Sunday Brunch Special: ZeVin Cards

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your indie business.
ZeVin Creations is a sister-owned company that provides one-of-a-kind cards for all occasions/holidays/events. The uniqueness about our cards is that we use just about anything to make a card and we interweave in the two sister's special talents into the cards. We both have two distinct styles and that comes across in our cards which allows the card to appeal to a larger market.

2. Where are you located?
Louisville, KY

3. How did you come up with your business name?
The name ZeVin Creations comes from the sister’s parent’s name
(ZE – Zenolia Miller and VIN – Marvin Miller). God has blessed their parents with these girls who in exchange have been blessed with the talents that go into making these pieces of art. So it seemed natural to continue their legacy in the business name.
4. Where do you sell your products?
We have a couple retail locations in KY and NC. And online at www.zevcards.com. We are currently working on getting more locations for both internet and brick-mortar.

5. Do you belong to any local and/or web groups or affiliations?
The company belongs to the Louisville Craft Mafia. Maranda belongs to the Black Craft Guild.

6. What inspires you?
Just about everything inspires us when it relates to the cards. We can be going somewhere and see something that will spark a particular design for a card. The fun is when we make custom cards for we try to find out the most about the recipient so that we make sure the card truly reflects them and that is inspiration in itself.

7. When you’re not making things, what do you do?
Well we have the traditional business stuff – marketing, shows, networking. But with us both being mothers we try to spend quality time with our children and typically as a group. In our spare time, Marisa is training for a Team In Training marathon to support Leukemia and Maranda is working on her vegetable garden.

8. Do you ever get stumped for ideas? How do you work through it?
We try to stay current in what the national card-making, paper creating publications have going on as a way to get our juices flowing if we can't think of something. It's funny you'll see us in a bookstore or craft/art store looking through books.

9. What’s your favorite childhood memory?
We'd have to say the summers we spent on our grandparent's farm. It is in a small little drive-in drive-out town so we were isolated and just had the land and family members. We both developed responsibility and our foundation in who we are today. It definitely was our home away from Louisville.

10. What’s your favorite color?
Both Marisa and Maranda love the color purple. It is a sign of sophistication.

Ok, now these two are mandatory and I have to ask (this being a diner, after all)

1. What is your favorite meal?
Let's see a nice southern dish... and being end of summer I'd have to say some barbecue (Marisa chicken, Maranda a vegan riblet), macaroni salad, fried corn, some fresh green beans with tomatoes and cucumbers, a roll ... and then something sweet so Marisa carrot cake and Maranda a big bowl of strawberries and blueberries..

2. Do you prefer tea or coffee?
Well we both love tea – Marisa sweet cold tea and Maranda a nice hot chai tea with soy milk.