These Girls are Card Makers

Name and age:  Jill Kellett, 14 and Katie Litchfield, 13

Accomplishment:  Using their creative talents, Jill Kellett and Katie Litchfield started a business making handmade cards for all occasions about three years ago.

Litchfield grew up exposed to art.  She took painting lessons and learned to paint beautiful life-like landscapes.

“Then I started making cards with my mom’s stamping supplies,” Litchfield said.

Kellett did not have formal lessons, but she also was exposed to art early on.

“My dad likes to draw and paint," Kellett said. " When I was little, I would look at a picture and paint it myself."

One day, while visiting Litchfield, Kellett noticed the beautiful cards her friend had made and joined in.  After hours of stamping and having fun, the girls decided to sell their creations.  They took photos of their cards and with the help of Kellett’s mom started a website (www.jkcardsonline.weebly.com). 

Before long, through word of mouth and displaying their cards at events in town, their business began taking off as orders started pouring in.

Key to Awesomeness:

Some of their ideas come from catalogs and online sources.

“We mainly look at other cards for technique,"Kellett said," but we come up with our own designs."

Lately, their cards have become less youthful with the addition of more details.

To give the card a water color look, they use a special paintbrush that is filled with ink squeezed out from the ink pad and a little water to paint the stamped design.

They also punch out stamped pictures to form a 3D effect and use glitter, threads, ribbons and dimensional pieces like buttons and gems.

“A lot of our techniques take longer so our cards look more unique and different,” Litchfield said.

The girls cards are growing with them.

As part of giving back to the community, JK Cards gives a percentage of the sale of specially designed animal cards to Baypath Humane Society of Hopkinton.

Congratulations from Hopkinton Patch for being this week’s Whiz Kid.  To nominate a kid, email faith594@msn.com.