Wednesday 31 December 2014

Happy New Year!

Today is officially the last day in December... and am I ever glad to leave 2014 in the dust! While there was some good moments, most of it was pretty terrible, and just downright depressing. 2014 taught me that I can't be as trusting of people as I am, the economy just sucks a lot, and I turned 25.. the year where I was supposed to have achieved all my college goals and be in a good place in life! I achieved none of these set goals, and with the crap that happened this year I don't even have the same optimism that I had when I was 21 and finishing college.
Since I could not achieve any of my big goals, I am just going to make 2015 a year of smaller goals that will help me get my life on track.

Some small goals I achieved in 2014:
- Got over my massive creative block
- Launched my gallery website (tanyalegere.com)
- Opened a TFSA and saved a big chunk of money
- Explored my options, opened zazzle, redbubble and designbyhumans store.

I am gonna start 2015 off with the goals of not drinking any more pop (that ones a toughy!), adding 5 items a day to my zazzle shop, continue to draw and experiment with graphics once a day, and double my savings by June! I know I can achieve these ones, much of it is just continuing the small goals I set for myself the beginning of December.

This also marks the end of my first month on zazzle! Heres my stats:
559 Pageviews
121 Sessions
368 Items for Sale
15 unique designs and illustrations
1 Sale (Owl Luggage Tag)

My top 3 viewed items are:
#1: Owl Luggage tag (12 views)
Owl Luggage Tag
Owl Luggage Tag by TanyaDraws
Browse other Travel Luggage Tags

#2: Sunrise Owl Makeup Bag (8 views)
Sunrise Owl Case Makeup Bags
Sunrise Owl Case Makeup Bags by TanyaDraws
Browse more Sunset Bagettes Bags
#3: Ipad Mini Owl Case (7 views)
iPad Mini Owl Case iPad Mini Sleeves
iPad Mini Owl Case iPad Mini Sleeves by TanyaDraws
View more Ipad mini owl iPad Sleeves

It seems my owl items are my most popular. It is also the first design I put on zazzle! I was surprised to sell one item in December, as I heard that it takes months before you start selling, and I joined at the end of christmas shopping season. I don't expect many sales, maybe I will get a few around valentines day (I have some couple designs I am adding soon), but for now I am going to focus on just getting my work out there and learning about the POD marketplace. The amount of pageviews and sessions is a very good sign to me, it shows that I have been successfully diverting traffic to my zazzle page, and that I should just keep up what I am doing!

Zazzlers and readers, what is your new years goal? I hope everyone has wonderful New Years celebrations lined up, and has an awesome start to 2015! :)

Tanya

Monday 29 December 2014

Wristlets & Makeup bags

Hello everyone, I hope everyone has had a wonderful christmas! As for me, it was very nice to have a break from work, and I really look forward to new years for the same reason. :P

Because it was christmas and for the most part hectic, I didn't update very much with my zazzle shop. What I did do was revamped some old designs and did research into alternate POD sites. I decided to make accounts on redbubble and designbyhumans, because both seem very artist friendly and I would like to compare the success from these vs zazzle. Hopefully in a month or two I will have many of my designs up on those sites, and I will be able to compare the pageviews and sales of these vs zazzle.

I also took stock of my zazzle shop this week, to see what designs still have to be added to particular projects. I remembered that I really, really like the makeup bags, and I had forgotten to add my designs to them! Here are some of my favourite makeup bags and wristlets... I will be adding the rest of my designs to them soon!


This is my newest wristlet, I took my laurel leaves and flowers bouquet design and put it on top of a grey chevron. I really like how it turned out!

Tuesday 23 December 2014

iPhone 6 Cases

In the process of building up my shop, I have turned many of my designs into phone cases. The phone cases are all fully customizable, you are able to change whether you want a simple, "hardly there" case, all the way to a totally durable waterproof case, and you can even change the background colour and add your name. Zazzle was quick to add iPhone 6 cases to the mix, and while I have other phone cases in my gallery, I will be focusing on those for today.

My fave design right now is my Flowers & Laurel Leaves design, I have created 3 cases with this illustration and I plan on creating iPhone 6 Plus cases with this design as well. I would like to keep making floral illustrations like this one. They are so versatile and look good on almost anything, not to mention how much fun I have making them. :)
Iphone 6 Plus case:
Pink Chrysanthemum iPhone 6 Plus Case Barely There iPhone 6 Plus Case
Pink Chrysanthemum iPhone 6 Plus Case Barely There iPhone 6 Plus Case by TanyaDraws
See more Chrysanthemum Casemate Cases

I haven't made many 6 plus cases yet, but I will be making more soon enough!

If you are ever wondering what new designs I am working on before I put them on zazzle, visit my tumblr page http://tanyadraws.tumblr.com. I post daily drawings there, and most of my daily drawings make it to zazzle one way or another :) 

Monday 22 December 2014

Turquoise Kitchenware

Today I am featuring some of the kitchen decor items I have created on zazzle. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that you could design all sorts of kitchen things here- from cutting boards and cheese boards, to plates, dishes and napkins. I have decorated the kitchen decor with many of my designs, but the turquoise ones are my favourite.


Turquoise Cheese Board Rectangular Cheese Board
Turquoise Cheese Board Rectangular Cheese Board by TanyaDraws
View other Turquoise Cheese Boards

Newest creation: a soup mug! This is the first one I have made for my shop. Soup mugs are the best, I have one at home and it is the only thing I will use for my soup. Okay, I use it for soup, but since I found out it is a great size for making mug cakes, I really just mostly use it for those. :) If you haven't tried making a mug cake, you must! I tried recipes from the book mug cakes by Lene Knudsen (Mug cakes book: http://www.bookdepository.com/Mug-Cakes-Lene-Knudsen/9781742708553)... they are absolutely delicious, and the best part is how quick they are to make! This mug is even microwave safe,  making it a wonderful mug cake mug. ;) 

Sunday 21 December 2014

My Fave Cute Pillows

Hello, I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday!

Since its Sunday and all I want to do is stay comfy at home (even though I have to do some last minute christmas shopping), I decided it was a great time to share some pillows! Pillows are my absolute favourite to design, they always look super cute. Hope you like them!

Purple and orange owl pillow
Purple and orange owl pillow by TanyaDraws

Sometime this week I will be posting some valentines day designs that I am working on (its not too early, is it? :P) and my random home decor items!

-Tanya

Saturday 20 December 2014

Pink Chrysanthemum

Earlier this week I created a pink chrysanthemum illustration, and brought it into my zazzle shop. I really like how this design turned out! I added a chevron background to some, and for others I experimented with filling the whole design with my flower. I put this on mainly accessories and home decor. Here are some of my favourite accessories from this design:

Friday 19 December 2014

My progress so far!

Hello, welcome to my blog! I opened my Zazzle shop officially on December 8th, 2014. So far its going great! I am having so much fun building my shop. As of today, I have created a total of 344 items, 14 unique illustrations (yes, I went pretty darn crazy xD!).  So far what I like about zazzle is the selection of items, and the customization. Customers are able to customize my designs with their own text, which is great. The item selection is wonderful, I end up putting my designs on things I wouldn't even have thought of. An example is my recently sold Owl Luggage Tag, shown below. Who knew luggage tags were such a hot item? I created this my first week on zazzle!
Owl Luggage Tag
First item sold! Thankyou <3

Owl Luggage Tag by TanyaDraws
View more Travel Luggage Tags

As for this week,  I focused on floral designs! These pillows are my fave from this week. I'll post more products by design soon! :)
Illustrated Flowers & Laurel Leaves Pillows
Illustrated Flowers & Laurel Leaves Pillows by TanyaDraws
More Golden alexander Pillows