Hand Painted Mousetraps by Mousesnaps

Mimi from Mousesnaps

Nova from Mousesnaps

One of the thing that I love about running TheAbundantArtist.com is meeting people who take things that are seemingly simple and making something beautiful out of it.  Nova and Mimi sell hand painted mousetraps.  Their site is Mousesnaps.com.

Tell us about your art. What’s your medium, how long you’ve been doing it?

Nova: Quirky as it sounds, we hand paint mousetraps. Mimi and I launched Mousesnaps late last year after suffering through a few rodent problems in our apartments. I was having a hard time looking at the traps simply because they were so unattractive. I knew it was completely vain at the time, but I decided to paint some just so that my floor would look cuter.

Where did you study or get your training?

Nova: I do not have any formal training. I’ve always been a creative person – I was a ballet dancer for 15 years and I have always been interested in art and design, but this is the first time I really did anything art-related professionally.

Mimi: I never had any formal training in the arts. Ever since I was a child I have loved to paint, draw and create crafts. I would say that all the years of practice is the main reason I have developed my skills to where they are now.

Who was your inspiration when you got started?

Nova: I always tell people that Mousesnaps is like that whole “When life gives you lemons” thing – but with mice. I had a few serious rodent problems in my apartments over the years and we started this project simply because I didn’t like the look of a mousetrap on my floor. I found myself hiding traps when people visited my apartment or putting them in places just so that they would be out of sight (which – believe it or not – may not be the best place to put them depending on where your mice are hiding out). After painting a few traps for my own use, friends were asking where I got them and if I would make some for their apartments too. From there, Mimi and I put together the web site and were kind of surprised to see the orders come in from all over the country. We still have a lot of work to do, but for right now, we’re enjoying a little bit of our accidental success.

What is your ‘day job,’ or complimentary career? Give a few details about your day to day activities.

Nova: While I would love to make Mousesnaps a full-time job one day, right now I work at a public relations agency in New York – M Booth & Associates. I spend a lot of time developing communications plans and strategies for our clients. I focus a lot on media relations, or getting our clients in the news in positive stories. Being creative is an asset in most careers, but it’s especially true in public relations because we’re constantly trying to come up with new and interesting ways to promote our clients.

Mimi: I work as a Marketing Assistant Brand Manager for Sara Lee. I work on CPG (consumer packaged goods) package designs, managing the process from the design, costing, through production and logistics. I also manage the budget for the marketing department, facilitating spending for promotions, coupons, displays and packaging updates.

How did you get into this job?

Nova: After graduating with a degree in Communications from Drexel University, I spent a few years working in Philadelphia doing in-house communications and media relations. Ironically, it was my boss and two other coworkers who told me that if I really wanted to work in public relations I needed to work in an agency – not corporate America. So I decided to move to New York, landed a job at a great agency and everything has really fallen into place since.

Mimi: I worked as an intern at Sara Lee for 6 months while pursuing my Bachelors at Drexel University. After graduating and looking at several job offers, Sara Lee provided the most learning and growing potential. The work I started doing at Sara Lee encompassed my dual major of Finance and Marketing, making it a perfect fit for the first stage of my career.

How does this job compliment your art and other creative endeavors?

Nova: My work in public relations has helped us determine how to promote Mousesnaps through the media – or as I like to put it – for free. So far, we’ve been included in a few industry publications and blogs, as well a few arts/crafts outlets. We decided to actively promote Mousesnaps with the media to help us build buzz about the product. We know we have a great idea and a great product, but if no one knows it exists, it doesn’t really matter. So thankfully, our respective careers in public relations and marketing has helped us get the attention we need to make Mousesnaps successful.

Mimi: Working in Marketing does allow me to have a creative outlet to a certain extent. I have a lot of freedom in creating promotional ads and packaging, but must adhere to certain corporate guidelines of course. I don’t get to physically create a lot of artistic pieces at my job, but I at least get to direct how the graphics and designs are developed.

What is one thing about your current career that you didn’t anticipate when you were younger? How did your career evolve in ways you didn’t expect?

Nova: I never anticipated owning a business. I hadn’t even considered it until earlier this year. In fact, when I had the idea for Mousesnaps originally, I was almost afraid to tell people about it because I thought they would think I was crazy – or worse, just plain stupid. And even with all our success, it still sounds so daunting to think about “running a business.”

I was inspired to make Mousesnaps an official business through my work with a program called Make Mine a Million $ Business, which is all about helping women business owners reach the million dollar mark. Working with this program and meeting a lot of driven women through it, helped me realize that you don’t need an office building and a conference room to start a business. You just need to love what you’re doing work hard at it – it’s really as simple as that. And I find that now that I take myself seriously, other people do too.

If you could give other artists advice about money or getting started in their career, what would you say?

Nova: Personally, I think it’s often best to hold a day job and rely on it while you’re getting your goals in order. Any experience you get in the work world will contribute to your overall success as an artist – so try everything, take the best things from your jobs and then apply it to what you really want to do.

Tagged as: etsy, hand painted mousetraps, mousetraps