Gillian Outerbridge thought making a few photographic cards at her dining table would be therapeutic.

To her surprise, a friend bought her entire first batch of 12, and then Brown & Co placed “a huge order”.

“I’d thought, ‘Oh yes, you know, I can do half a dozen in the evening.’ Now suddenly I've got over 100 to do. I'm thinking, ‘Oh gosh, I don't know if this is therapy or if it's torment,’” she laughed.

To keep pace, the 85-year-old arranged deliveries of card blanks from England — some coming by DHL and others travelling with her grandson.

She hopes the cards, each featuring one of her photographs, will be on the shelves at Brown & Co this month.

Ms Outerbridge began making notecards after retiring as administrator of St Peter’s Church in 2024.

Photography had been part of her life since childhood. In her working life as a journalist in Britain and Bermuda, and her later hospitality career, taking pictures had been part of the job.

Her first cards two years ago featured photographs she had taken here — sunsets, flowers and road signs.

The idea for her latest came while she was in England visiting her daughter.

While out walking, she spotted some card blanks — pre-scored, pre-folded pieces of heavy card ready to decorate. The cards had three panels and a window in the middle, designed to frame a photograph.

Card blanks, which are often sold with matching envelopes, can be printed, stamped or layered with decorative materials. Ms Outerbridge saw an opportunity to use them to present her photographs.

Back in Bermuda she began experimenting and then, spurred on by her friend’s interest, she began combing through the “huge store” she had amassed over 60-odd years as a professional photographer.

Her thought was that they could be useful to sell at upcoming pop-up shops but she decided to also try her luck at Brown & Co, where some of her original notecards had sold.

“To my delight, I got a huge order from them,” she said.

The department store buyer chose 11 images, mainly Bermuda scenes. Among them are two pictures of fitted dinghy racing in St George’s — one in black and white, the other digitally altered in colour to resemble an old photograph.

There is also a black-and-white view of Carter House in St David’s and an unusual photograph of an old piece of Bermuda cedar.

Ms Outerbridge was particularly pleased that the buyer also chose one of her favourites, a digitally altered photograph of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Other images of hers will have to wait for the pop-up shops, once she has the supplies to make them.

Among them is a jug shaped like Desperate Dan, the character from an old British comic book, The Dandy. Ms Outerbridge captured the jug in a toy museum while travelling around England in a motorhome.

“He didn't pick that one,” she said of the buyer. “I'm not surprised because only British people [from] years ago would remember it.”

On the same trip, she visited the home of novelist Thomas Hardy. Although she enjoyed the house and its beautiful gardens, one of the smallest discoveries of the day ended up on a card.

“I looked in through the window of a potting shed and there were these chicks. They were knitted chickens and they looked so cute. They were sitting among the bits of pots and timber and so forth,” she said.

“I kind of assume that it's something that will pique someone’s interest and they send it to a friend as a kind of joke: ‘Hi, how are you? Why don’t you come over to supper for some roast chicken?’ I hope people will just take them as fun cards.”

A small stone angel lying in the grass in her own garden became another photograph. Ms Outerbridge finds it atmospheric, although she accepts that an apparently abandoned angel might not be everybody’s choice.

“Now, would anybody want to buy a card with that image on it? I think maybe the buyer at Brown & Co was right to turn that down.”

The workings of the St Peter’s Church clock and a tiny section of stained glass depicting a Bible are other possibilities.

Part of the pleasure is discovering which photographs appeal to other people.

“It's great fun for me because I go through all my years of travels and photographs and I get to print them and handle them,” she said.

“So I'm actually quite pleased that at my age, I'm 85 now, I'm still dabbling in photography and making myself useful.”