Why a Cardmaker Started Making Cardstock (And Why Canadian Crafters Are Glad She Did)

I have only been making cards for three years.

But when I discovered this craft, I fell hard. Somewhere between the paper scraps and the ink-stained fingers, I was completely hooked — the colour, the texture, the quiet satisfaction of making something beautiful with your hands. Cardmaking wasn't a hobby I eased into. It was love at first layer.

So when I kept reaching for patterned cardstock that didn't exist — coordinated, premium, the kind that made a colour story sing without fighting the focal element — I did what any crafter with a graphic design background and a slight obsession with colour would do.

I made my own.

Curious what that looks like in real life? Here's a peek at how I craft — even when I'm supposed to be camping. Watch: Cardmaking at the Campsite

What I didn't expect was for other crafters to notice.

The comments started small. A friend admiring a card. A fellow crafter in an online group asking where I found that background paper. When I told them I made it, the response was always the same: "You made that? Can I get some?"

That's when it hit me. I wasn't just solving my own problem. I was solving everyone's problem.

Here's the part that makes me smile: my career has been in accounting. Numbers, spreadsheets, fiscal years. Not exactly the origin story you'd expect for a cardstock designer. But on the side — self-taught, just for the love of it — I learned graphic design. Colour theory, pattern, composition, visual balance. The stuff that made my heart happy.

When that self-taught creative side collided with a three-year cardmaking obsession, Michelle V. Park Design was born. A Canadian designer and supplier of premium patterned cardstock, built on one very simple idea: crafters deserve beautiful, coordinated paper that makes their projects easier and their colour stories sing.

And that's what you'll find here on the "Artfully Yours" blog.

Technique tutorials, colour story inspiration, honest conversations about the craft — all from someone who came to this a little late, fell completely in love, and then accidentally built a business around it. And because sometimes you just need to see it in action, you'll find video tutorials on YouTube too — same techniques, same honest voice, just with ink on my fingers instead of words on a page.

Whether you're here for the cardstock, the tutorials, or just to see what a reformed bean counter with ink-stained fingers gets up to — I'm really glad you're here.

Welcome. Let's make something beautiful.

— Michelle