Handmade cards and paper crafts are Charmalee Kulatunga’s forte. From delightful birthday cards to grand declarations of love on anniversary cards to photo albums and party loot bags, she applies her creativity and skills to create the perfect product for her customers. The owner of Paper Frills – a home-based business she started back in 2011 completely by chance, Charmalee says she’s come a long way in making these crafts. Currently, she is assisted by her family and close friends, when it comes to orders. 

Today, she speaks to us about Paper Frills on Life Online. 

What is Paper Frills? Can you tell me about it, and how you came about to starting it? 

Paper Frills is all about bringing joy to people through paper. We like to celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, and show gratitude and share happiness with our paper crafts. We make cards, albums, invitations, banners, party decorations, loot bags - basically anything to do with PAPER that help people look back and remember the wonderful time spent with each other. 

Paper Frills started off as a hobby. My grandfather was a printer so growing up paper was always in abundance at home. I would make cards for family and friends and eventually I had too many cards with me and I decided to sell them. Then my father decided to take them to his office and managed to sell all of them in one day. This was the very start of selling cards and I started a page for Paper Frills. We have grown to 7500 followers since. 

What products does Paper Frills primarily feature? 

Our market is unique. All of our clients go out of their way to make sure their loved ones get the BEST card they could. They fill this card with fond memories and things that bring happiness to their loved ones. We love to tell their stories and help them show their affection through our paper crafts. Our interactive cards make this easy. 

It’s more fun to make interactive cards. Cards that open up to a box (box in a card), card that tell a moving story (waterfall), cards that spin, flip and even slide are just a few that belong to our fun line of interactive cards. 

Customized products are something we love to do. We get to know the occasion and along with the customer, we create a gift that's memorable and wonderful for their loved one. Some of these are exploding paper boxes which hold a gift inside, themed albums and photo frames. You can visit our Facebook page or Instagram account for pictures. 

We also make invitations and party decorations for birthdays, engagement parties and small events. 

Are there any specifications that you look into, when making a card or craft? 

All of our cards are handmade and maintaining quality is our top most priority! We make all our paper crafts by hand and a lot of love and effort go into our final product. The cards are always very personal to us and our customers. We start with what the customer likes and create a design based on his or her requirements. The story behind the card is essential to our design. 

Did you always want to run a business of this nature, or did this happen completely by chance? 

Starting a business happened completely by chance. I was a final year student studying Finance in University when I started Paper Frills. For the past four years I have been balancing studies, work and Paper Frills all at the same time. It has been a wonderful experience as Paper Frills has kept me on my toes throughout. 

Do you run it single-handedly? 

Paper Frills started off with just me in 2011. Now it has grown to and extended family of creative friends. My family and my husband have always played a big part in helping me with Paper Frills. Now I have a wonderful team who are incredibly creative and love making cards as much as I do. 

How can customers place an order? And how soon can it be delivered to them? 

The ordering process is a simple.  You can place and order by contacting us on Facebook or WhatsApp on 0777 932 853. If the order is for any of our existing designs we deliver in less than a week. Customized orders take longer as we need to work with the customer from concept to finish. But we always try to deliver in less than two weeks. 

Contact details of Paper Frills? 

You can call or WhatsApp on 0777 932 853. All of our cards and paper crafts are available on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Paper Frills) and Instagram account (www.instagram.com/Paper Frills). 

By Sarah Kellapatha 
Photographs courtesy Paper Frills