About

About the Cards

Well, hey there! My name is Susan Milligan from Sedona, Arizona and I am a part-time greeting card maker. 

I've been creating handmade greeting cards since 2000 and have made hundreds. When I started, my goal was to try at least one new technique every weekend, and once I found something I liked, I made quite a few. 

If you like a card in my store, get it while it is available. My greeting cards are created as one-of-a kind artwork. 

All of my cards are in some way hand-assembled, hand-painted and/or hand-inked by me. I often purchase line art from other companies. You won't find perfection in my cards as you might in a commercially-printed greeting card, but you will find a piece of art that I put my heart, soul, imagination and good vibes into and you are supporting a small, new business. If you like that sort of thing, then Ahhh Designs greeting cards are for you!

A wholesale program for brick-and-mortar stores will be available in November-December 2023. Join my email list (at the bottom of the page), and let me know you are interested.

About the Company

"Ahhh" has become a brand name for me over the years in other entrepreneurial endeavors, so it only made sense to name my new greeting card store Ahhh Designs LLC. 

Pronounce it as it is spelled but slooooowly with the tone and feeling of peace, tranquility, and contentment. Ahhh

 

About Me

I work full-time as a content manager for an online event production/management/marketing company and love my job! Everyone is awesome to work with and I get to use my right brain quite a bit while working in the marketing department. But when I'm not at work you'll generally find me at my standup desk, making cards in the evenings and on weekends. 

Making greeting cards and challenging myself to step outside my comfort zone with a new technique is my therapy and gives me peace of mind. I love BEing in the creative zone. If you know, you know. 😃  It is rare for me to "plan out" a card and then make it. I make it as I go using the intuitive process. I never know how it will end up looking, and that is fun for me!

An interesting twist to my cardmaking is that I'm also a certified life coach and work with clients in the practice of changing their thoughts to change their life and use a protocol that shows them exactly how their thoughts have created where they are now. And I'm about two hours of classwork away from finishing my therapeutic art certification. 🎉

Making greeting cards is just my latest artsy endeavor. I love the creative process and started out making ceramics in the early 1980s. Moved on to tole painting with acrylics. Then followed the infamous Bob Ross and created many oil paintings in the 1990s. Landed in the costume jewelry-making business after that and did that for nine years with my jewelry in Ohio and Florida retail shops. With all of that said, the digital world hooked me in 1998. I "had" to get involved in web graphic design and website design. I even quit my good corporate job to do web/graphic design full time. It just felt right, and it was. 

Fast forward to 2020, and I started dabbling in watercolors, gel printing, inking, alcohol markers, sketching, and here I am today creating greeting cards. I have my own line of designs coming in 2024 that I'm really, really excited about. 

Here is a list of education you might find interesting or possibly have similar skillsets. If so, reach out! Let's be friends. 😁 I love connecting to people with similar interests.

• Certified Life Coach
• Certified Eating Psychology Educator
• Certified Functional Medicine Health Coach
• Bachelor's Metaphysical Science
• Ordained Metaphysical Minister
• Masters in Metaphysical Science (only need to write my thesis - that little ole thing)
• Doctoral Candidate in Metaphysical Psychology (only need to write my dissertation - ha)
• Certified Lifestyle Habits Coach and Business Leader (for nearly 15 years - now retired)
• Certified Therapeutic Art Educator (less than two hours from finishing - yay!)
• Published book author and course developer, "BEing Spiritually Intelligent"
• Course developer, "Making Peace with You, Life and Food"
• Former podcaster
• Literally thousands of hours of personal development, spirituality, leadership, business, and marketing courses, workshops, and conferences (IRL and online) with no certification papers and all since the early 1980s

As you can see I love to learn and challenge myself to step outside my comfort zone. I love meeting new people who are authentic, approachable, think from different perspectives and make me laugh. 

Other things I love to do are entertain friends, hike the red rocks where I live with my husband, meditate, and play with our dogs, Emma May (Cairn Terrier, 7yo) and Jimmy Jack (Goldendoodle, 10 months).

If you have made it this far and still reading this page, reach out and say something that will make me giggle. That would be ahhhsome!