By Tania Lopez

If you are anything like me as an artist, then part of what makes you happy is seeing people enjoy your artwork. It means so much that they would want to carry it around and have it be part of their every day lives. I see this most when I take my work to festivals and vendor shows.

Here, I get to interact with the audience, watch their reactions as they first lay eyes on that one item that speaks to them. Now meeting so many people, you get to learn that original artwork may not always fit someone’s lifestyle. Maybe they are a college student, or lead a nomad life. Maybe they are a kid wanting to make their very own art purchase…and wouldn’t you want to nourish that?

Because of this, I have learned to diversify the items that I offer and in doing so, provide a wider price range for the customer. The way I like to do this is by turning my art into hand crafted item and here I’ll give you some ideas of what crafts you can make with your illustrations to sell.

If you’d like to see the video version of this you may watch it over on YouTube HERE.

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Art Prints

I’m going to get this one out the way since it is the most obvious one. Now you can always outsource this but you can also print them at home. I will say that if you do print them at home, you must factor this unto your listing price since usually these papers are not archival or non-yellowing. I like to use the EPSON Premium Presentation Paper in Matte. The prints come out vibrant and smooth, I just love them. As far as printers go, I have recently bought the CANON PIXMA TS702a and so far so good. I offer two sizes when taking these to vendor events and those are in a 5×7 and 8×10.

Pin- back Buttons

My 1 inch pins are always a hit at vendor events. They are cute and a great collectable item. The fact that I make them at home, gives me the flexibility to make as little or a many as I want. It also allows me to change them up whenever I want. Now I use the most economical button maker machine, the Mophorn Button Maker, which by the way comes with your first 500 circle parts. You can check out my video HERE if you are curious about how I make them.

Paper Crafted Notebooks

To me this is actually of the easiest crafts to make and I know that paper crafters make them out of pretty cardstock but how cool if these actually sports your latest illustrations. I like to laminate my covers and this SCOTCH laminating combo with pouches gives you a head start.

Keychains

There are tons of types of keychains out there but the Acrylic Photo Keychains are the simplest way people can carry a mini art print of your art. Using my favorite paper listed above, I resize my art prints to fun size!

Book Marks

These are not only easy to make but you can get as creative as you want. Play with the shapes, colors, quotes or maybe bling them out! Always remember though, the more you add the higher the price.

Traveler’s Journal

Now these are a little more time consuming than the paper crafted notebooks but so much fun to make. Not only could you have your illustration on the cover but you can get creative with the inserts, add stickers and so much more.

Stickers

I’m not going to lie, it took me a bit to feel comfortable enough with my Cricut to make my own stickers but now there is no stopping me! I’ve using this MATTE STICKER PAPER and I can’t wait to try out the glossy one. I’ll let you guys know how those work out.

Printed Magnets

The cool thing is that if you made the stickers then the magnets are a breeze. Literally just print on a Printable Magnetic Sheets and DONE!

Hope this list helps you think outside the box of how else you can utilize your art.