The Creative Jugglejoy Podcast

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Someone discovers your artwork, loves what they see, clicks through… and then what?

Can they find the product? Explore your portfolio? Ask about licensing? And if they’re interested but not ready to buy, can they hear from you again?

In this solo episode of Creative Juggle Joy, Kaylie Edwards looks at what it means to build a connected art business, where your platforms support one another and people can find their next step.

Drawing on her experience of running a handmade candle business when COVID disrupted in-person craft fairs, Kaylie explains why having several accounts isn’t the same as having those accounts work together.

We explore four stages of a creative business customer journey: find, trust, buy and reconnect.

You’ll hear:

• How to spot missing connections between your social accounts, shop, portfolio and email list.
• What a simple home base needs, without turning it into a huge website project.
• Which details help product buyers and potential licensing clients feel confident.
• Why a specific product deserves a specific destination.
• How a visible sign-up form, a clear reason to subscribe and one welcome email can help you begin reconnecting.
• Five questions for a practical 10-minute connection check.

Kaylie also introduces the Connected Art Business Sprint, a browser-based interactive tool with guided steps, checklists, downloadable resources and optional AI prompts.

Put the kettle on and have a listen. You don’t need to fix everything at once. Start with one missing connection.

Explore the Connected Art Business Sprint: [Link to be added]

Support the show

 Don't miss an episode—subscribe to The Creative JuggleJoy Podcast! Follow us on social media and join our email lists for more tips, stories, and updates on new episodes.

Kaylie Edwards - Instagram  - Website - Facebook - Threads

• Spellweaver Creative Hub Membership
• Free Email List Builder Checklist For Creatives

Delores Naskrent - Website & Digital Art School - Instagram - Facebook - Pinterest - Youtube

• Procreate Foundations Course
• Affinity Foundations Course

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What happens when the creative business you wanted starts leaving you less time to create?

In this episode of Creative Juggle Joy, Kaylie Edwards chats with Katie Leamon, founder and creative director of the family-run luxury stationery brand bearing her name.

Founded in 2010, Katie’s business produces greeting cards, notebooks and gift wrap for independent retailers worldwide. But behind the beautiful paper goods are plenty of experiments, unexpected opportunities and decisions about what sustainable growth actually looks like.

Katie shares the story of arriving before dawn for a Liberty buyer open call, learning wholesale as her first major stockists came on board, and eventually recognising that a larger team wasn’t giving her the working life she wanted.

We also talk about raising children alongside a creative business, maintaining customer relationships as buying moves online, and making something simply because you want to.

You’ll hear about:

• Why wholesale pricing needs room for the retailer’s margin.
• What Katie would ask before agreeing to supply a large store.
• How her business moved from printing to order towards holding smaller amounts of stock.
• Why retail buyers and individual customers need different marketing.
• How Katie develops coordinated collections from sketchbook ideas.
• The difference between designing commercially and keeping space for creative play.
• Exploring licensing without taking on every aspect of manufacturing a new product.

If you’re an artist, illustrator or maker wondering how to grow without building a business that takes over your life, listen in.

Find Katie Leamon:

Website: katieleamon.com
Instagram: @katieleamon

Support the show

 Don't miss an episode—subscribe to The Creative JuggleJoy Podcast! Follow us on social media and join our email lists for more tips, stories, and updates on new episodes.

Kaylie Edwards - Instagram  - Website - Facebook - Threads

• Spellweaver Creative Hub Membership
• Free Email List Builder Checklist For Creatives

Delores Naskrent - Website & Digital Art School - Instagram - Facebook - Pinterest - Youtube

• Procreate Foundations Course
• Affinity Foundations Course

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What happens when the creative business you wanted starts leaving you with very little time to create?

In this episode of Creative Juggle Joy, Delores Naskrent talks with Amanda “Mandy” Corcoran, the artist and educator behind Amanda Grace Design and Creative Systems Lab, about the business tasks that quietly take over an artist’s day.

With a background in programming, technology education and surface pattern design, Mandy brings a practical perspective to using AI for organisation, marketing and understanding your business. 

Her teaching has a clear boundary: she uses these tools to support the business around her artwork, rather than to generate the artwork itself.

Mandy shares how a growing licensing and teaching business left her struggling to make new work, and why better systems helped her reconsider where her time, money and attention were going.

We talk about:

• Why booking a drawing day does not always leave you with the energy to draw.
• Using AI to help organise licensing pitches, research and follow-ups.
• Getting support with product descriptions, costs and business reports.
• Spotting subscriptions and activities that take more than they give back.
• Starting with one repetitive task instead of rebuilding your whole business.
• Learning through Creative Systems Lab, including the two introductory sessions Mandy describes as free.

Delores also shares how talking through her scattered ideas helped her see the bigger picture in her own business.

If you want more room for your artwork, this conversation offers a thoughtful place to begin.

A clarification on privacy: Turning off model training is different from keeping information solely on your computer. Check the provider’s current data policies before uploading sensitive material. Anthropic explains these distinctions in its privacy settings and data retention guidance. Anthropic Privacy Center

Meet Mandy and explore her resources:

• Amanda Grace Design
• Creative Systems Lab
• Free introductory sessions: see Creative Systems Lab; can be found here
• Free seamless pattern tester
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Mandy’s 3,2,1…Let’s Design eduletter newsletter: can be found under her free resources here

Support the show

 Don't miss an episode—subscribe to The Creative JuggleJoy Podcast! Follow us on social media and join our email lists for more tips, stories, and updates on new episodes.

Kaylie Edwards - Instagram  - Website - Facebook - Threads

• Spellweaver Creative Hub Membership
• Free Email List Builder Checklist For Creatives

Delores Naskrent - Website & Digital Art School - Instagram - Facebook - Pinterest - Youtube

• Procreate Foundations Course
• Affinity Foundations Course

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What could the artwork sitting in your files become if you gave it another look?

In this solo episode of Creative Juggle Joy, Delores Naskrent reflects on selling around 70,000 printed greeting cards through Card Isle, with approximately 600 designs uploaded and another 200 potential card artworks waiting in her files.

What began with artwork sold at craft shows gradually became a substantial body of work. 

Now, as Delores edits her portfolio and prepares to approach art licensing agents again, she’s seeing those cards as more than individual products. 

They’re a record of what customers connected with, what she’s learned, and which ideas still have room to grow.

Together, we explore:

• How one artwork can become several cards, coordinating designs or a repeat pattern.
• Why the recipient and sentiment matter more than technical complexity.
• What sales figures can teach you, while remembering that each marketplace is different.
• How reusable motifs, layouts and backgrounds reduce the work of starting again.
• Why finishing, organising and uploading deserve space in your creative practice.
• How to select work for a portfolio rather than include everything you’ve made.

Delores also shares an honest reminder: selling thousands of cards doesn’t mean having every system sorted or every file finished.

Listen for practical encouragement to revisit one piece of your own artwork and ask where it could go next.

Resources mentioned

• Card Isle: The platform through which Delores reports selling around 70,000 printed cards. 
• Delores’s Five Cards in Five Days challenges: Referenced as a starting point for developing artwork beyond the initial five cards. 

Support the show

 Don't miss an episode—subscribe to The Creative JuggleJoy Podcast! Follow us on social media and join our email lists for more tips, stories, and updates on new episodes.

Kaylie Edwards - Instagram  - Website - Facebook - Threads

• Spellweaver Creative Hub Membership
• Free Email List Builder Checklist For Creatives

Delores Naskrent - Website & Digital Art School - Instagram - Facebook - Pinterest - Youtube

• Procreate Foundations Course
• Affinity Foundations Course

Send us your feedback

What happens when people aren’t buying your artwork, but they would happily learn how to make it?

For Kirsten Burke and the team at The Modern Calligraphy Co., listening to that possibility helped their business grow beyond commissions into workshops, books, an online club and live personalisation experiences for brands.

In this episode, Kaylie Edwards meets Kirsten, the company’s co-founder and creative director, and lead creative Maisie Minett. 

Together, they share the real story behind that growth, from handwritten blackboard menus and an early Globe Theatre commission to online teaching and working with Jo Malone London.

There are honest moments about motherhood, finding the right people for your team, learning to work while someone watches, and the unexpected friendships that can grow from a creative class.

We explore:

• How listening to customers helped shape new offers.
• Why ideas can move between brand projects, club sessions and workshops.
• What happens behind the scenes before a live calligraphy event.
• How supportive feedback and clear standards work together.
• Why completing a course doesn’t automatically mean someone is ready for professional event work.
• How community, flexibility and small pockets of creativity help keep the work enjoyable.

Whether you’re a calligrapher, artist, maker or creative business owner, join us for a thoughtful conversation about adapting your business while keeping the people and creativity at its heart.

Meet Kirsten and Maisie

• The Modern Calligraphy Co.
• The Modern Calligraphy Club
• Instagram: @themoderncalligraphyco

Support the show

 Don't miss an episode—subscribe to The Creative JuggleJoy Podcast! Follow us on social media and join our email lists for more tips, stories, and updates on new episodes.

Kaylie Edwards - Instagram  - Website - Facebook - Threads

• Spellweaver Creative Hub Membership
• Free Email List Builder Checklist For Creatives

Delores Naskrent - Website & Digital Art School - Instagram - Facebook - Pinterest - Youtube

• Procreate Foundations Course
• Affinity Foundations Course

Send us your feedback

What happens when the job you’ve built your life around ends, and the art you’ve been fitting into the gaps suddenly has room to take centre stage?

In Episode 111 of Creative Juggle Joy, Delores Naskrent catches up with artist, illustrator and author Kay Meadows, whom she first met in 2022.

After roughly 30 years working in graphic design, Kay’s remote job ended. The change was both unsettling and exciting, prompting her to think more intentionally about building a working life around her art.

Kay shares how painting, children’s book illustration, writing, teaching and commissions are beginning to connect. 

They also explore the value of creative community, the vulnerability of exhibiting your work, and why starting something new doesn’t mean starting from zero.

In this conversation:

• How Kay’s design experience supports her painting, illustration and book production.
• What plein air painting has taught her about responding to a subject and making decisions.
• Why exhibitions and competitions have helped her connect with other artists.
• How teaching reveals what you already know and helps you understand your process.
• Making room for several creative interests while choosing which opportunities to accept.
• Developing The Pilgrimage, a painting series inspired by her trip to Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.

If you’re wondering whether there’s still time to take your art seriously, or how your different interests could fit together, come and listen to Kay’s thoughtful, honest account of a creative career still taking shape.

Resources mentioned

• Kay Meadows’s art, illustration and website: https://kaymeadows.com/
• Kay's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaymeadowsartandillustration/
• Children’s books illustrated and written by Kay: https://kaymeadows.com/product-category/illustrated-books/childrens-books-illustrated-books
• The Pilgrimage painting series - yet to be published
• Ghost Ranch, New Mexico
• Georgia O’Keeffe: Mentioned in connection with Kay’s Ghost Ranch visit. 

Support the show

 Don't miss an episode—subscribe to The Creative JuggleJoy Podcast! Follow us on social media and join our email lists for more tips, stories, and updates on new episodes.

Kaylie Edwards - Instagram  - Website - Facebook - Threads

• Spellweaver Creative Hub Membership
• Free Email List Builder Checklist For Creatives

Delores Naskrent - Website & Digital Art School - Instagram - Facebook - Pinterest - Youtube

• Procreate Foundations Course
• Affinity Foundations Course

Send us your feedback

Etsy has a new CEO, its marketplace is growing again, and the company is putting more attention into how shoppers discover products. 

If you sell there, how much of that should change what you do this week?

In this solo episode, Kaylie Edwards looks at Etsy’s 2026 results and translates the company’s talk of discovery, matching and personalisation into useful checks for creative sellers. 

She also talks through the limits of marketplace figures: growth across Etsy does not promise growth for your particular shop.

You’ll hear about:

•  What Etsy’s latest marketplace and mobile app figures actually measure 
•  Why clear titles and tags still matter alongside photographs and the rest of your listing 
•  A quick way to check how your shop looks to someone buying on a phone 
•  How to approach Etsy Ads as a measured test 
•  One small step you can take towards a business that is less dependent on Etsy alone 

There’s a 20-minute shop check you can do after listening. No full-shop overhaul required.

Mentioned in this episode

• Etsy’s Q2 2026 shareholder letter
• Etsy’s search, advertisement and recommendation ranking disclosures
• Kaylie’s guide to growing your email list

If the podcast helps you make sense of your creative business, you can support the show here.

Support the show

 Don't miss an episode—subscribe to The Creative JuggleJoy Podcast! Follow us on social media and join our email lists for more tips, stories, and updates on new episodes.

Kaylie Edwards - Instagram  - Website - Facebook - Threads

• Spellweaver Creative Hub Membership
• Free Email List Builder Checklist For Creatives

Delores Naskrent - Website & Digital Art School - Instagram - Facebook - Pinterest - Youtube

• Procreate Foundations Course
• Affinity Foundations Course

Send us your feedback

What would you do if you had 19 greeting card designs to finish—and less than 48 hours before the deadline?

When an email from Claudia Orengo landed in Delores Naskrent’s inbox with the subject line “I designed 19 cards in two days,” Delores knew there was a much bigger creative-business conversation waiting to happen.

Claudia is a graphic designer, watercolor artist, educator and online entrepreneur behind Heartmade and the Passive Income Growth Academy. She creates digital products and sells her work through platforms including Minted, Spoonflower, Patternbank and Zazzle.

In this episode, Claudia explains how she approached her unusually tight Minted deadline without expecting every card to become an elaborate masterpiece. 

She chose the tool that matched the time available, brainstormed before opening Procreate, worked in topic batches and reused existing artwork when her energy dropped.

Claudia is also very clear that she does not recommend creating 19 cards in two days as a normal working routine. The value lies in the decisions she made—not in turning an extreme deadline into a new productivity standard.

If you have a folder filled with patterns, paintings, illustrations or lettering but are unsure what to do with it, this conversation will encourage you to choose one manageable experiment and finish it.

Ready to try greeting card design for yourself? Join Delores’s free 5 Cards in 5 Days Challenge.

Listen to the full conversation and discover what can happen when you stop waiting to feel completely ready and take the next practical step instead.

Guest Links:
Website: https://www.heartmade.es 

Free Quiz: https://www.heartmade.es/quiz

Passive Income Growth Academy (PIGA membership): https://www.heartmade.es/piga

Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Heartmadedesign/videos

IG: instagram.com/byheartmade

Support the show

 Don't miss an episode—subscribe to The Creative JuggleJoy Podcast! Follow us on social media and join our email lists for more tips, stories, and updates on new episodes.

Kaylie Edwards - Instagram  - Website - Facebook - Threads

• Spellweaver Creative Hub Membership
• Free Email List Builder Checklist For Creatives

Delores Naskrent - Website & Digital Art School - Instagram - Facebook - Pinterest - Youtube

• Procreate Foundations Course
• Affinity Foundations Course

Send us your feedback

Could one 5 × 7 greeting card become your first step into commercial art?

In this solo episode, Delores Naskrent reflects on why greeting cards are such an approachable starting point for artists who want to think more commercially. 

A card gives you helpful boundaries: a recipient, an occasion, an emotion and a purpose. From there, one design can grow into a catalogue, a collection or even a licensing opportunity.

Delores shares lessons from her own years of selling cards at in-person markets, wholesaling to Canadian gift shops, licensing artwork through Russ, and selling tens of thousands of cards through Card Isle. 

She also shares encouraging examples from her artist community—including one student who sold 22,000 greeting cards in a single December after years of seeing little momentum elsewhere.

In this episode:

•           Why greeting cards can make commercial art feel more manageable

•           How occasions, recipients and emotions help guide a design

•           Why a disappointing marketplace result does not automatically mean your artwork is the problem

•           How one card can develop into coordinating cards, patterns, giftware or a collection

•           Why catalogues, experimentation and persistence matter more than waiting for one perfect design

•           How creative communities help artists find opportunities and learn through the messy middle

•           What Delores has learned from Card Isle, Greeting Card Universe and the new Giftettes marketplace

You do not need to feel like a professional greeting card designer before you begin. Start with card number one, learn what it teaches you, and decide what comes next.

Delores’s Five Cards in Five Days Challenge begins 21 September 2026:

https://deloresart-canada.kit.com/bf0739e10c 

Support the show

 Don't miss an episode—subscribe to The Creative JuggleJoy Podcast! Follow us on social media and join our email lists for more tips, stories, and updates on new episodes.

Kaylie Edwards - Instagram  - Website - Facebook - Threads

• Spellweaver Creative Hub Membership
• Free Email List Builder Checklist For Creatives

Delores Naskrent - Website & Digital Art School - Instagram - Facebook - Pinterest - Youtube

• Procreate Foundations Course
• Affinity Foundations Course

Send us your feedback

AI can save creative business owners time—but what happens when it begins replacing the creativity customers believe they are buying?

In this solo episode, Kaylie shares how her relationship with AI has changed since generative tools first became widely available. 

What began as curiosity and excitement has become a much more complicated mix of practical support, ethical questions and genuine frustration.

Kaylie explores the difference between using AI to reduce repetitive business tasks and using it to generate the artwork, products or creative identity at the centre of a business. 

She also discusses the flood of AI-generated colouring books, clip art, videos and other products appearing across creative marketplaces—and why context, transparency and creative authorship matter.

In this episode:

•  Why the novelty of generative AI has worn off for Kaylie 
•  How mass-produced AI content affects artists, makers and illustrators 
•  The difference between AI-assisted business tasks and AI-generated creative products 
•  Why solo business owners and large companies cannot always be judged in the same way 
•  How Kaylie currently uses AI for planning, automation, writing support and repetitive tasks 
•  The questions she asks before using AI within her own creative process 
•  Why human imperfections, decisions and developing skills still hold value 
•  How creatives can establish personal AI boundaries without choosing an extreme position 

This is not an episode telling you which side to choose. 

It is an honest conversation about changing your mind, questioning your tools and protecting the part of your creative work that can only come from you.

Listen, reflect and share the episode with another artist, handmade seller or digital creator navigating their own relationship with AI.

Support the show

 Don't miss an episode—subscribe to The Creative JuggleJoy Podcast! Follow us on social media and join our email lists for more tips, stories, and updates on new episodes.

Kaylie Edwards - Instagram  - Website - Facebook - Threads

• Spellweaver Creative Hub Membership
• Free Email List Builder Checklist For Creatives

Delores Naskrent - Website & Digital Art School - Instagram - Facebook - Pinterest - Youtube

• Procreate Foundations Course
• Affinity Foundations Course