If you follow The Amyverse on Instagram you’ll have seen that Monday the 17th June was Just A Card day! A day to celebrate small businesses.

Me and Sarah Hamilton enjoying a drink at the Just a Card meet up

The JUST A CARD campaign aims to encourage people to buy from Designer/Makers and Independent Galleries and Shops by reinforcing the message that all purchases, however small, even 'just a card' are so vital to the prosperity and survival of small businesses.

The campaign came about when Artist & Designer Sarah Hamilton saw the quote "If everyone who'd complimented our beautiful gallery had bought 'just a card' we'd still be open" by store keepers who'd recently closed their gallery. This prompted a call to action! Designer/Makers and independent shops and galleries need a voice.

For Just A Card day makers, artists, independents and small businesses across the UK celebrated by posting pictures wearing their Just A Card pins and sharing what the campaign meant to them. Running a small business is hard work, there is so much that goes on behind the scenes and it is great to have a community of people that understand the struggles and also who are their to celebrate the successes too!

Us starting to cause chaos with our excitement at London Bridge

I wanted to do something fun for my post on '#justacardday and so I did a Charleston dance holding my greeting cards. Click here to see the video. Fun fact about me, as well as being a calligrapher and illustrator I am also part of a Charleston dance troupe. I also wanted to share the happiness that comes from receiving an order which is often completely hidden from our customers. Every order whether it is one card or a suite of wedding stationery will be met with excitement, happiness and very often a little happy dance. Each order is the encouragement that we are doing the right thing, people like our work and it encourages us to keep going. It also means the mortgage and bills are paid and other boring adult things can be done. When you buy from The Amyverse, it is NEVER just a card.

On Wednesday 19th June there was a Just A Card meet up where myself and some lovely makers met up in London to celebrate the campaign with Funding Circle. I met my Instagram friend Lucy from Thread Friends at the event and it was lovely to finally meet her as we have been speaking for nearly a year through the campaign. Lucy is such a sweet heart and she gave me one of her ‘be cool shop small’ pins! You can buy one here

We were all an excited bunch as a new Just A Card campaign launched on the 17th June. Just A Card posters are currently displayed at 15 tube stations in London encouraging people to support artists, makers, designers, galleries, independent shops and book shops. Of course we couldn’t resist going down and seeing them and I even did my Charleston happy dance by the tube. If Sarah Hamilton asks you to Charleston, you just can’t say no!

I left the event feeling so inspired and ready to tackle the next challenge for The Amyverse…. Wedding season! Eeeek I have table plans and place cards coming out of my ears but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

I am so glad I found the Just A Card campaign and the friendships that I have formed throughout it. These people have been my cheerleaders and really helped me to get The Amyverse to where it is today.

Let’s support small and celebrate the people working their socks of to make beautiful things to make you smile!

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