If you'd like to see some higher resolution photos of some sample cards, check out our handsoncards Flickr page. Or you can view a slideshow of all the photos.

In addition to Flickr, we also joined Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed. If you use any of these social networking sites, please follow us, become a fan , or subscribe.

We received an order from New Hampshire this morning. In the PayPal note, our customer kindly noted that New Hampshire doesn't charge sales tax. I had set up our store to charge a flat 7.75% California sales tax on all orders based upon my interpretation of this state publication, Are Your Internet Sales Taxable?. But after further research, I realized I only need to charge sales tax to customers in California. So I have now fixed this-- now only orders shipped to California addresses will be charged sales tax. All other orders won't include sales tax. If you have any problems, please let me know.

FREE SHIPPING!!! We are offering free shipping on all orders until January 31st. Just enter the code "FREESHIP" in the coupon box at checkout. Get some Valentine's Day cards early! =)

It's kind of fun to get business cards-- especially when it's your own business, and you get to make them yourself. I got some blank Avery business cards from Office Depot, laid out the design using Scribus, and printed them using our Xerox Phaser printer. What do you think? If you see me or Angela, we'll give you one.

We're now open for business! Feel free to purchase lots of cards! Honestly, I think the cards look pretty good. My mom says that the actual cards look better than the website pictures. So... there you go... testimony from a biased source.

So here I finally am, after much prompting and prodding from my husband Eliot. I have dug my heels and resisted long enough. I do have to say it's a bit intimidating for me to either write or draw knowing that many or anyone can see! Not to say that I do not enjoy it, on the contrary! But I usually write/draw for a person, or more "privately." So through this adventure I have learned and continue to learn to draw/create more openly, realizing that anyone can see and critique my work.

I am the "artist" behind the cards," if i can so call myself that. So I'd like to introduce myself to those who do not know me, and for those who do can smile and say, "yep, that's Angela!" As Eliot had written in the "about us" page, I have gladly yet admittedly hesitantly embraced this new adventure of the card business. Again more because I am shy/embarrassed about my work I know I have to learn to be able to work more regularly/consistently on creating the cards. Typically when I have made cards for friends/family it has been more "random" in the sense that I usually rely upon some kind of "inspiration" or internal "bell" if you will to go off. My drawings are not so much a process in that I see it coming together in stages but rather it just comes and I see it, the big picture in my mind and I draw in hopes of creating what I have envisioned. Usually these pictures come on not so scheduled times which I know must somewhat frustrate my husband who says, "is it time to draw yet?!' (hahaha) I must patiently wait until finally "aha!"

I hope to continue to blog my journey along with my husband as we learn about business and working together. I like to tell Eliot that i am only the artist!

Most of the cards for our first print runs were for my mom's Christmas cards. I got everything printed out OK and was all set to hand deliver them to her when we drove up on Monday. But I forgot them at home on my couch! This is not the best way to start out a business! Thankfully, my mom was gracious. She said I could go ahead and send them out after Angela and I arrived home today. So if you got a late Christmas card from my parents, it was my fault that it was late. Sorry about that. I would give the cards to my mom for free, but I think she wants to pay me and support the business. If anyone you decide to order cards from us, I will be sure not to make the same mistake twice. (Though, I don't expect be hand-delivering most orders.)

Here is the inaugural post for our HandsOnCards.com blog! We got the website up a few days ago and now the blog is up and running as well. We're not open for business yet-- we hope to open our figurative doors in a couple weeks. We've been busy though... Angela has been busy drawing card designs. And we are making a number of test runs with the printer. I've opened a new bank account, and we just got our California Seller's Permit today! In the next few days I'll submit the applications for our city business license and ficticious business name and I'll set up PayPal with our shopping cart software and run tests. Of course, there is a lot more I need to do with the website, both with the content and the technical details. And we need to work on some marketing ideas to spread the word. So if you like what you see, pass the word along! There's a lot of work to do, but it's been fun so far. As always, we welcome any ideas or feedback-- leave a comment below or send an email using the contact page. Thanks for reading!