“I purchased a beautiful mam and nana card from Dotty Black, I couldn’t find a more fitting card being from the North East!! Quality was amazing and delivery was super fast, 5* would recommend”
“Fabulous products and unique designs and quality. Totally recommend.”
Mitchell
Working collaboratively with
Hi I’m Ebony…
A proud northern designer and founder of Dotty Black… a greetings card publisher, with the biggest, boldest and brightest personality.
I design and sell cards, packed with empowering and uplifting sentiments with unique individuality.
I always look on the bright side of life, and love to spread a bit of positive kindness in all of my designs. I love lettering, so you’ll find my own digital hand lettering in every single card product I design.
The proud northern designer and founder of Dotty Black… a small gifting business, with the biggest, boldest and brightest personality.
I design and sell prints, cards and gifts packed with empowering and uplifting sentiments with unique individuality.
I always look on the bright side of life, and love to spread a bit of positive kindness in all of my designs. I love lettering, so you’ll find my own digital hand lettering in every single gift product I design.
I’ve only gone and been shortlisted in the henries awards 🥳 Not in one… but in two categories!!!
My ‘Ticket to the World’ range has been shortlisted for the best relations / occasions range’ ☺️
And
My ‘Power of Positivity’ card range is shortlisted for ‘Best Contemporary Words and Sentiments Range’ 🤩
The henries… for those that don’t know is the Oscars of the greeting card world, organised by @progressivegreetings To get shortlisted in these awards is such an honour when so many UK card publishers enter them!
I want to thank my amazing mentor @adriana_cardqueen for her support on my greeting card journey. Behind these huge milestone moments is a human who gives unwavering support and cheerleading to me and so many others behind the scenes. Thank you Adriana.
Also a huge congrats to all my fellow card publishers who have been shortlisted 🤩 Fingers crossed for the next phase 🤞🏻...
In just under 2 weeks I’ll be taking part in my first ever @faire_wholesale market 😎
For any of my current stockists, who might be running low on Dotty Black goodness, this would be a great opportunity for a top up, as I’m giving up to 20% off 🤩
For new potential retailers, who may wanna take a chance on Dotty B, it would be a great opportunity for you to test some designs with your customers! ☺️ And there’s many benefits to joining Faire if you’ve not yet got an account on there, so consider this your sign ✨
Please let me know if you would be interested and I can set you up as a customer on my profile, and I can send you reminders as the market gets closer 😎
For those ordering please do help this small biz out and use my direct link 🔗 which eliminates big commission charges!
Who doesn’t love a bargain? 😜
🔗 http://faire.com/direct/dottyblack (find a clickable link in my bio 😎)...
This week, the wonderful @s.a.a.clothing announced that they are now an official stockist of Dotty Black’s Louder Than Labels and Power of Positivity card collections. 🤩
And to make me feel super welcome, they kindly sent me some of their gorgeous garments that literally make you feel SO GOOD to wear loudly and proudly ☺️
This collaboration is a real pinch me moment because SAA Clothing is a brand whose values and purpose align so closely with my own.
Through their beautiful, super soft apparel and accessories, they champion advocacy, understanding and inclusion, helping SEND and neurodivergent individuals and their families feel seen, supported and far less alone.
They challenge outdated narratives, educate, inspire and empower, all while celebrating the incredible SEND and neurodivergent community.
My Louder Than Labels range was created from that very same place…
a passion for challenging stigma, changing the conversation, and helping people with differently wired brains celebrate everything that makes them uniquely brilliant.
It truly feels like a match made in heaven, and I’m so proud that you can now shop a carefully curated selection of Dotty Black cards on the SAA Clothing website. ☺️💛
So it’s slowly creaping up to 2 years since I took a chance on the @nhs_couchto5k app and became a runner 🏃♀️
In more recent years I’ve always highly valued exercise in a way to help my physical health, but more importantly my mental health. Infact it’s literally the medication for my ADHD! I need to move in some way most days.
But what I wasn’t prepared for, was just how clear my mind could become…
How worries would just vanish…
And all the tabs open in my brain would go away…
And the only thing coming in to it is creativity and ideas 💡
I recently watched a talk from @francescaamber when she spoke at @mani.fest.newc and she talked about ‘bilateral movement’ and how she uses movement as a way of manifesting.
I’d never heard of the term ‘bilateral movement’ before, but suddenly I feel like I finally have a name for the exact thing that happens in my brain every time I go on a long run.
Because before I know it, my legs are running, doing their thing on auto pilot, and suddenly my brain is literally presenting me with a million thoughts, ideas and creativity that hasn’t felt present for such a long time…
The only downside is trying to collect all the ideas before I forget again 😅
Today, whilst out on an 11km run, I thought up a whole new greeting card range, and some good social media content ideas too! 😁
So next time when I feel like I really cba to do it, I’m gonna get my running trainers on and go…
Because running is quite possibly the best place for my creative juices to flow… and I don’t just mean the ridiculous amounts of sweat perspiring from my body 😅
You may or may not know this, but Dotty’s greeting card range ‘Louder Than Labels’ are charity cards, and 10% of all sales profits goes to Tanga Club, an inclusive charity which provides much needed support to families of children and young people with and without additional needs.
The Tanga Club charity is based in Hexham, Northumberland, and as a SEND family with neurodivergence, Tanga is a lifeline for us.
Throughout the year, Tanga is able to facilitate various inclusive activities, events, and support for families like ours. It’s not always accessible to do the things other families can, so when I say they are a lifeline, I really mean it 💚
I decided I wanted to give something back to them, for supporting us for many years now, so this card range felt like the perfect opportunity.
Each card from the ‘Louder than Labels’ range is a joyful affirmation of individuality, honouring the strength in vulnerability and the courage to be unapologetically yourself. They aim to empower, inspire, and celebrate our differences, especially during the often isolating journey of diagnosis.
Today I donated £66.15 to the charity, from all sales to date, but with plans to expand this range, and some really amazing people getting behind it, I have high hopes for the future.
I also decided that at the start of Q3… I’m changing the 10% profit, to 20p from every card sale, because having an ADHD brain and trying to work out profit when you sell in various ways across different platforms makes my head melt 🫠
So from here on in, 20p of every card sale goes to Tanga! Hoorah! 🥳
I want to say a huge thank you to all stockists and individuals who have purchased one of these cards to date… let’s continue to celebrate our difference, and stop stigmatising them! 💕
If I show you a design I entered into the Glastonbury @festivalpostcards competition last year, can I also just have an excuse to talk about glasto and how sad I’ve felt this week?
As another quarter comes to an end, I’ve been taking some time to reflect on the last 90 days before setting my sights on the next 90.
Every quarter, I set fresh business goals with my coach. This quarter, my goal was to welcome 6 new stockists…
But somehow, I reached 10! 🤩🙌
To every independent retailer who has chosen to stock my cards… thank you. It genuinely means the world that you’ve taken a chance on my little business and made Dotty Black a small part of your own business story ⚡️
I also want to say a huge thank you to my greeting card mentor @adriana_cardqueen for your continued unwavering support. My wholesale success is hugely down to your support and guidance, and I couldn’t be more grateful for you 💕
Running a small business can be a rollercoaster, so moments like this are worth stopping to celebrate. I’m incredibly grateful for every order, every opportunity and every lovely stockist I’ve connected with along the way.
Here’s to the next 90 days… let’s see what they’re capable of. ✨
If you’re an independent retailer looking for bright, bold greeting cards with meaningful messages, I’d absolutely love to hear from you 💕
This photo popped up in my memories today from 6 years ago.
My first thought was, where has my little boy gone? 🥹 These days he towers above me, proudly sporting the fluffy beginnings of a moustache and looking more grown up by the day 😕
But my second thought was that some things never really change.
Six years later, I’m still a mam on a mission to celebrate differences, challenge stigmas, and change the narrative around neurological differences.
The products have changed over the years. I’ve gone from gifts, apparel, homeware and prints to focusing all of my energy on greeting cards. But the heart behind the business remains exactly the same: bright, bold, honest and unapologetic. In fact, some of my favourite designs from back then have even found a new life in my card collections today. ☺️
I remember this day so clearly. We’d just spent 12 weeks shielding during the COVID pandemic because my son’s muscle wasting condition placed him in the clinically vulnerable category. Being able to step outside together felt like freedom.
The t-shirt my son is wearing was part of a reward based crowdfunding campaign I launched to raise money for an adapted bike to support his mobility. After several charities had to withdraw funding they had hoped to provide, I decided to take matters into my own hands. And thanks to the incredible support of the Dotty B community, we did it.
My son got his bike, and we even raised enough to donate thousands of pounds to charity too. ❤️
Seeing this photo brought all of those memories flooding back and reminded me of something important: Positive change happens when we’re not willing to accept things as they are.
Change happens when we speak up. Change happens when we take action. Change happens when we use our voice.
A week to recognise the incredible love, dedication and support that carers give to the people they care for every single day.
Many carers don’t even realise they are carers. They simply see themselves as parents, partners, siblings, children, friends or family members doing what needs to be done for someone they love.
Yet behind the scenes, so many carers are juggling appointments, therapies, medications, paperwork, advocacy, emotional support and countless responsibilities that often go unseen.
For years, I never really thought of myself as a carer to my eldest son. I simply saw it as parenting. Whilst I still view it through that lens, I also recognise the additional responsibilities and duty of care that come with supporting a child with extra needs.
One of the things I feel passionately about is the impact caring can have on work, careers and financial opportunities. Many carers reduce their hours, change careers, become self employed, or leave employment altogether because traditional working arrangements simply don’t fit around the needs of the person they care for.
In our family’s case, the level of appointments in my son’s early years, and the lack of suitable childcare options during school holidays now, would have made conventional employment incredibly difficult. I’m fortunate that finding a more flexible way of working has ultimately suited both my family and my ADHD brain.
But for many carers, flexibility isn’t available, and the demands of caring can make working, resting, socialising or simply looking after themselves incredibly challenging.
So this Carers Week, here’s to all the carers out there… the ones quietly holding everything together, advocating, supporting, nurturing and showing up day after day without expectation of recognition.
You are seen. You are valued. And what you do really matters. 💕
When you hear a little ping on your phone, and it’s an order that’s just come through from a dream stockist! 🤩
And that happened to me last week when I was just going about my life… 🤩
I was super chuffed to get to chat to Tim & Annie from @objectables at the @gca_uk ‘Dragons Speed Dating’ event in March (speed dating / dragons den vibes for greeting card publishers like Dotty B).
They picked me for a ‘date’… and said some lovely things which made me grin from ear to ear 😁 But as you know, you can never always tell on a first date, what the other person is really thinking… 🙃
But it seems we were a good fit, and now a collection of Dotty B cards are soon to be stocked on the shelves at @objectables in Folkestone 😃
I couldn’t be happier! 😊
A big shout out to Tim & Annie for bringing a slice of Dotty B into their shop, to sit amongst so many other wonderful independent card brands 😎
And here’s to also hoping that their regular customer ‘Keith’ might drop in to check them out! 😉
This week is World Mental Health Awareness Week 🫶💕
A gentle reminder that our mental health matters… every single day.
Even in 2026, I still think we have such a long way to go when it comes to truly understanding and taking mental health seriously.
Just because we can’t see someone’s struggles, doesn’t mean they’re not carrying something incredibly heavy.
Sometimes the loudest battles are the ones happening quietly, inside someone’s own mind 💕
If you’re struggling, please know this… you do not have to carry it alone. Talking can feel scary, but opening up can be the very thing that lightens the load 🫶
And if someone around you seems a little quieter, a little different, or not quite themselves… lead with kindness. We never truly know what someone is navigating behind closed doors 💕
My message this year is simple… BE KIND TO YOUR MIND 💕
Because that inner voice you live with every day matters.
The way you speak to yourself matters.
Would you say those harsh things to someone you love? Probably not 💕
So offer yourself the same compassion, grace and gentleness you so freely give to others.
