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Several years ago a friend asked me to paint a small pair of velvet pictures with roses on them for her small daughter's room. I did and they were so unusual and the flowers seemed to stand out from the black background with such a pleasing effect that I decided to do several pairs for Christmas gifts. I did four pairs and framed them in small ornate gold frames. A few days before Christmas I had laid them out on the dining table to wrap when a friend came in and saw them. She was so excited over them that she finally talked me into selling all of them to her. At the time I didn't know why I did it, because it left me short of gifts, but it paid off. Very soon after Christmas I began getting orders from the people who saw them.

In a short time I experimented on velveteen and switched to it. That year I bought all the frames of a certain type that I could find in the five and ten stores. They were only plastic but they were carved rather ornately and were painted gold. It made the pictures look expensive, with an antique effect. These were miniature in size (four by five inches) and I sold them in pairs. I cannot buy the ornate frames any more. Now I use a white wooden frame trimmed in gold; these are entirely satisfactory. Since I had never painted roses until those first efforts, I started collecting greeting cards and good prints of roses. For some pictures I paint a single rose; on others I use a small arrangement in a blue or green vase. Everyone thinks they have a three-dimensional look.

THAT FIRST year I'm sure I painted and sold over 200 miniatures in Dallas, Texas, where I live. Counting my time in cutting the velveteen, pasting it on a heavy cardboard, painting and framing the picture, I'm sure I did not make over seventy-five cents. Now I cut several dozen boards and mount the velveteen all in one day, and with practice in painting I have increased my speed, so that I make about $2 an hour. The cost of the material, boards, and frames for a pair of miniature pictures is about $1.25, and they sell for $5 a pair.

Soon I was getting inquiries as to whether I would enlarge the pictures. Shopping around I found some nice frames in the sizes of six by seven inches, eight by ten and ten by twelve. I then made my pictures to fit the frames. I soon discovered that I was spending as much time looking for the frames as I did painting the pictures, and I wasn't counting my time for that, so I decided to let the customers do their own framing unless they otherwise instructed me. When I do frame, I charge double the cost of the frame for my trouble.

Last summer I painted a kitten on black velveteen for my little niece. At that time I was painting a portrait of a young boy. When his father came by to pick him up after a sitting, he saw the kitten picture. He thought it was so cute that he went home and told his wife about it. In a few days she came by and gave me an order for one to surprise her husband on his birthday.

The store where she had it framed put it in their window for a few days after framing it. They had so many inquiries about it that my friend gave them my telephone number. I then received a call asking if I would paint some for the store. I painted a dozen at that time. The store sold them for me, charging no commission if they framed the picture, but if they sold it without framing it, I paid a small commission. In just a few days I received another call from the store saying a customer would like to have a cocker spaniel dog to go with a cat picture to make a pair. I painted a blond cocker and they were very pleased with it.

The dog and cat pictures suggested other things. I received calls for other breeds of dogs and cats, horses, lambs, birds, and portraits of real cats and dogs.

A Siamese cat painted on royal blue velveteen has proved particularly popular. I use the darker shades of velveteen because the lighter shades seem to fade from the light in a very short time.

A friend, who is a cat lover, saw a cat portrait that I had done. It gave her an idea that she would like to have her favorite cat painted around the bottom of her skirt. She made her skirt out of a nice grade of faille, and I designed six cats ten inches tall, around the bottom of the skirt, each in a different pose. She wore it to the Dallas cat show last February and received so many compliments and inquiries, that she decided to take orders. She makes the skirt and I design the customer's favorite cat. I have also had orders for a single cat painted on a cotton skirt, with skirt furnished by the customer. I charge $3.50 for one cat or object, and $2.50 for each additional one.

FOR VELVETEEN painting the better the grade of material the more lustrous your picture, and the paint blends better on the better material. I buy several yards of material at a time, when the sales are on and I always look for remnants when I go shopping. You save almost half the cost by buying this way. Material for an eight-by-ten-inch picture mounted on heavy cardboard or Masonite, costs from twenty-five to thirty-five cents and sells for $3.50 to $5, depending upon the article you paint and the amount of time put into it.

I use regular oil paints with no media for the painting. I use turpentine to wash my brushes, which must be thoroughly cleaned after the use of each color or the picture will be muddy. I rise a square glass for my palette.

To paint the roses you will need about six colors. My favorite colors are alizarine crimson, cadmium red light, permanent green, zinc yellow, thalo blue, and white. You will use twice as much white as the other colors. Small tubes will be sufficient to start with.

I do all of my work free hand, but for the beginner I suggest that you find a picture that you like and trace it off on a heavy paper (a heavy paper bag will do). Using a piece of carbon paper, trace around the outside of the flower and then trace each petal. Cut around the outside of the flower and with a razor blade or small scissors cut around each petal leaving about ¼ inch open space, as you would in making a stencil. Place it on the velveteen, which is already mounted to a board. Trace around it with chalk, or soft pastel, marking over the cut-out places in the pattern.

TO DO a rose picture, take a narrow bristle brush, dip it in white paint, and go around the chalk line very lightly. You should do that the very first thing, as the chalk dusts off in a short time if your hand touches it. The darkest part of the rose is the center, so use alizarine crimson with just a touch of white mixed with it. The outer edges of the rose petals are lighter, so add more white to the alizarine crimson, with a small amount of cadmium red, for the brighter spots, and for the highest light use pure white. For the leaves, outline them with yellow on one side, and red on the other, filling in with green, with the yellow and red blending in for the light and shadows.

It is much better to finish your picture as soon as possible, as the paint dries rather fast. If you let it sit for a day or so, it gets hard, and the paint will not blend evenly.

If you paint on the velveteen before gluing it on a board, you may not get your subject in the middle of the picture, as the pile of the material pulls, when mounting it. I use Masonite sometimes, but a heavy paper board (called upson board) is just as practical. I buy it by the sheet, and my husband, Leo, cuts it for me. You may use a sharp knife, but a small saw is much easier.

The velveteen is then cut to fit the board. I use a good glue. After smoothing the glue evenly on the board, lift the velveteen and place it evenly on the board and very gently rub it from the center out with the edge of your hand making sure there are no wrinkles or unglued spots left in the velveteen. When I am mounting a large picture I use the rolling pin, rolling very lightly. The rolling pin smoothes it out very quickly.

Before you trace your design on the mounted velveteen board, hold it out at arms length in front of you; if it has a sheen to it, turn it clockwise until the material seems to have a dark lustrous finish; then place it in this position on the table or easel. This means the pile of the material is going in the right direction and makes it much easier to paint on the material.

FOR CATS or animals, trace off as you did for the roses, but it takes much more paint. If you are going to do a white kitten, you will use mostly white shaded with blue, with a touch of alizarine to make a purplish shadow. Using a wider brush, dip it in the paint, make your strokes short, lifting the brush with a sharp upward swing. This will make the fur of the animal look as if it is raised from the picture.

When painting on the skirts and blouses, I use the same method of painting, except that I put my oil paints on a blotter instead of a palette. This takes the oil out of the paint.

Before I painted my first skirt I painted a couple of samples on the same material as the skirt, using oil paint on one and textile paint on the other. The colors matched so perfectly I had to number my samples. Then I took them to the cleaner and asked him to run a test for me. He ran them through the cleaning fluid, and then laundered them by hand. They both came back looking as though they had never been cleaned. I use the textile paints when I stencil, and when I do free hand painting I use the oil paints.

I belong to an art club, and once a year we have an art festival. I always show my velveteen pictures. I've grown accustomed to having people say, "May I touch the picture, your cats look so real, that I can't believe it is not real fur."

My friend who asked me to paint the cat skirt invited me to take a booth at the Dallas cat show last February. I painted a number of pictures, painted some cats on handkerchiefs, made some ceramic cat pins and earbobs, to match and with some other things I already had. I had a popular and lucrative booth. I really did not know that there were so many cat lovers in the world. There was someone at my booth continuously, from opening time until closing time, both days of the show. I sold almost everything I had.

FOR A hobby, I have been painting about twelve years. I had always wanted to do art work but when I finished high school, I, like many others at that time, had to go to work. I could never find time to study at night. When I married, my husband worked at night, and I had some time to spare. I bought a set of oil paints. I dabbled around for a couple of years, and while the children were still rather small, I found that I needed to get out more often. I decided to study art one afternoon a week. The lessons were so fascinating, I could hardly wait from one to the next. I have studied off and on for about seven years. But my velveteen painting I have developed and mastered all by myself.

Fortunately I belong to a business women's club, of which I have been a member since before I married. Most of the members have bought from me, and several have taken samples to their offices and have taken orders for me. For their commission I pay them back in pictures, of their choice, which they use for their homes or for gifts. Several clubs use my rose pictures for wedding gifts and for their retiring officers.

Last year a friend asked me if I needed some quilts and I said I could use them, not knowing what she had in mind. She said she would like to have some of my pictures for Christmas gifts and wondered if I would be willing to trade. I thought that would be a good idea so I furnished the quilt scraps and when we closed our deal, she had pieced and quilted six beautiful quilts for me, and I had painted about $200 worth of pictures for her.

I do quite a bit of bartering. Sometimes after the art festivals which are usually held in November or December, we will trade with one another what we have left from our booths. One year I traded for ceramics. Last year I traded for some hand-carved boxes and used them for Christmas presents. I have already traded one of my larger pictures for a hand crocheted tablecloth this year.

My children, Carolyn, 15, and Hugh, 11, like to use my cat or animal pictures for gifts too. I always try to keep something ahead for sudden birthday parties. I always get a quick response from the receiver of the gift. One of Hugh's friends came rushing in a few weeks ago, wanting to know if I had a kitten picture just like the one Hugh had used as a gift a few days before. He was going to a party and had to have one just like it.

A FEW years ago we found that we needed more room in our house, as the children were growing up, so we added another room and porch. Then my husband decided to add a large room over our double garage for a studio. This is my pride and joy. Now I can keep all of my art stuff in one place and leave my paints out if I wish to, and there I can show my pictures without dragging them out of a closet or from behind a door.

The amount of money I make is not always steady but I like my painting activity much better than working in an office. It pays for all of my art supplies, and I'm sure I could not afford to paint if it came out of our budget. At Christmas time I always make enough to meet our Christmas expenses and pay our property taxes. I usually also pay for the children's music and my art lessons when I study.