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In Conversation With…ROSIE MADE A THING
Above: Rosie’s humour begins with gin!
GIN AND FROLICKING Not many newbie publishers hit on a classic from the off, but that’s just what Rosie Made A Thing managed, thanks to founder Rosie Harrison’s original Doodles drawings. Having launched the black and white humorous card range at Spring Fair in 2015, the immediate feedback from one of her first customers at the show – the Fenwicks’ buyer – was that it just needed colour. Rosie organised herself an Adobe teaching session to learn how to colour in her designs, slung in a name change to Gin & Frolics after the caption on one of her first cards, and the rest, as they say, is history. Rosie, who revels in her head of nonsense title, is quite rightly keen to celebrate a decade of Rosie Made A Thing with her 16strong all-female team, longstanding band of sales agents, overseas distributors and the company’s many retail customers. “It all began with a Save The Date card I designed for my wedding in 2014 which became one of my first card designs,” Rosie explained. “It’s a couple of characters holding hands, and says ‘let's hold hands and have an adventure’.” The greeting card royalty came into the story even earlier as Rosie used to work for the Lawn Tennis Association before retraining as a PE teacher in London where she taught Caroline Gardner’s daughter Flora. Then, when she and husband Tim had their first child it was time to move out of the capital and back to their roots in Leicestershire, where she “happily bumbled along” helping her 44 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
own mum in a concession in an antiques shop and started selling her cards. Rosie laughed: “They were obviously handmade. I used to actually sew little rabbit creatures in big embroidered pictures. I then photographed those and put them on cards. and I also did black and white hand drawings so, when I did my first show, there were two very different ranges. “I’m friends with Anna Danielle, who runs The Little Dog Laughed with her brothers Gavin and Nathan Smith – we were introduced through our husbands who were rugby players – and she said “if you want to do this properly, do a trade show, and we’ll do your fulfilment for you”, because they did their own.” Rosie is so grateful for the “ridiculous
Eight Henries awards, three Gift Of The Year awards, a Louie and a ‘must have’ range for retailers, Rosie Harrison has achieved a great deal in the first decade since she founded Rosie Made A Thing. PG found out how greeting card royalty, rugby, and needing a creative outlet with three young children in tow led to creating one of the industry’s best loved brands which is quite rightly making the most of celebrating its 10th anniversary year.
amount” of help The Little Dog Laughed trio gave her. “I had no computer skills, no Adobe skills or anything. I had to try to learn how to get these hand-drawn images on to a computer. At first, Anna would help me scan them in, clean them up and make them into cards.” Danielle gave up a huge amount of her time to help get Rosie’s first cards artworked, printed and ready for sale. “I’m pretty sure she even came up with the range name of Doodles and company logo at 2am about a week before my first Spring Fair! Anna and her brothers are absolute legends and I would never have dreamed of getting myself involved in any of this nonsense had it not been for their help,” revealed Rosie. Rosie got a few orders at that first show, met some sales agents and absolutely loved Above: The first stand in 2015 and Rosie with Jenny Cummins, of Aussie distributor McMillan Cards, at Spring Fair 2024. Above left: The save the date card that started it all and the longstanding top seller. Left: Industry pals Dom Early, Earlybird; Tim Gould, Objectables; Heidi Early, Earlybird; Marina Brook, Marina B; Chris Stanley, Redback Cards; Bex Hassett, Bexy Boo; Adam Short, Imaging Centre; and Suzie Simpkin, Marina B, help Rosie celebrate her eighth Henries Award in October.