A designer has built up her own cottage industry — with a range of one-off cards for special occasions.

Jennifer Cordeiro’s business has gone from strength to strength after she was encouraged to turn her photographs into notecards around seven years ago.

But she went one better and now creates carefully-crafted handmade cards for every occasion under the Scatti Studios banner.

Ms Cordeiro, a receptionist at the Endsmeet Animal Hospital in Devonshire, who graduated from Adelphi University in New York with a degree in theatre design, said: “I was looking for something creative to do in my spare time.

“I’ve been doing this since 2008 and I sell them here and have had them published in magazines in the US as well.”

Now she is working overtime to prepare cards for St Valentine’s Day this week.

Ms Cordeiro said: “I do a little bit of everything — birthday and thank you cards are the most popular.”

And she added she also caters for special requests — including unusual ones.

Ms Cordeiro said: “I’ve had some random special requests — like a wedding card where they wanted a beagle worked into it.

“Christmas is a busy time and with the Christmas ones especially, I try to make them Bermuda-ish or tropical.

“And I’ve been busy on St Valentine’s Day for the past few weeks — I try to do whatever the holiday coming up is. Christmas starts in July and August for me.”

She added that she drew her inspiration from Bermuda and from online communities specialising in card-making, where she picks up new techniques and enters competitions.

“You’re given a set of colours of a them and make a card following these guidelines,” she said.

“It’s interesting that cards follow trends in colour and fashion — if there is a popular colour or pattern, they tend to appear on cards as well.”

Ms Cordeiro said a typical card sells for $5 — in line with prices of mass-produced items.

She added: “I try and keep them reasonable because people are being careful with their money and I don’t want to make a ton of money out of it.”

Ms Cordeiro can be contacted through jenniferwills@blogspot.com.