Friday Feature: L7 Designs

1. Tell us about you and your shop

My name is Carrie and I am the hands behind L7Designs. The L7Designs name has a fun background story involving various aspects of my personality and character. The "L7" part comes from a line from my favorite movie, the Sandlot ("The kid's a Square! L-7 weenie!"). Put the index and thumb fingers of your hands out, turn your right hand over and you'll find the L 7! It seemed fitting for a card maker!

There is more behind the name combined from my love of all things squared (I'm a closet obsessive-compulsive!) and my family nickname of "Squares".

I have been crafting and scrapbooking since I was in high school (over 10 years!) and I absolutely love it. I love sending little notes and cards to my friends and family to say a special Hello or I'm Thinking Of You. Handcrafted notecards and cards seem much more special than picking out a mass-produced card at Hallmark with an overused, cheesy poem on the inside! I desire to create one-of-a-kind projects that are beautiful and convey the love and joy I feel for the person I created them for.

2. How did you get started in your craft?
I started papercrafting 11+ years ago with my first scrapbook album in high school. In college, I started handmaking cards for my friends out of cardstock, construction paper and various magazines I cut up. It was always an exciting day to get something hand-written in the mail at school and a huge blessing for me to get to do that for my friends.

When I got married, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law introduced me to the wide world of hobby scrapbooking and card making with Archivers, Close To My Heart and all kinds of products, paper and tools I could dream of! It fed my creative nature and blossomed into my passion of making handcrafted paper products.

3. What tool can you not live without?
My X-Acto knife, ruler and self-healing cutting mat. I use them with every single project I do!

4. What inspires you?
People inspire me. When I make a card with someone in mind, I think of their personality, characteristics, favorites and try to translate at least some of those qualities into their card. The cards in my shop are often a reflection of someone I was thinking about that day. Other places I get inspiration from are various blogs, magazines and from the paper itself.

5. Name one favorite item from your store.

Set of 3 Thanksgiving Cards I absolutely LOVE the paper for these cards - it was only in the store for a couple weeks before it sold out and I was able to snag a few pieces and saved them for this season. I can't find it anywhere else but it is gorgeous - perfect autumn colors with a sort of metallic finish and beautiful subtle patterns.