Happy New Years!

Happy New Years!

Hope you all had a great year and will have a great year in 2011 too!

Holiday Wishes

Hello everyone!  Sorry I didn't get on to wish you all a Merry Christmas!  I was busy spending a wonderful day with my family!  Hope you have a very happy new year!

50% off Business Cards and Bookmarks
Use coupon code BUSINESSCARD

Sale Ends January 10th, 2012!

NEW PRODUCT: Scribbleprint Puzzles!

I am so excited about these!  I've wanted to see my artwork on puzzles for the longest time!  And I love that both the places I sell through started offering these this year!  I haven't announced them til now because it's taken me a while to get designs up (there's still some designs I need to add).  So, here's the run-down on the new Scribbleprint Puzzles:

• 30 piece puzzles - $10.99 at my CafePress Shop 
• 110 piece puzzles (with a matching tin) - $29.95 at my Zazzle Shop
• 252 piece puzzles - $14.95 at my Zazzle Shop

The puzzles at my Zazzle shop can also be customized with your own text (or even photos).

Scribbleprint Ornaments!

 
 
Visit my Zazzle shop forCustomizable Ornaments in Fun Shapes!

50% off with coupon code MONDAYMORNIN

December 26 Only

Visit my CafePress Shop for 

Discount Oval and Circle Shaped Ornaments!

(not customizable)


Click here for coupons on my ornaments!!

TIP:  Designs with printing on the back at my Zazzle shop cost a few dollars more, so if you don't care about back printing and want to save a little you can remove the design from the back using the customization tool.  For un-customized circle and oval ornaments, you can get a better price at my CafePres Shop.  

 

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Hello shop hop friends!  How's your holidays going?  Things are picking up at my Zazzle shop...ornaments seem to be my big seller.  I've sold over 40 there in the last few days!  So excited about that!  My CafePress shop is lagging...only sold three items last month, and November is usually a busy month for me.  But it's been lagging for a while now.

Thought I'd take the time to introduce you to some other shop hops and linkies I found.  Our Home to Yours Crafts has a themed Saturday Shopping linky.  Today's theme is Christmas lights and ornaments.  Market Yourself Monday and Market Your Biz Tuesday are more great places to link up.   FAT Tuesday is a fun blog hop for artists, and Tuesday Treasury is a great one if you have an Etsy Shop.  On Thursday, you can link up at Everything But the Kitchen Sink, a nice free for all linky party, and Shopping Therapy Thursday!

More Sales and Coupons!

Save at my shops with the following coupons!

At My Zazzle Shop

25% Off Invitations and Announcements,  
Cards, Photo Cards, and Postcards
Coupon Code: CARDSINSYTLE
Expires: March 31, 2011

50% Off 75+ Invitations and AnnouncementsCards, Photo Cards, and Postcards
Must buy at least 75.
Coupon Code: PARTYINVITES
Expires January 31, 2012

20% Off Buttons
Coupon Code:  STICKERSSALE
Expires March 31, 2012

15% Off Stickers
Coupon Code:  STICKERSSALE
Expires March 31, 2012

10% Off Entire Order
Coupon Code:  SAVEONZAZZLE
Expires February 1, 2012

 
Free Shipping
Sign up with Zazzle Black
and get FREE SHIPPING.
Try it out Free!



Coupons above only work
at my US storefront. To see
coupons for my international
storefronts, click here.

In the CafePress Marketplace

Prices in the marketplace may differ from my shops.

Artistic Designs - Funny Designs

Up to 30% on Sports Gear!
Ends January 8, 2012

In My CafePress Shops
If There's a Sale It Will Show Up On the Banner Below

Artistic Designs - Funny Designs

Cyber Monday Sale!

Use coupon code ZCYBERMONDAY for the following deals at my Zazzle Shop:

60% Off Wrapped Canvas

50% Off Posters

50% Off Invitations and Announcements

Cards, Photo Cards, and Postcards

30% Off Ornaments

20% Off Mobile Cases

$5 Off T-shirts

$3 Off Mugs

PLUS Free Shipping if Your Order is Over $50

Good through Nov 29, 2011.  May not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or volume discount offers. If a volume discount applies to your order, you will receive either the discount set forth in this offer or the standard volume discount, whichever is greater. Only valid in US storefronts. For international sales and coupons, click here.  For other US coupon codes click here.

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I'm linking up today at...

20% de Desconto nos Produtos + 50% de Desconto no Frete Expresso

20% de Desconto em TODOS os Pedidos!   Use cupom: ZAZZLEXPRESS  

O desconto de 20% nos produtos será aplicado no preço de venda quando a compra de um ou mais produtos participantes é feita. Para receber o desconto 50% no frete expresso, a compra de R$35 (€35) em produtos Zazzle deverá ser feita e o Frete Expresso deverá ser selecionado como opção de envio. O código de desconto ZAZZLEXPRESS é aplicado no carrinho de compras. O Frete é valido apenas para entregas no Brasil e incluí todas taxas de alfândega. O Frete será cobrado para pedidos de tamanhos grandes. A oferta é válida até 16 de Dezembro as 23h59m. Esta oferta não se aplica a compras passadas e não poderá ser combinada com outras ofertas da Zazzle ou descontos por volume de compra. Oferta válida somente na Zazzle.com.br e Zazzle.pt.

Free Thankgiving Printable

Looking for something for the kids to do while waiting for Thanksgiving turkey?  How about printing out one of my fun free fall coloring pages?  Now doesn't that look fun to color? And they aren't just for kids! Grown-ups can have fun coloring too!

I also have one sectioned into smaller cut-apart boxes which you could cut apart and put next to each plate at the kids table for the to color after dinner.





(For non-commercial, personal use only.)

After you've cut it into pieces (I suggest a paper cutter if you have one) here's a couple fun ideas.:

1. Take a couple crayons and a small rubber band (like the little ones used for hair-braids), then wrap each coloring paper you just cut out around the crayons and secure with the rubber band.  
2. Or, cut out a piece of cardboard slightly larger than the picture (old cereal boxes work good for this), and using a glue stick glue a single leaf picture on the  front.  This gives the kiddos a solid surface to draw on.  Put these in a plastic or cello wrap baggie with crayons OR use a hole punch to make a hole, tie a ribbon to it, and tie a crayon or colored pencil on the other end. 
   

Wha-la! A fun thanksgiving activity for the kids that costs next to nothing!

These are just a couple of the coloring pages you can print for free from my site. See more here.

And here's some examples of them colored by my readers...

 Beeb colored the following.  She didn't have crayons ready, so she used a 

purple sharpie and a pink hi-lighter to make her Psychedelic Leaves. 

Another readers' son colored this leaf.  Love it!

Oh, and here's how I colored mine...





OK, ok...so that really isn't made from the print-outs. Actually, that's the original design which I sell on printed products in my shops. I made the black and white version afterwards especially for the coloring pages. Hope you enjoy it! Please be nice and only use these for personal or classroom use, thanks!

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Thanks to the following blogs that let me link this post up in their linky parties!

Junk in Our Trunk

More Fall Blog Events

20% Off Cards!

Use coupon code HOLIDAYCHEER to get 20% off Invitations and Announcements, Greeting Cards, Photo Cards, and Postcards. Ends December 31!

Offer is valid through November 22, 2011 at 11:59pm PT. May not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or volume discount offers. If a volume discount applies to your order, you will receive either the discount set forth in this offer or the standard volume discount, whichever is greater. Only valid in US storefronts. For international sales and coupons, click here.  For other US coupon codes click here.

4 CANADIANS: Sale on Cards, and Mini Speakers!

40% Off Invitations and Announcements
Cards, Photo Cards, and Postcards 

with coupon code ALLCARDS2011

20% Off Doodle Speakers

with coupon code GOOGLEDOODLE

These offers are valid through December 31, 2011. Offers may not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or volume discount offers. If a volume discount applies to your order, you will receive either the discount set forth in this offer or the standard volume discount, whichever is greater. Offer valid only at Zazzle.ca/scribbleprints and other Zazzle Canada Shops.

Send a Free Holiday Card to a Serviceman or Servicewoman

Army Camouflage Photo Template Holiday Card by zazzle

Right now you can send a card to a serviceman or servicewoman through Zazzle FOR FREE!  You can choose from one of 5 military themed templates, which can be customized with your own message and pictures.  The card must be sent directly to a  APO/FPO military address and coupon code MILITARYCARD must be entered at checkout.   Click here to send your free card!

Zazzle is one of the companies I sell my Scribbleprints through, and when I see them doing things like this it makes me really happy with my choice. 


TIPS

• You can add extra pictures to the inside of the card too by clicking "Customize" and "add images."  You can also add extra text to all sides of the card and even the back (if you want to write a long holiday message).

• Want to send a Hanukkah greeting in stead?  You can change "Season's Greetings" to "Happy Hanukkah" on the card to the right (though you will still have the tree).   You can't remove graphics from these cards without removing ALL of the graphics/backgrounds/etc...but then, that is another option.  You can always click customize and remove the graphics (click the X next to them), and either add your own or just fill the space with a picture and text. You can also add graphics/text to any card.  Under the "pictures" section of Zazzle fonts in the images font section, the second one down (with the holiday graphics) has a few Jewish symbols, including a Menorah (capitol letter O) and a Star of David (capitol letter L).   

NOTE:  None of the military templates pictured here are my own designs.  Just wanted to clarify that so no one thought I was taking credit where it wasn't due.

Sky Watch Friday - Moonwatching

My youngest and I
Heads tilted up watch the moon
Play hide and go seek

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Sky Watch Friday

CANADIANS: Free Shipping on $39+ Orders

Order $39 or more and get free shipping at my Canadian Zazzle Shop!   Use coupon code REMEMBRANCE1 - ends November 12.

Finally, Art on Our Walls!

Our walls have been empty since we bought our home two years ago.  Not one picture hanging up.  Nothing on them but paint.  Until now...

No, I didn't do this myself.  We used stencils.  We knew from the start we wanted some sort of botanic silhouette...at first we thought maybe bamboo.  But we just couldn't decide. Had looked at hundreds of stencils and wall stickers and couldn't find one we agreed on.  My husband and I are picky...REALLY picky about how we decorate.  I like really delicate, detailed, usually natural or ethnic designs.  My husband likes simple, sparse, and modern.  And since we agreed not to bring anything decorative into the house without both of us agreeing on it...well, a lot of our home remains un-decorated (in spite of me being an artist and all).

But when we saw this stencil set we both loved it.  Still, it took me several months to actually buy it, then it sat for 6 months before we got the living room clean enough to do painting (yes, I'm THAT kind of "housekeeper").

So, I'm really excited about this!  Had to share it with you all!  Think it came out really good!  There were three large stencils  (plus some falling leaves, which we might add later, and some butterflies they added for free, which I might use for crafts).   But what's great about this design is you can do a lot to alter those three starting stencils--put one branch on another branch, remove or move around leaves, reverse the image, etc.  So we were able to do a lot with it.

(NOTE:  If you like these stencils, you can find them here...And no, I wasn't paid to write any of this, it was just something I used and liked and wanted to share).

New Texas Design

I'd like to share a new design with you....a Texas Scribbleprint!

I was born in California, but have been living in Texas for a few years now.  This design actually came from a special request by my mom, who's living in Texas now too.  She didn't request JUST a Texas Scribbleprints...but a "I Survived the 2011 Texas Heat Wave" Scribbleprints.  See, this summer has been the hottest I've seen in the 10+ years I've lived here...and Texas summers are usually hot.  But this one didn't let up...a long stretch of 100+ degree heat, sometimes rising to the teens (I think it got up to 118), that just did not end.  Well, until now.  October is finally giving us some rain and cooler weather.

Here's the full design...

I Survived the 2011 Texas Heat Wave by Texifornia

I blurred the edges a bit on that...came out nice. On the finished t-shirts through Zazzle it sort of has a yellow glow around the edges.

I'm selling the 2011 Heat Wave design only in my Texifornia shops (Texifornia is my other blog)...

Texifornia at CafePress

Texifornia at Zazzle

The Texas Scribbleprint you can also find at...

Scribbleprints Zazzle

Here's some samples of the products with this design...

New Clear Stickers

Bumper stickers at my CafePress shop now come in CLEAR as well as the original opaque! Pretty cool!

CafePress Giveaways

Found a few CafePress giveaways online this month! Of course, the cool thing is, if you win these, you could get something designed by me! (If you want to of course). You can find my Artsy Scribbleprints by searching the marketplace under scribbleprints, and my Funny Designs by searching under galesgiggles.

October 12
$50 CafePress GC at Our Whiskey Lullaby

October 14
$50 CafePress GC at 3 Princes and a Princess 2

October 17
$50 CafePress GC at  Lucky Lucy

October 20
$50 CafePress GC at A Mom's Balancing Act

50% Off Cards and Invitations!

Use coupon code HCARDSAVINGS to get 50% off Invitations and Greeting Cards. Ends September 16!

Apple Personalized Invitation by scribbleprints
More Apple Invitations

 

Leaf Card Template by scribbleprints

 

Christmas Flurry Announcements by scribbleprints

Offer is valid through September 16, 2012 at 11:59pm PT. May not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or volume discount offers. If a volume discount applies to your order, you will receive either the discount set forth in this offer or the standard volume discount, whichever is greater. Not valid through international storefronts.  For international sales and coupons, click here.

Shop Hop Saturday

Hello!  I've been meaning to join this shop hop for a while, and finally am!  To introduce myself, I'm an artist who sells through CafePress and Zazzle (print on demand shops where you can sell your art on printed product for free).   You can see some of what I sell in the side-bar...and I have some really good coupons now (50% off coupon for cards and invitations, 35% off Canvas prints and more...which you can find by clicking here.

But the real reason I started today because I really feel like talking about some business issues I'm experiencing, and I thought the shop hop would be a good chance to share with some other sellers who maybe can relate.

Both Zazzle and CafePress offer shops where you can present your own product to customers, and a marketplace where customers can shop all the products of all the shopkeepers who sell there.  I've been with both both these for some time now, and have seen head in different directions.  Starting in 2008 CafePress made a series of changes that were bad for shopkeepers.

• They first became more vigilant about restricting links from their sites to any other POD (print on demand) sites (oh, maybe they always did that).  
• They changed their volumn bonus system so that marketplace sales didn't count towards the amount you had to earn to get a bonus (and lowered the amount you had to get to get a bonus...that at least was nice).
• They removed all the links to shopkeepers private shops in the marketplace, and made it so that THEY chose what products showed up in the marketplace (shopkeepers could opt all their products out, but CafePress choose to take some products out). 
• They removed all the shopkeepers product descriptions from their marketplace. 
• Worst of all for most shopkeepers, they changed their marketplace structure so that they had control of prices, not their shopkeepers (though shopkeepers could still set their own prices in their shops), setting all the CafePress marketplace prices at the same set price and giving shopkeepers a flat 10% of marketplace sales.  This put some shopkeepers (like me) in a place where marketplace customers were paying more for yourmany of your products, but you were getting less for them.
• Sales on marketplace products stopped applying to shops, and thought they eventually did start offering shop sales again, they were piddly ($3 off of $40 sales and such, compared to 20% off and Buy one Get One Free and such in the marketplace).  

Meanwhile, Zazzle did so many things to improve their marketplace for their shopkeepers, getting rid of nearly all the complaints people had about their program and adding so many other great improvements.

• Zazzle used to only let people have a flat 10% commission on all their sales, and not long before CafePress' changes, they changed that so YOU could set the percentage you got (with a price increase for higher percentages).
• They used to not allow much customization of shops and they added complete customization options.
• They added the ability for customers to customize products.
• They added a volumn bonus program with a minimul volumn just as low as CafePress', but that counted not only all your sales (from marketplace and shop), but also your affiliate sales (but not sales from your shop referred by others).
• They've started randomly giving shopkeepers $10 off $10 purchase coupons.
• Just recently, adding a Zazzle black program which allows customers to pay a yearly fee and get free shipping, taking care of their high shipping for multiple items problem.

Those changes added to some of their other already wonderful features (like customer comments, favorites, fan clubs, the ability to move images around on your products however you want, and frequent sales).

But now, I'm seeing the reverse possibly start to happen.  In the past year CafePress has been making some very positive changes:

• More shop sales (even if they're still piddly).
• Lots of giveaways on blogs 
• They made an easy way to make your shop products match the marketplace (which I just realized can work for individual products...so I'm going to start changing the few products that are generally lower in the marketplace to match that!)
• They've added the ability to move and resize your images on products (thought I still haven't figured it out...it either doesn't work on my browsers or it's just not intuitive).
• The ability to offer product customers can customize (good, but again, not intuitive...or maybe its just my browser).
• Changing their premium shop pricing sow you can choose a montly fee, or have them just take 10% not to exceed $10. (Which means I might be moving to a premium shop soon, in stead of the gobs of basic shops linked from GalesGiggles.com

Then, this month, I started noticing bad changes in Zazzle.

• Before, there was a link under each product in the marketplace which showed who made it, and when you clicked on it, it took you to their shop.  Now, when you click it shows your products, but doesn't take them to your shop.  I don't like this as it makes it harder for customers to join your fan club (only linked through your shop), and see your bio (where you can include outside links), and such.

• They just made us limit our tags to 40, and only the first 10 of those will be used in marketplace searches (though I'm not certain of that, because it seems like some of my later tags still work).  I'm mixed on this, because it does seem to make the marketplace searches work better...but it's a pain to go in and change all of those.  They didn't give us enough time before the change happened, and I'm still not even half way done.  It would have been nice if they had implemented some sort of way to change tags in bulk (not go into each product to change them, like we have to do now) when they did this.  

• They also limited us to only one category...which I think is a big mistake.  So many products can easily fit into two categories.  If they thought too many people were putting their products in the wrong category, they should have dealt with this some other way.  Perhaps just make all secondary category listings come after people who had listed that as a first category.  

While the Zazzle changes aren't TERRIBLE...I really hope this doesn't mean that they are heading down the same trail that CafePress did in 2008.   What concerns me most is the separation of the shops from the marketplace, because that was the pre-curser to CafePress's changes back when.  But, I'm hopeful that CafePress might be becoming more shopkeeper friendly again.

Laptop Skins and iPhone, IPad, Nook, and Kindle Cases on Sale Today!

My Scribbleprints cases in the CafePress marketplace are on sale today! $1 - $4 off the price they usually are in my shops. (Oh, yeah, and we have nook and kindle sleeves now! I haven't announced it because I haven't gotten all the designs added...but there's a few designs to choose from).

My Artistic Ones:

• iPhone Cases
• iPod Touch Cases
• iPad Cases & Cases
• Kindle Sleeves
• Nook Covers
• Laptop Skins

My Funny Ones:

• iPhone Cases
• iPod Touch Cases
• iPad Cases & Cases
• Kindle Sleeves
• Nook Covers
• Laptop Skins

Sale ends at midnight September 30th. Only works in the marketplace. Marketplace prices are originally higher in my shops, so the sale really isn't "40% off" as it says on the top, but does bring all the products lower than in my shops.

New designs brewing!

I have a few new designs brewing...

• I'm working on a Christmas Wreath Scribbleprint!  
• My mom suggested a Texas design (for this hot Texas summer) that I'm gonna try to knock out this weekend.
• And, I'm thinking about adding some photography...though I'm not half as good as some people I have a few shots I think might be worth putting on cards or something.  I have some of flowers on a mountainside I'm considering using, and I'm really considering doing something with some of my bug shots (which you can take a look at now on Texifornia).  But, then, I'm wondering...is there a market for cards and mmousepads and such with a big bug on them?   I'm not much of a bug fan myself, but I think some of those caterpiller ones are actually cute (not to mention that the coloring on those critters is amazing) and I actually think the spider one is pretty though I don't know if I would personally want it on anything!

Unfortunately, this will all be on hold for a little while while I re-do my tags on Zazzle. They are reducing the number of tags that show up on a search to 10. What a bother!

I LOVE PINTEREST!

rocks! I love it! It's a fun way to share your favorite things.  And I'd like to let you all know that you have permission to pin any of my designs or products! 

New canvas prints!

(Yeah, old designs...I know, I know.  I really need to do something new.) 

Lady Red by scribbleprints

Pierced by scribbleprints

Watercolor Apple by scribbleprints
 

See All Here!


TIP: Swap Colors to Match Decor

You can use the customization tool to change the background color on some of my artwork, including the Lady Red design.  It doesn't have to be red...it can be any color you want it to be!  Click here to learn how to change background colors.