A card found its way to you.

A drawing of Marlo Wren in a doorway at dusk, a card pressed to her chest

Colouring postcards from Aotearoa New Zealand

You either create or consume. Both have their place.

Tonight, let creating win.

A drawing of Marlo Wren colouring a card on a book by a sunny window, smiling at the wren on her pencil

We want others to experience the joy of colouring.

We found it again one evening, colouring with our daughter. Now, from our studio here in Cambridge, we're sharing it to make the world a little brighter.

Is yours coloured in, or still blank?

A drawing of Marlo Wren glancing up over a stamped envelope held to her face

If yours came coloured in

Someone gave you an evening.

They chose the card, sat down with it and coloured it in. Then they turned it over, wrote to you, and put it in the post. An hour of somebody's attention cannot be bought, borrowed or hurried, and they gave you one on purpose.

A drawing of Marlo Wren holding up a blank card, the wren perched on its corner and her eyes on it

If yours is still blank

Then it's your turn.

Colour it whenever you like, quickly or slowly. Write a few lines on the back and send it on, to whoever comes to mind along the way.

A drawing of Marlo Wren with a finger to her lips, a written card and a blank one going into an envelope

How to send

There's more than one way to send one.

Send oneColour it, write a few lines on the back, and post it.
Send twoTuck a blank one in with yours, so whoever opens it can colour it and keep it going.

Pōhutukawa, a Home-grown card, part coloured: the flower and leaves filled in, the rest still bare line

The part we can't make

Without colour, these are just black and white lines.

The colour is what brings a card to life, and it isn't ours to give. It comes from whoever picks up the pencils, and from the evening they spend with it.

A drawing of Marlo Wren laughing on a swing under a pōhutukawa in flower

What you put in, stays.

When someone pours their time and intention into something they make, it stays in it, and you can still feel it years later. A coloured card holds an evening, a hand, and a thought of whoever it's for.

Send the colour further

Start anywhere you like

A drawing of Marlo Wren posting a card into a red post box, the wren on top of it

Colour one. Send one.
Keep it going.

A small family business from our studio in Cambridge, Aotearoa New Zealand, managed by Lisa Hopkins.

Marlo Wren is a trading name of Northern Rivers Group Limited, run by Lisa Hopkins.

How the drawings are made

The line work is developed using AI image tools. It is then selected, corrected, laid out and proofed in our Cambridge studio before it goes anywhere near a press, and that correcting is most of the work. Plenty are thrown away. What survives gets checked at print size, because a line that looks fine on a screen can close up on paper and spoil the card for whoever is colouring it.

The pictures of Marlo Wren, the woman on our pages, are made the same way, and each one is checked against her character sheet before anyone sees it.

This is the same account we give on every listing, and it will not change.