laShoegirl Paper Goods is now live!

It’s been a dream of mine to start my own paper goods line featuring shoe illustrations. The inspiration comes from my job as a shoe designer, and the void I felt of being creatively restricted by designing shoes for brands. Don’t get me wrong, I love designing shoes, but the purpose was mainly to create product to sell at a retail level for profit. Follow trends, see what other brands are doing, and turn out product was my job theme. My strength is the creativity portion of my job and I made that my priority when I would work. Despite that, designing shoes for companies still has its parameters. 

On my off-duty days, I loved to just draw with no restrictions. I took life drawing classes, and a few illustration classes at Otis Parsons. I started a blog in 2009 and called it L.A. Shoegirl. I used this platform to post my design work, new work I was creating for the blog, and illustrations. 

Over the years, I was told by several people to sell my shoe art, but my travels to China 4 to 5 times a year, and NY, Europe etc. made it very challenging to give it the time I needed to work on this type of project/business. 

This year with the COVID-19 pandemic, and no travel I finally had the time to work on personal projects while being in quarantine.

You may ask why stationary? Why not just sell the art? 

Growing up as a child, my family loved giving cards with gifts. It was a tradition to open the card first and read it. My parents were not the best at showing affection but were very good at writing their feelings in a card or a note. I have cards from my parents dated back twenty years ago. When I go back and read it, I can feel how loved I was, It’s nice that I still have these cards, letters, and notes.

Cards are like the finishing touch to a gift just as shoes are to an outfit.

My first card collection is all about the holidays. My inspiration comes from the spirit of Christmas. Mistletoe, garland, ornaments, snow, Santa, etc. The holiday inspiration is also mixed with architecture. I love looking at buildings for lines, and shapes.

In the next few weeks, I will be adding birthday cards, post cards, and much more.

For now, I hope you will celebrate the spirit of Christmas thru my shoe artwork. We can all use a little Christmas cheer with everything that is going on in the world today.  To see the full collection you can go here.