Featured Mom - Britt of StinkyKids

This weeks featured creative mom has taken her child's request to be painted as a ballerina and turned the resulting doodles into a brand. The brand has been growing since October 2005.

H: What do you like to create?

B: I have always been a doodler and enjoyed arts and crafts. When I was a little girl, I wanted to grow up to be an art teacher. I have always been one who doodles while talking on the phone and I am thank for this simple talent as it lead me to my current career. My business started as paintings which I still enjoy doing, but now my creative passion is growing StinkyKids into the hottest brand and household name in character driven companies.

H: How did you get started? Are you finding success?

B: I got started in my entrepreneurial journey from the simple request of my daughter to paint her as a ballerina. This request led to sales of custom paintings, to a retailer wanting to buy the rights of my characters for tee shirts, to starting a tee shirt line myself featuring the characters I created to now an animated series, books series and much more featuring the 10 divers StinkyKids characters. It has been a blast!!

H: Were you creative before you had children?

B: Yes, but in an arts and crafts fort of way. I never considered myself an artist before StinkyKids but simple art can make people smile and in a world that is so complicated, when people get happy from simple they gravitate towards it. So, my simple creative characters have made me and others very happy.

H: Have your methods changed?

B: Thanks to technology, once I created the 10 StinkyKids characters, I do not have to recreate them over and over for other uses. I can use the original drawings in many ways without having to pick up a paint brush.

H: How do you find time to stay creative?

B: Long nights, early mornings and luckily kids who love to draw and be creative too. When I am painting, my daughter paints next to me. When I am writing, my son is writing too. We are a creative family and without my kids, StinkyKids would not have been as successful as it is!!

H: Do your kids show any creative spirit?

B: YES YES YES. My daughter wants to be a wedding dress designer when she grows up and at age 5, she has a portfolio of all of her designs. She loves to color and draw. My son loves to draw monsters and has always loved to make comic books. When they were little, at night we would make up our own stories and adventures before going to bed.

H: What have you learned after having your kids (in relation to your art)

B: My kids brought out the artist in me that has been hiding inside for so many years. I may not be the art teacher I wanted to be when I grew up, but I am teaching kids to save their best art work now, because you never know if one of those doodles will lead to a successful business.

Have a browse through the StinkyKids collection an see some of Britt's doodles turned brand for yourself - they are awefully cute! Thanks for joining me here on Maternal Spark, it was a pleasure having you as the featured mom this week. www.stinkykids.com

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