Etsy Sales

Yup! I got into it for the same reason as you mentioned, but in hindsight I would've wish I got into donation card drives instead, or just giving more cards away to friends, maybe taking a little money under the table if they insisted. You're in NZ though, aren't you? so the logistics and economics might be quite different. I don't want to be a total bummer but I wouldn't personally recommend it.

One of the reasons I stopped selling was because of the hassles of tax documentation and obligations to keep my business legal. Some people think that if their business is mostly a hobby that taxes aren't an issue, but they are often wrong. I don't mind paying taxes on income, but keeping records of every die cut and gem that goes onto a card is hard work, and the US tax system requires it so you can calculate the "cost of goods sold". I won't go on and on since your tax situation might be completely different, but I do recommend you find out how the IRD (or whatever they call it now) taxes small craft businesses.

The other big thing was that Etsy seems to be moving away from small one person hobby shops and rewards bigger shops that have employees and scalable ideas, like people who make art that can be sold as stickers, tees, totes, etc made by a manufacturing partner. Cards that are digital art printed on demand are so much cheaper than handmade one-of-a-kind pieces, easier to restock too if they're popular. I struggled to find a good price point, especially considering the extra price customers had to pay for shipping. And I put in a lot of hours for very little money when it came down to it.

It was a good excuse to buy more supplies, but then I would have to log them into my inventory system, so even that stopped being fun!

Business wasn't good. It was hard to even know if I was getting seen and why or why not. I had a few devoted fans, but several were personal friends who I would've given the cards to for free. One person was a random stranger who loved my style and bought a handful of cards every year or so. I had a few people who snapped up lots of my cards when I clearanced them 40-60% off as I wrapped up my business and tons of people just LOVE my cards when they're free... lol. I had one busy Valentine's Day (in 7 years of having the shop) where lots of different people bought a card or two and then Etsy showed my shop to lots more people, but once things died down I could go months with only one or two sales and barely any views. When you're busy and renewing or posting listings steadily you stay busy, once you go on vacation or slow down it tends to stay very quiet.

It seems like people might prefer seeing handmade cards in person at craft shows or boutiques. That is my impression from other crafters I follow. But that has its own hassles and wasn't my cup of tea.

Online also has the hassle of photography - I had no idea how much I hated product photography until I did Etsy and discovered it can be really hard. I think Ryann also had an Etsy shop for her lovely embellishments and IIRC found the photography and listing side of things a downside.

If you have a local nursing home you could contact their activities person and ask if they would welcome card donations. Usually that will involve making enough for each resident for whichever holidays you want to celebrate but some homes also welcome cards that the residents can use to give to their family members for birthdays and holidays. It helps if you know someone in a rest home to find out how things work there but maybe there's some nearby and you can start your own nursing home card project.

I have also started giving some family members bundles of random cards for their birthday gifts. I try to tailor them a little bit to the person's needs so my aunt and mother get more sympathy cards and my SIL gets more teen boy birthday cards, but I also don't worry too much - I just let them know they can pass on what they can't use. I sometimes include various sentiments with double sided tape so they can add a sentiment to plainer cards to fit their needs.

Proper sets are nice for fancier gifts too, if you like making sets.
Or you could offer sets of cards as raffle prizes if there's a charity or community group you like that does silent auctions or raffles.