About Tuff Kitty
Hi!
My name is Kim Lunning, and I’m the artist behind Tuff Kitty.
Tuff Kitty was inspired by our little black cat at home named Sofy. She was a wild haired little feline with an attitude about everything. She was one of those cats that could fall off the end of the couch and look like “I meant to do that!” She always had a look on her face as though she has just smelled something bad. Usually that something was one of the dogs. In a home with 3 dogs, this kitty was the real alpha dog.
I started doodling little scribbles of Sofy on napkins in restaurants about 10 years ago. Then I started doing paintings of her as the character “Tuff Kitty” and showing and selling them in restaurants around town including CafeTuTu Tango in Orange, Calif. After lots of requests for t-shirts featuring Tuff Kitty, I did some research and discovered the POD (print on demand) sites such as Cafepress.com and Printfection.com. These types of printing companies started out using a highly refined heat transfer technology to print on items like t-shirts, tote bags etc. But in the last couple of years the print quality of these sites has improved by leaps and bounds with the switch to the new “direct printing” which is a technique of printing directly from a printer onto the item using permanant inks which rival screen printing in their durability and vibrancy. POD technology makes it possible to provide my customers with a single one of a kind, personalized shirt, mug, or other gift at a competitive price. With the older screen printing technique, set up costs, screen charges (per color), labor etc. meant that printing just one item would be prohibitively expensive.
With direct printing, my customers can send me an email asking for a special personalized shirt featuring Tuff Kitty wishing their spouse a happy birthday, or Tuff Kitty playing their favorite sport, and I can make that design available the next day for them on any item they choose to see it on.
This email from Carol inspired a whole line of Tuff Kitty cat t-shirts and gifts for cat lovers with upcoming birthdays:
Hi Tuff Kitty… my sister’s 50th birthday is coming up and I like to give her a shirt with Tuff Kitty saying “So I’m 50…Do I Look Like I Care?” ~Signed Carol
This has become one of our most popular designs thanks to Carol and her sister!
When I’m not working on new Tuff Kitty designs, I’m working on ideas for my other t-shirt websites which feature my love for dogs, and love of motorcycles: Biker Chicks Rule! T-shirts and Gifts for women motorcyclists, and Casa De Natcho T-shirts and Gifts for Chihuahua lovers.
We lost our beloved Sofy to cancer in 2006 at the age of 14, but she lives with us still in spirit and in Tuff Kitty. Cats are a endless source of entertainment and joy, and thus ideas for new designs. They are fun to watch and fun to love.
~Kim
