Inspiration turns Kidspiration

I received a phone call from one of my college besties one day that went a little something like this...

 Meryn:  "Hey, Case-a-dase... yadda yadda yadda... so anyway, one of my coworkers wants to buy these sports-themed wall letters and I told her, 'Nuh uh!  Do not spend that kind of money on that!  I have a friend who can paint way better than that and I bet it won't cost you that much.'"

James' letters looked something like this.

Anyway, a bit of a paraphrase, but that "friend" that she referenced was moi, and I was so flattered that she thought that highly of my random doodling, stick-figure sketches, and finger painting!  Well, let's see, then.  The only other letters I had ever done were for my son, James, and they were animal prints.  Wait a second, I didn't paint them, my sister did.   Ooops.

Meryn:  "Well, what do you think?  Would you be interested in painting letters?"

Me:  "Of course!  I can do that no problem!  And yes, I can do it for waaaay cheaper."

 So I call my sister up immediately asking for her help.  We worked super duper hard on what would be our first creation for profit... T-H-O-M-A-S.

When I say we worked hard, I mean, this seriously took us like 4 hours.  So simple!  Circles, lines, dots... but we are a bit ridiculous when it comes to perfection.  However, I learned a lot about painting with T-H-O-M-A-S (and had fun with my sister in the process).

This was extremely different than painting something for myself; imperfection doesn't eat at me when I have to stare at it every day.  So I'm OK if things aren't "just right" when I'm hanging it on my own wall.  But if someone is going to PAY me to paint, then it better be good... not good, perfect.

Never having taken a painting class before, I learned about my brush strokes, not wasting too much paint, not getting to much paint on the brush, spacing... all of that elementary art type stuff... but most of all, I learned that I LOVED PAINTING!  Right then, my mind was already racing about starting a business... and from that, we now have Kidspired Creations!

Ok, I jumped ahead... so more phone calls and Meryn soon had more of her coworkers ordering letters.  I was determined to not charge an exuberant amount of money for these letters because cute room decor does NOT have to break your bank account!  However, 4 hours + 2 people = too much time!  I took the next two orders by myself and was able to finish them in under 2 hours.  Phew!  I guess Crista and I just have too much fun painting together... so now we paint separately.

Thus, we were in business!  (Well, I am more in business than Crista because she's in grad school and just got married, and well, she just doesn't have enough hours in her day.)  When she does have time to play with paints, she seriously creates some super cute stuff!

BACK TO KIDSPIRED CREATIONS...  Where does the kidspiration come from?

Well, from different places, really.  Most often, the customer gives me "hints" or e-mails me pictures of a room, bedding, fabrics, etc. for inspiration.  The description I got to inspire B-A-E-L-Y was "pinks... black... white... zebra maybe?"  I googled "zebra pink girl" and didn't get inspired by anything Google could give me, so I just mashed a whole bunch of different pinks and patterns together with zebra and voila!  B-A-E-L-Y.

C-L-A-I-R-E was different, though.  Claire's mom had a specific designer in mind. She had used Mary Engelbreit fabrics in her daughter's room.

You may  not recognize the name, but you have definitely come across some Mary Engelbreit prints.  Bright yellows, reds, greens... and then a hodge podge of cherries, flowers, hearts and home-sweet-homes.

Without having pictures of the room, I wasn't exactly sure which patterns to choose.  I fell in love with the "cherry" print and let that lead the way...

Mary Engelbreit fabrics are often used to make quilts, so I also used that as inspiration when creating C-L-A-I-R-E... and so I created this...

 

So, the moral of the story is, sometimes you just need a friend to shove you in the right direction... great things can happen when you actually listen!  I love telling people the story about how it wasn't even my idea to start my own business.  These 3 names above really started it all for me.  I was inspired to help people make cute kids rooms on a budget!  

KIDSPIRED CREATIONS specializes in wall art, wood letters, coat/towel racks, name plaques, growth charts, bulletin boards and other wooden wall/room decor. Our art is inspired by YOU and your current decor!

The MISSION of Kidspired Creations is to create affordable custom art that matches the pre-existing decor of a room.  All items sold by Kidspired Creations are hand-painted and customizable. If you would like any item(s) to match your existing decor, simply visit my Etsy shop and message me with pictures of your room, bedding, curtains, rugs, existing decor, wall art, or, my favorite, KIDspiration!  Visit my Facebook Fanpage to see a collection of my works.

The great thing about customized art is that every piece is a Kidspired Creations Original! No two items are the exact same and every order is unique.

Thank you for your interest in Kidspired Creations!
~ Casey

P.S. Now the person who got my wheels spinning a few years ago is now expecting her first baby!  I cannot WAIT to add some Kidspired Creations to her nursery... at no charge! 

P.P.S.  Thomas' mom hung the letters in a super cute and creative way!