Sunday 27 September 2015

Nuvango is closing Artist Shops

Nuvango sent out a mass email to designers & artists on September 25th, 2015 stating that they will be closing their artist shops. They will be keeping a select few artists or designs to feature on a new type of rotating collection, going from a marketplace to an eCommerce style shop mid October.

I am quite a fan of Nuvango & their products, and was happy to set up shop there so that I could both sell my designs to others and purchase things with my own designs on them. You might recall the 3DS skin I purchased earlier in the year (which is still looking nice, btw!), it was awesome to be able to customize my 3DS with my own design, and felt amazing to be able to buy something purely made in Toronto, so close to my hometown! What hasn't been clear in the email is whether people can still create their own custom products to order through Nuvango, and if the old collection will be available for customization, or just the new, rotating collection.

What I am also wondering is if the artists who stay will still be able to upload new and exciting artwork, or if what is currently on Nuvango will be their collection.

In light of this news, I will no longer be including Nuvango on my monthly stats list or on print on demand comparisons... as it is no longer a POD! With the limit on 30 designs per artists plus the limited selection of products, I found myself maxed out with what I could do with my shop two months ago. Although I wasn't very active in it, I did manage to make sales every month, as my design was part of Nuvango's main gallery.

 If you currently have a Nuvango shop, you have the option of waiting it out to see if your designs are still included when the changes go live, or deleting your gallery & account in advanced.
If you have any questions about this new change to the Nuvango online store, you can contact Nuvango through email or phone Here.

Did you have a Nuvango shop? Is this change terrible news to you, or did Nuvango never work out for you? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this recent change in the comments.

Thursday 17 September 2015

Halloween, hearts & Sloths Fabrics!

Hello everyone, it is week two of my fabulous new computer and I am still getting used to having a computer that isn't 7 years old - gotta say, things are going pretty smoothly! I've been catching up on so much of my freelance work, I edited all of my holiday photographs that I had been putting off for ages, and I made some new patterns quite effortlessly! The only hiccup I have encountered so far is a random crash with Adobe CS5 programs, which is sad because I randomly lose my work. There is a compatibility issue currently with Adobe CS5 & the Yosemite 10.10.5 update, and it is one of those things that an average computer user such as I cannot fix, so until apple comes out with the next OS update I am using adobe CC the trial version.

Other than new computer and new software, there is the new changes on Zazzle - Zrank for designers. Zrank on top of the 6 month marketplace visibility rule has made me rethink how I upload my designs. I used to do it all in one big batch of one design, and then when I made a new design I would upload that one after. The problem with this is that I am releasing all products with a certain design at one point in time, and it might not be easily visible in the marketplace a week later. Since I have so many designs building up, I figured I would try a sort of rotation to upload products.
For example, on Day 1 I upload pattern A, B, and C to 5 products each, and each day after I upload those three products until I have them uploaded on all the products. That way all three patterns have a chance at being seen as a new product in Zazzle's marketplace for as many days as I am uploading them, rather than the binge upload of one design I used to do. Not only that, but after I am uploading the products each day it gives me a chance to view them all (for Zazzle's 6 month view rule) and share things of different patterns and designs to social media each day. Can this be a solution for designs falling through the cracks? Only time will tell! ;)

And in practicing my new way of uploading designs, I have created fabrics in four different patterns recently! The halloween / fall pumpkin pattern is just on time for any halloween creations. The rose gold metallic hearts pattern was an experiment on my new computer to find out how fast I can make a pattern - I was so impressed with how it turned out that I had to add it right away! It is available with stripes in the background or plain background. Lastly, the watercolour sloths pattern fabric, with adorable sloths hanging out on a tree branch - which would be the perfect fabric for a crafty sloth lovers homemade bag, dress, or pillow! Seriously, can't anyone else see Kristen Bell rocking a sloth pattern dress? XD



Rose Gold Champagne Metallic Hearts Pattern Fabric
Rose Gold Champagne Metallic Hearts Pattern Fabric by TanyaDraws
Browse more Rose gold hearts Fabrics at Zazzle


Sunday 13 September 2015

Zazzle Custom Product Feature: Air Fresheners

Zazzle is constantly adding new and exciting products to their lineup of personalized gifts. This year we have seen especially creative ones, one of my favourites being air fresheners! Its such a random thing, but such a good idea - people use air fresheners in their cars, rooms, gym bags & lockers, so why not be able to customize them with a name, initial or expression too?

Here is a little background on the product. They are made by Zazzle Maker Instafreshener, a company created by a husband and wife team, who merged their problem solving & creativity together to come up with these fabulous, custom printed, long lasting air fresheners. Since they joined Zazzle, they have sold quite an amount of air fresheners, and there are 70 reviews on them, averaging 4.5/5 stars! People love them. To see more about them, visit their website here! 

The air fresheners aren't only customizable in design, you can also change the shape and scent. The five scents you can choose from are: 

New CarKick it up a notch and enjoy the refreshing smells of a new car. Let's go on a road trip!
Cucumber & Fresh Mint A light, refreshing blend of cool cucumber and fresh spearmint. Cool as a cucumber.
Fast Lane "Black Ice" - Get your motor running and be ready for a blast of refreshing cool smells. Invigorating and exhilarating at the same time.
Emerald Sea This fruity floral blend is a mix of lemon and lime with layers of mango, peach and peony. Sweet and delious with no extra calories.
Island Breeze Lily of the Valley, Water Lotus, Rosewater, Star Jasmine, Violet, Musk, and Sea Moss. The island life is nice and breezy.

You can make your air freshener square, heart shaped, portrait and landscape rectangle, and printing is double sided.

Here are some of my premade designs, that feature a name & initial! They are customizable on both sides of the air freshener, and make great gifts for someones first car, party gift bags, stocking stuffers at christmas time, gift packages & employee presents... the possibilities are endless. 

Lavender Geometric Star Maze Pattern
Lavender Geometric Star Maze Pattern by TanyaDraws
Check out Optical illusion Air Fresheners online at zazzle



Reverse Ladybugs & Leaves on Brown Paper Pattern
Reverse Ladybugs & Leaves on Brown Paper Pattern by TanyaDraws
View other White ladybug Air Fresheners at Zazzle.com

Wednesday 9 September 2015

August 2015 stats from Zazzle, Redbubble and Nuvango

Hey guys, it is time again for my monthly roundup of stats. I am getting to it a bit late this time, I had a lovely long weekend road trip with my boyfriend and his family and I also got some other things done... such as the purchase of my brand new LAPTOP!! Thats right, a new laptop! I can now do things that other people can do, such as save illustrator files without worrying they will crash, actually resize patterns without waiting hours for the change to take place, and be able to actually open some of the large scale working file illustrations I drew! LOL, seriously, you have no idea how happy these little changes make me. I am going to be a designing machine now that I have my new laptop.

While August was a busy time for me, it was a pretty slow time for the POD world I have set up shop in. And it is looking even worse from what I have seen so far in September, too. The lack of sales could be because of it being August and holiday season, or it could be because I have not been posting many things on this blog or on social media. My social media presence has dipped dramatically as I try to focus on other things, such as simply creating new designs, my own freelance work, and updating my website & portfolio. I am finding it increasingly hard to do social media promoting at the same rate as I used to, especially in August as I was playing catch up adding designs to my Zazzle shop after the whole W-8 BEN fiasco, and now they have revamped our shop fronts & profiles and added a new thing called "Zrank" so I am trying to figure out that too, but I think that last one will be a lost cause. Anyways, here is the roundup from the month of August!

Nuvango Shop

As usual, not much to say about my Nuvango shop! I can't really promote it much because you can only add a max of 30 items, there are no new products to share my designs on and there isn't much social interaction between artists on the actual website besides liking other artist pages and liking art. My stats are pretty much the same as usual.

Sales: 1
Advertising/Sharing: None
Followers: 45 (the same!)
Most liked Design: Still Tri-Colour Geometric Pattern (50 likes!)

My sold item this month:

I sold the same item this month as I did last month, too! I might be in the market
for one of these myself now. ;) 
Redbubble Shop

My redbubble shop has slowed down dramatically! It was going pretty smooth after the hype of my cat to be kitten me right meow pillow, but I haven't added many designs or done much promoting this month.

Sales: 2
Advertising/Sharing: None
Most Viewed Design: Glitter Tropical / Retro Pineapples: 2973 Views

My sold items on RedBubble this month:

Another pineapple sticker! :) 

I sold my first travel mug! Its actually super cute, I am glad someone
is enjoying it. :)
Zazzle Shop

Lastly, my Zazzle shop! Zrank, new profile change & trying to catch up from the W-8 BEN payment fiasco break has made it hard to get back into the swing of things. Despite the lack of activity on my part, I still did manage to make sales although it was less than the previous months.

Sales: 8
Advertising/Sharing: None, but my pineapple flask has been featured on the homepage a lot this month!!
Most Viewed Design: Tropical Summertime Pineapple Fabric (485 Views now!)

My sold items:

Hand Drawn Black and white Owl Passport Holder
Hand Drawn Black and white Owl Passport Holder by TanyaDraws
Browse more Owl Passport Holders at Zazzle



Polkadot Pastel Sheep Stationery
Polkadot Pastel Sheep Stationery by TanyaDraws
Design personal stationery with zazzle

sold 30 of these stationery sheets!



Wet Arctic Wolf in Spring Photo Car Bumper Sticker
Wet Arctic Wolf in Spring Photo Car Bumper Sticker by CanadianNature
View other Arctic wolf Bumper Stickers

And I sold my first design from my photography shop that I set up last month, an arctic wolf bumper sticker! :)

Thank you to all who purchased stuff from my shop this month, I hope you are enjoying your artistic gifts! 

Designers, how were your sales this August, was it a slow month too? I hope September is better for everyone! 

Tanya