Hip Chick

What started out as a hobby of taking photos soon became a personal mission: to give 100% of my photo session fees to local charities. In a span of 18 months, I raised over $9,100 for eight local non-profit organizations (check out my video recap of my sessions from 2017). And while I welcome the break from sessions that the winter months provide, I wanted to find a way to jump-start the donations for the non-profits I’m partnering with this year (The Outlet, Wooden It Be Lovely, and Refuge Ranch) instead of waiting for warmer temps and leaves on the trees.

As I was scrolling through Instagram one day, I came across some cute artwork someone had done on a tea bag. It got me thinking that something like that would be a fun, artistic way to embellish a gift, use as a bookmark or give as an encouragement to a friend, co-worker or tea lover. So, I drank up some tea, set the tea bags out to dry, emptied the leaves, dyed them and dried them again then decorated it.  So, this fun mini canvas suddenly became a way for me to be creative and make money for these organizations! I began asking my friends to save their tea bags, then I posted photos on Facebook and I started getting orders. At $10 per card of 2 tea bags, I’ve been able to raise $480 in a month’s time!

I’ve given them to the organizations to sell at their fundraisers, too. Who would’ve thought that a used tea bag that 100% of the time ends up in the trash could be repurposed as something incredibly beautiful to bring hope to those in the community! Would you like to contribute to my mission by purchasing some tea bags for a friend or yourself? Email me here.