So ya wanna be a doormat seller?

When we first started making doormats, it was a mess. Designs were off centered, paint was bleeding through our stencil material, and I took an hour to pin down all of the small intricate pieces of material. Initially, I used freezer paper for stencils. Looking back, I don't know why I thought that was a good idea.

Yes, it's cheap. But damn, time is money and I wasted a lot of time messing with that material!

You'd peel it off the cutting mat and it would just roll up like a burrito. It was impossible to keep up with the inner pieces (see the missing R?) and then you had to iron it flat on the mat, praying to cheesus it didn't burn it.

No thanks. I was ready to say eff it.

My very first doormat said "No Pricks Allowed". (I was annoyed at my husband and feeling very petty.) Anyways!

It was crooked, off centered and there was major over spray. But ya know what? I did the damn thing and only ruined 2 mats to get it. I posted it on Facebook and it was a hit.

At the time, I was a stay at home mom to 4 kids, and a farmer's wife. (that is a job title, not an identity, trust me.)

We needed extra income and I was damned and determined to figure this shit out. There weren't any mat makers here locally at the time so I wanted to take advantage and be the first in Waco.

Moving forward - I realized there was also a lack of doormat tutorials out there. I knew I had to figure out a better stencil material, a better stencil method, and better painting techniques. (Basically, I sucked overall and needed to figure out how not to suck in order to create mats that were good enough to sell.)

I found mylar stencil film, a good connection at Sherwin Williams, and spent hours on cricut messing with designs and figuring out a stencil template.

6 months later, I was officially self employed making a full time income painting doormats. Shortly after that, I created the Doormats for Dummies tutorial group on Facebook and have been helping makers make doormats without them have to go through the trial and error like I did.

This blog is my next step in helping the new mat makers create bomb ass designs..

Tutorials and supply lists to follow!