After a few years in development, Spotlight Cards is now in full swing.

"But people were finding us before we were official," said Emilie Heller-Rhys, who along with husband John Heller, owns the new business. They've created a line of greeting cards that is already generating return customers.

"We started making cards for friends just for the fun of it," Heller-Rhys said. "They were usually Christmas cards. Then three years ago, a friend asked where he could buy more — either in a store or online." At the time there was no outlet. Now the cards are carried in two local stores; people also can go online to spotlightcards.com.

Sam Bunker in Vermont ordered "a whole bunch" for Christmas. "They have such a good sense of humor that I'm going to order 100 of them for this next Christmas," he said. "Also their response time is unbelievable. I placed my order by phone, and within days the shipment arrived. You don't see that kind of service too often anymore." Heller and Heller-Rhys say customers get orders within a week.

In the beginning, the couple admittedly didn't know how to create a card line — where to start, what to do. They came up with 21 different cards, only to learn that a card line needs at least 48. While creating more, they also completely redesigned the first ones. "We redid the drawings, the type face, the wording — the works from top to bottom," said Heller-Rhys, who has been a fine art painter all her life and designs the cards on a computer.

Heller, also an artist, has drawn cartoons since he was a teenager. The cards have a humorous bent.

"I try to focus on the character and the situation. I want them to be simple, and the humor of the cards won't come through if the background is too busy," he said.

Heller retired from the commercial advertising industry and took up painting as a way to relax. Then he began line drawings and in 1997 made a series of Christmas cards that they gave to friends. That was the genesis for Spotlight Cards.

"We always start with John's drawings," Heller-Rhys said. "Then we create an overall concept, a caption, and then the layout." They now have 55 cards, with 15 more in production.

Locally the cards are available at Paper Unlimited at 328 S. Guadalupe St., The Whole Package gift and card shop at 518 Old Santa Fe Trail, and Garcia Street Books at
376 Garcia St.

"The first week we got them in, they started selling," Paper Unlimited owner Grace Davis said. "The drawings are very clever. People really like quality cards and these are selling."

The couple moved to Santa Fe 15 years ago from New York City. In 1982, Heller came here for a short visit and always wanted to come back. "I'd always been obsessed with the Old West but had never been west of the Hudson (River). I'd only been to the West Side," he said. After a few more visits to Santa Fe, they rented a house for the summer.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the couple stayed longer. "A year and a half later we bought a house," said Heller-Rhys, who hopes to not only place their card line in other stores in Santa Fe but also in Taos, Albuquerque and beyond. "We want to expand to other states as well," she said. "We're in the process of sending packets to national retailers."

She said it took a lot of pre-production work and time before they felt the cards were ready for a public debut. "We've now accumulated a number of characters we can choose from. Like central casting."

Because it started out as something fun to do that slowly turned into a business, they haven't tallied the cost. "But we did pay a graphic designer to come up with a logo and brochure. Other than that, we haven't had much start-up cost —
except in time and making lots of mistakes," she said.

The best part of being in business is working together. "The collaborative end of it has been wonderful. Our minds just click in the same direction. It's really fun."