One thing I’ve come to both admit about myself and appreciate about myself over the past year or so is that I was made to make stuff. I was super into drawing and arts and crafts when I was little. Shrinky-Dinks were my JAM. I had a little mini potter’s wheel at my house. I have a legitimate easel at home that Santa brought one year. I should really do something productive with that. In middle school and junior high I loved my art classes, and I took four years of art in high school and was enthralled by every project I got to work on except for figure drawing. Figure drawing in charcoal was the worst, you guys. Anyways, when I got to college, I kind of got out of the groove of making stuff. I would run to Hobby Lobby from time to time or whip out the colored pencils I had stashed in the back of my desk drawer, but for the most part, my creative endeavors besides music were pretty few and far between.
Then this summer when I worked at camp, part of my job was to run arts and crafts almost every day. I made ALL the friendship bracelets and even some things that are currently hanging up in my cottage. I took any spare minute I got to make bracelets or embroider my backpack or doodle in the margins of my journal. If it involved anything that could even closely resemble “art,” I craved it. I even wood-burned one time. It was awesome.
Side note: Check out my arts and crafts playlist from camp this summer!
During the last couple of weeks at camp this summer, I started to get really bored of all the old t-shirts I’d been wearing every day for the whole summer. I looked down at the friendship bracelet I was making one morning while waiting for kids to show up at the archery pit during team adventure time, and I realized that the embroidery floss I was using for the friendship bracelets could be used to actually, you know, embroider stuff. I came up with the idea to start embroidering t-shirts. I even sketched out different ideas of where the embroidery could go on the shirt. The shirts were going to be simple, but noticeably unique – Something I would enjoy wearing and maybe even be proud to say that I created. I knew I didn’t have time to make a shirt while I was still at camp, so as soon as I got home at the end of the summer, I took the $3 pocket tee from the men’s section at Wal-Mart that I’d been wearing all summer, and I embroidered it until I got too excited that I had to stop. Seriously. I only did one sleeve. Anyways, I was so excited about it and I couldn’t wait to show other people.
I wore the shirt around Hope a couple of times this fall and had a lot of people ask me about it. After multiple people told me they’d be interested in buying one, I decided it was time for me to make the initial investment in materials and get to work!
So far, I’ve made three shirts, and I started an Etsy store (something I’ve wanted to do for a long time) where I have them up for sale! I also have one gold ink print up for sale right now, and I am hoping to add some watercolor pieces soon as well. It is so cool to me that I can spend my time doing something I love, something I believe I was made to do, and perhaps even make some extra money for it along the way! It’s a college student’s dream, everyone. I’m telling ya.
It would mean so much to me if you checked out my store! It’s called Lakes Point Collective, and 10% of the sale price of every shirt is donated to scholarships for kids to attend Covenant Harbor Bible Camp, where the idea for these shirts was born!
I think it’s pretty neat that it’s possible to find ways in college to make money while doing things you enjoy. I also work at Glik’s in Downtown Holland, which I think is so fun, and I know a few other people that have started little businesses of their own, some of which are also on Etsy! Be creative – You never know what hobby could start to serve you in more ways than one!
Thanks for reading! Keep up with me on Twitter (@hopekathryn17), Instagram (@kathrynekrieger), Etsy (LakesPointCollective), or send me an email at kathryn.krieger@hope.edu!
“Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.”
– Psalm 103:1