Hey loves! If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I am Bee Paper's Featured Artist for February! I've been asked about their paper and how I got to be their featured artist so I've decided to write a blog all about how it happened!
What is Bee Paper?
Well Bee Paper is a paper company that makes all kinds of yummy paper! I love them because all of their paper is milled in the US! They are more focused on the artist than mass production and making money, and that definitely means something to me. Their papers that I love are the watercolor papers, mixed media papers and the marker pad! I first found Bee Paper on the clearance rack at the craft store, and I snagged some because it was really cheap and I was curious. This was their 90lb 100 cotton watercolor paper. I brought it home and I loved it! When I want to make a quick piece, I like using smaller pages, so the 6x9in size was perfect for me! I ran out of the 50 sheet pack in one month hah. So I went onto amazon and got some more!
Building a Relationship
Well, since I was using their paper all of the time, I kept tagging them in my posts. I will do another blog all about this soon but.. it's SO important to tag brands in your posts. I am sponsored by many art supply brands, and I always get asked HOW I got those sponsorships. Well, it all starts from tagging the brands. If you're using something and making the post anyways, it takes 2 seconds to add a tag. Since I was always tagging them in my work, they kept seeing my work pop up in their notifications. This led to them sharing my art on their feed, then they reached out and asked if they could send me some more paper to try! I got the 140lb 100% cotton watercolor journal, their 90lb mixed media journal, and another pack of that 90lb cotton watercolor paper I love so much! The 140lb cotton watercolor journal quickly became my new favorite! I swear guys, it's better than Arches paper and it's nowhere near as expensive. It has the same amazing textures, holds up with a lot of water, and soaks colors up like a DREAM. I could literally talk about it forever I love it so much.
After using this new paper, it was like every piece I made on paper was with Bee. I didn't plan it that way, I just love the paper so much, I knew my work would look the best if I used it. About 2 months later I got a DM from them asking if I would be interested in being a featured artist! So of course I said yes! We emailed back and forth talking about what it entailed and got started.
The Feature
The first part was in interview, so they asked me to send them a short bio about me so they would know what kind of questions to ask. Then they emailed me some questions, I wrote my responses and sent them back! That interview is live right now and you can read it HERE.
The second part is a blog! I got to pick my topic and let them know, then write my blog! My topic is all about making your art stand out on Instagram, and it will be available soon! After the month is over, I'm going to see if I can publish it here for you guys, and I will definitely send an email when it's published, so make sure you're subscribed! ;)
Lastly, we will be doing a giveaway, where they will give away some of their paper and I will give away an original painting! Stay tuned on Instagram for that!
The moral of the story is all of this happened because I used a brand I love, I tagged them in my posts when I used it, posted stories talking about it, and let them and the world know how much I loved it! It doesn't matter how many followers you have, brands want artists to represent them that REALLY love the product. When I first started taking brands on as sponsors, I said yes to brands I didn't really love, and that was a mistake. It was hard for me to post about it because, well there were brands I wanted to use more to make my work better, and I also felt like a liar. I hate saying that a brand is good, if it's not and having you guys spend money on it. Since then, I have vowed to never support a brand if I'm not 100 happy with it. I test things before I post, I make sure it's worth the money, and I'm picky about brands that get my stamp of approval. So, if I say something is amazing, you can rest assured it is!
If you have any questions or wanna know anything else about these topics, let me know in the comments! What else do you wanna see on the blog?
As always, I love all of you and am SOOO grateful you're here!!
