’s getting to the stage where it’s quite nice that people know the cards. In the first couple of months it was very slow but now I have regular customers – it’s nice that I’m getting recognition and hopefully that will continue.
‘My goal is just to try to expand and get into more shops. At the moment only two of the shops buy the cards outright so my next goal is to try and increase this.’
For more information or if you would like to purchase some of Sarah’s cards visit Hand-made greetings cards, Isle of Man on Facebook, call 418210 or email sarahmbutler@hotmail.co.uk