The Creative Jugglejoy Podcast

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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. 

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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 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Send us your feedback

What happens when artwork you created yourself is suddenly labelled as AI?

In this episode, Kaylie and Delores explore the increasingly complicated difference between AI-generated and AI-assisted creative work. 

They discuss reports of Instagram adding AI information labels to content edited with Canva’s background remover, why a single label can misrepresent hours of genuine creative work, and the effect that misunderstanding can have on an artist’s reputation.

They also have an honest conversation about where they personally draw the line with generative AI. 

Is using an AI-generated image for a temporary marketing graphic different from selling generated artwork as your own? 

Does every use need to be disclosed? 

And how can small creative businesses make practical choices without dismissing the genuine concerns surrounding consent, copyright, creative jobs and trust?

Kaylie and Delores also explore why visibly human design—complete with wobbly lines, handmade marks and imperfect details—may become even more valuable as generated content becomes easier to produce.

In this episode:

• The difference between AI-generated and AI-assisted work
• Why Instagram’s AI labels can mislead customers
• How Canva’s automated tools may trigger AI information labels
• The difference between creative authorship and automated editing
• Using generated imagery for marketing versus products for sale
• The pressure placed on solo creative business owners
• Why context, transparency and kindness matter
• Etsy’s evolving approach to originality, digital products and AI
• Why handmade and visibly human design may become more valuable
• Practical ways artists can share their process without constantly defending themselves

This is not an episode about choosing a side and shouting at everyone on the other one. 

It is an honest, nuanced conversation about creativity, technology, trust and the human beings trying to navigate the messy space between them.

Listen now, share the episode with another artist, maker, author or creative business owner, and let us know where you draw the line between AI assistance and AI generation.

Support the Creative Juggle Joy Podcast

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 if the creative experiments that didn’t become your forever business were never wasted?

In this episode of The Creative Juggle Joy, Delores talks with artist and surface pattern designer Katie McEachern about the winding path that took her from running a successful Etsy shop to pursuing a focused career in art licensing.

Katie shares how her early handmade business helped her rediscover her identity after becoming a mother and taught her entrepreneurship through hands-on experience. 

She also discusses working in product development, creating a portfolio of work that belonged to her, experimenting with print-on-demand and Spoonflower, and eventually securing her first fabric licensing contract with Figo Fabrics.

The conversation also explores the personal side of creative work, including grief, changing energy levels and learning to build a business that can evolve alongside your life.

If you’re an artist, handmade seller or digital creator who feels as though everyone else has their career mapped out, Katie’s story is a thoughtful reminder that clarity often comes from trying, learning and following the clues along the way.

Listen to the episode and follow The Creative Juggle Joy for more honest conversations about building a creative business around real life.

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

Running a creative business often looks beautifully polished from the outside. 

A new class appears, a newsletter lands in your inbox, a product launches or a finished collection is shared—but what about all the thinking, practising, planning and problem-solving that happened behind the scenes?

In this reflective solo episode, Delores shares what returning from a family camping holiday taught her about rest, creativity and the invisible work that keeps a creative business moving. 

From practising hand lettering beside the lake to reconsidering ideas for her upcoming Five Card Challenge, she explores why unfinished projects, changed plans and quiet thinking time are never truly wasted.

In this episode, Delores talks about:

•  Why creating without a commercial purpose still matters 
•  The hidden preparation involved in taking time away from a creative business 
•  What working with a creative team actually looks like 
•  Why successful businesses aren’t perfectly organised every day 
•  How stepping away can help you ask better questions 
•  Why abandoned ideas and unfinished work still have value 
•  The relationship between rest, clarity and creativity 
•  Building a business around real life—not the other way around 

If you’ve been measuring your creativity only by what you finish, publish or sell, this episode is a gentle reminder to recognise all the valuable work nobody else sees.

 Listen to the episode, share it with a creative friend who might need the reminder and support. 

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