A Conversation with Ali from iDear Paper Goods

While cruising Ali from iDear's website for pics to include in this interview, I was struck with her comment that she is a "girl with a passion for paper, a love affair with words and an addicition to spending hours browsing through the stationery section in stores".  Oh and how it shows!  Having studied Creative Advertising, Ali has all of the necessary talents to turn her ideas into reality and indeed she has with a range of greeting cards and paper goods designed to make people smile with their quirkiness, funkiness and plain cuteness inspired, as Ali says, by puns, cliches, lame jokes, song lyrics and everyday conversations.

Come and meet Ali, she's a work at home parent and talented woman behind this collection of Paper goodness.  Mel :)

Who is iDear?

iDear, is a combination of my love for words (and playing with them) and my passion for all things paper.

What’s your “handmade groove ?”

Words. Usually ideas come to me in word form and I go from there, popping in a bit of photography and design.

What’s on your bedside table right now? (hey, no tidying up or censoring)

A lamp and a weeks worth of half-full water glasses.

Who are your creative role models? What music, books, images, poetry spark your creative fire?

I am inspired by things that make me smile and think “I wish I’d thought of that!”. Musically Kings of Leon, Florence and the Machine, The XX or anything summery, happy or in a language I can’t understand . As for reading, I love design, craft and wedding blogs, Frankie Magazine and the “Quit your day job” interviews on Etsy.

What could you talk late into the night about with like minded people?

iDear, - It’s my passion and hobby so I could talk and talk about it! My dad is into photography and woodwork and is in the process of starting up his own crafty business so we have very long phone calls talking about and brainstorming new ideas.

Advertising- I majored in advertising at Uni so I find myself constantly analyzing and critiquing ads and telling the people around me what I think of them. My favourite ad? The Mitre 10 roll call one in the classroom, “Bill, Bill Ding-Permit, I’ll be seeing you later”.

If you could go to three free workshops/creative events this year which ones would they be? What are they about?

I would love to learn how to bind books, get some tips on running a small business and have a few guitar lessons.

How do you balance your creative life with your family, life commitments?

I’m still working on getting the balance right, I tend to get excited about new projects and work all night on them. During the day I try to limit the designing of my cards to my little boy’s sleep times. Also, I find letting my mind wander while feeding him can be quite productive in coming up with new ideas. At night I’ve started turning my computer off at around five to make sure I have time with my partner.

What is your favourite creative screw-up?

I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to anything creative and often tweak things so much they end up completely different to what I imagined. Sometimes its better and sometimes I have to click “undo” a few times.

Kitchen table or studio?

Neither. Ideas usually come to me while I’m out and about (or in the shower which is weird) and I usually do the designing of them on the coffee table while sitting on the couch (it’s much more comfy than the chairs in the dining room). I’d love to have a studio one day though and be able to surround myself with inspiration.

Do you have a wish list? Can you tell us what’s on it?

I sure do! On my felt wish list are Magnetic Lovebirds wall art by HRJD design, a gorgeous bright apron from polka dot daze, a pack of small bunting flag stickers from Elijah’s Mum and some nice bright recycled wrapping paper from Wrapt. I’ve also just bought an antique spoon from Black Swan that has “Wanna Spoon?” on it. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it yet, it was just one of those “wish I’d thought of this” things!



You can see more of Ali's work here, and here, and read her blog here :)

 

Mel