Michelle Byrne

I have 50,000 cards sitting around me, so it's really great whenever people come over and they're like, oh, I forgot to get a card for my mom.

Can I just grab one?

I'm Michelle Byrne, and I'm the founder of Paper and Stuff.

So my mom is a fine artist, and she's always encouraged us to draw and create as kids, myself and my sister's.

And she just loves a greeting card and she loves a handwritten, a hand-drawn one more than anything.

It's just like a very normal thing in our family to do that for each other.

So I kind of started off hand-making them for friends and family.

And then I kind of put my design background to work and started doing it, I guess, a little bit more officially.

I was Googling craft fairs around New York and came across the National Stationery Show, naively thinking it was a small craft market.

After I had signed up and they let me know that I got in and started asking me for some official business details that I did not have yet, I decided to just go for it and figure it out as I went.

Yeah, it was kind of like it went from hobby to full-time wholesale real quick.

My brand and my cards are a reflection of me in that they are silly, yet they're sincere and caring.

Like, I can be sarcastic, I crack a lot of jokes, but I'm also like, I'm a cancer.

I'm emotional, I am super nostalgic.

And then, yeah, pairing it with my need for things to be on a beautiful grid, kind of like my office, which is super organized.

Don't you have like 20 cards to write by Friday?

One of my first cards ever says, I love you enough to build Ikea furniture with you.

And it is still a top seller because it really resonates with people.

So I think it got started probably for that exact reason.

Can I find something that speaks to my specific relationship?