Winning Entry in the "Sew Good!" Fabric Contest

Hello everyone, hope you had a good weekend filled with joy! I worked all weekend at a big cheerleading competition, it was work but it was an enjoyable weekend anyways. Some nice things happened, too! I found out this weekend that one of the fabrics I entered into Zazzle's Sew Good fabric contest was a category winner! My Spring Watercolour Floral Pattern was one of the winners for the Patterns category. One of the prizes is a feature in zazzles email blast, as well as a fat quarter of my winning design, which I am excited to get! I want to make an iPad case out of it. Not only that, but some of my designs were featured in some lovely Zazzlers blogs and websites! Its nice to get a little recognition for my artwork every now and again, and I appreciate it very much when it happens. :)
Here is my "Sew Good" entry that won in the "pattern" section:

Spring themed watercolour floral pattern! This cute pattern features a customizable background. It is a versatile pattern that really changes with each colour you pick. Try out some colours and see for yourself! 

Spring Floral Watercolor Pattern Fabric by TanyaDraws

And here is one of my St. Patricks designs that was featured in Bohemian Bound's St. Patrick's Day post. They picked 25 products to feature in a promotional blog post for St. Patricks day, and they do promotional posts for every holiday!

St. Patricks day nail art, filled with shamrocks and luck. This is a great way to show your love of all things Irish in a really subtle way. ;)

St Patricks Day Green Watercolour Shamrock Pattern Minx® Nail Art by TanyaDraws

And my crazy inked forest design was featured over at The Daily Rainbow blog, for the colour "black" last week! This blog features beautiful products in selected colour every day. 

I always love doodling, and this is one of my most intense doodles ever! I doodled leaves in black marker and pen, creating a really interesting to look at forest design. 

Crazy Inked Forest design Mug by TanyaDraws

Thanks to those who appreciate my artwork, I appreciate you too!

In other news I have continued with my daily draw sketches, follow my Tumblr Blog to see what I have been working on before it makes its way to zazzle! I'm an art machine. >:)

-Tanya

New Design: St. Patricks Day Watercolour Shamrocks

So yesterday I did a mass upload on my zazzle shop of a new design for St. Patricks Day! The collection is filled with shamrocks, luck and Irish goodness. While I don't partake in the St. Patricks Day drinking festivities, I do enjoy the colour green, luck & all things Ireland, and I love the shamrock plant.

The collection reminds me of when I was younger and I used to go through the clover fields trying to find a four leaf clover. If I found a four leaf clover I believed I was lucky. Not lucky in the sense that I would have good luck, but lucky in the sense that I found a four leaf clover! Little did I know that I was making my own "luck", by literally scouring the fields for a four leaf clover. While this design stands for St. Patricks Day & Irish symbolism, the underlying reason for me making this piece is about making your own luck.

The pattern I created is of a bunch of three leaf shamrocks, with four leaf clovers scattered in it. They are all different shades of green and textured with watercolours. At first it can be hard to spot the four leaf clovers, but every time you see one you can count yourself as one who just made their own luck! :)

Enough talk about the collection, here it is! It is available in both my Nuvango and Zazzle shops.

My shamrock pattern on an iPhone case from my Nuvango shop! I love how nuvango makes the previews look extra fancy. Check out the whole collection!

There is no better way to check your St. Patricks day makeup than with this "Irish" compact mirror! 

St Patricks Day Green Watercolour Shamrock Pattern Travel Mirrors by TanyaDraws

It certainly wouldn't be a St. Patricks day celebration without a drinking accessory.  Here is a St. Patricks day flask with my shamrock pattern on it! Easily change the background & add text. 

St Patricks Day Green Watercolour Shamrock Pattern Flasks by TanyaDraws

Here is my shamrocks wrapping paper, which actually just sold in the middle of me making this blog post! It will soon be travelling to California. Thanks for buying, and thanks to the lovely referrer! 

St Patricks Day Green Watercolour Shamrock Pattern Gift Wrap Paper by TanyaDraws

I'll showcase more of my items closer to St. Patricks day... you know, to spread the festivities around! ;)

New Design: Inked Watercolour Turtles

Earlier this week I really felt like drawing something relaxing, so i picked up my pen and black marker and drew a turtle! It was fun to draw all the little decorative lines in the shell. I was also watching House while I drew (netflix enables me to binge watch TV!) so it proved a relaxing evening. I decided to scan it into the computer and turn it into a vector & colour it in watercolours, giving the turtle more depth and bright colours. One day I will actually paint a real watercolour painting instead of just texture blobs on paper to use digitally. But for now, this is really fun. ;)

Here is the turtle before it turned watercolour vector:

My inked turtle! Everything I draw is straight from pen, so I have to place my lines pretty carefully as a big mistake forces me to restart my drawing. As you can see, I made a little bit of a goof on the head, but its nothing that can't be fixed in my digital version! ;)

And here is the watercolour version, in the form of a zazzle postcard:

As you can see it is very clean and the slight mistakes I made in the original are gone. Even though it is now a digital format, it retains the traditional look & feel. 

Green Watercolour Ink Drawn Turtle Post Cards by TanyaDraws

The single turtle was looking a little lonely though, so I decided to make a pattern out of it. Here is my finished pattern, on a zazzle fabric: 

I added a soft blue to the background. It is a simple pattern, but it makes a great fabric!

Green Watercolour Ink Drawn Turtle Pattern Fabric by TanyaDraws

I definitely will be drawing more like this on the weekend. I am going to be working at a cheerleading competition over the weekend with a video crew, and in between burning DVDs I have time to sketch a few things. Be prepared for a giant burst of new art next week!

Here are a few other products that I made with my turtle illustration! :) 

I haven't featured labels here before, but I really like making them! This turtle label is great for labelling kids school items, and has a phone number on them incase these items get lost. The labels come in sheets of 30.

Green Watercolour Ink Drawn Turtle Return Address Labels by TanyaDraws

Proceeds from this HEART tote bag goes towards a group of mothers in Kenya, who were shunned from society because they have special needs kids. The bags are handmade by the mothers in Kenya and help to provide an income for their families. Read more about the Malaika mums sewing project on zazzle with LIFE Line Here! Definitely a great cause. Easily add a name to personalize this tote bag!

Green Watercolour Ink Drawn Turtle Zazzle HEART Tote Bag by TanyaDraws

Finally, my turtles pattern on a clear uncommon deflector iPhone 6 case! I love this pattern on this case! Customize the colour or add a name. I like the font Roder Outline on it, it creates a very playful personalized iPhone case.

Green Watercolour Ink Drawn Turtle Pattern Uncommon Clearly™ Deflector iPhone 6 Case by TanyaDraws

New Zazzle Product: Moleskine Notebook

Last post I discussed Passport Holders on zazzle... now I am going to feature the new moleskine notebooks!

I'm really excited about these notebooks. They come in 3 sizes and feature fully customizable covers and lined paper. The covers on these notebooks are soft and when you are done writing in all the pages, simply take out those pages and refill the moleskine cover with paper of the same size from any moleskine brand. You can even swap your lined paper out for plain paper if you want to. These are made from 100% recycled paper stock, sealed with vinyl laminate and and hand sewn with clear vinyl pockets. Best of all, these moleskine notebooks are hand made in the USA by maker Eleven Eleven! I will be customizing one of these for my boyfriend for his birthday soon enough.. shhh! ;)

I had a lot of fun designing the covers on these moleskine notebooks. I added a personalized name with monogram to all of them, and like always, I made this design fully customizable! You can remove the name if you like and just have the design. I made these notebooks available in all my designs, so there are lots to choose from!

Here are a few of my favourites.

My turquoise tiles pattern with a faux bookmark ribbon with dotted circle monogram! This one is my favourite, I wish I put the bookmark on the rest of them (but I didn't have this graphic done at the time!)

Turquoise Tile Pattern Pocket Notebook Cover by TanyaDraws

My Foxes and Laurel wreath on a dotted background with a light mint green. I really like how this one turned out, the mint green actually works very well with the orange dots & foxes. This would make a great present for younger girls who are starting to write down personal notes.

Fox, Hearts & Laurel Wreath Polkadot Monogram Pocket Notebook Cover by TanyaDraws

Here is my turquoise glitter tribal print moleskine notebook! I really like this pattern a lot. Remember, this isn't real glitter, it just has the look of glitter! You can change the color of the actual tribal print to get different looks.

Glam Turquoise Glitter Tribal Print Pattern Pocket Notebook Cover by TanyaDraws

And of course one of my favourites as I sit here starting out my snow covered window, wishing I was somewhere tropical... my glitter pineapples retro pattern! Reminiscent of the tropics and 60s patterns & fashion. Change the beige stripes to different colours for different looks!

Glitter Tropical Pineapple with Stripes and Dots Pocket Notebook Cover by TanyaDraws

What do you think of the new moleskine line?

Fabrics featured in the Zazzle marketplace!!

I was browsing the brand new fabrics section on zazzle when I noticed something that is exciting (well it excited me anyways!). Two of my fabrics are featured on the main fabrics page in two different spots. The first one I noticed was in the Editors Fabric Picks, where my snails and swirls fabric was featured alongside 99 other gorgeous fabrics! It really made me happy to see that. And then as I continued to browse the new fabric section, I noticed that my peacock blue modern watercolour leaves fabric is featured as the thumbnail for the themed fabric grouping, "modern"! See all the categories here.

This really made my week better, thanks for picking my Snails in Editors Picks & for featuring my leaves fabric Zazzle!  :)

Here are the two fabrics that can be very easily seen in the fabrics section! ;)

My snails pattern, great for kids who are in a bug loving stage.  The background colour is customizable, I picked the mustard yellow because I thought it looked great with the cream and lavender snails!

Illustrated Snail and Swirls Pattern Fabric by TanyaDraws

My modern watercolour leaf design, featured in the "modern" section of fabrics! This is the same pattern that I used in my pattern tutorial. It seems someone at Zazzle thought it was nice, too! :)

Peacock blue modern watercolor leaf design fabric by TanyaDraws

And then I noticed something that made me happy, and then gradually sad. :( In my shops info page, I noticed that my tropical watercolour pineapple fabric is listed under my recently sold items! But then when I checked my account history, it seems that there is no history of me actually selling this item. I'm thinking it is just a glitch, or maybe someone got a free swatch of fabric. At any rate, it has been two days with it not showing up in my actual royalty history, so I'm assuming it didn't really sell. On the bright side, because this fabric "sold", it is now showing up higher in the marketplace, which means more people are looking at it anyways. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for it to actually sell though! 

Here is the mysterious sold but unsold fabric! I hope it actually does sell. It is a nice tropical pattern so I think it will get more recognition when it is no longer winter. :) 

Tropical Summertime Watercolor Pineapple Pattern Fabric by TanyaDraws

On the topic of fabrics, I came across a blog post on zazzle which is great little craft and decorating project that is awesome for people who love fabrics, but don't actually possess the skills to properly use fabrics. I know this is one I am going to try, because I am absolutely terrifyingly BAD at sewing or anything related to sewing, but this one looks nice and is one I could actually do. Click the picture below to get to the tutorial on making DIY Fabric Embroidery Hoop Mantles! 

To make this an extra special piece of artwork for your wall, you can paint the embroidery hoop to match the colours on the fabric. Definitely easy, and definitely not beyond my very limited fabric skills! ;) 

New Zazzle Product: Travel Passport Holder

Soooo yesterday I was feeling pretty productive! I wrote the Nuvango post that I wanted to for a while, I created a whole new set of items for my shop and I was settling down to do some reading with my newly made tea. I apparently don't know how to close my tea thermos, because I accidentally knocked it over and the lid flew open and spilt boiling tea all over my leg. Now I am left with giant burn blisters on my leg, which isn't very fun. On the bright side, the burn and ginormous blisters are where my boots will have to go, and since I can't put on boots and its snowing like nuts outside it means I didn't have to go out. So today was all lazing around and trying to let my giant blisters settle. But enough about my leg, with the indoor relaxation came some productivity!

The second new product from Zazzle that I am going to feature is the passport holder! These passport holders fit all standard sized U.S, Canadian, Mexican, Australian and EU passports. They are made from 100% durable recycled paper stock and finished with vinyl to make them extra tough and water resistant. Best of all, this product is hand made in Los Angeles! To show off this exciting new product, I created a Polyvore travel collage. Featured in this collage is my red penguin passport holder, as well as other red items from my shop and other online shops!

This set is designed to allow to you travel in comfort and style while keeping yourself entertained on your flight. Here is a closeup of some of my favourite passport holders so far!

My penguin passport holder that I featured in my collage!

Cute Smiling Penguin with Scarf Passport Holder by TanyaDraws

Personalized blue leaf watercolour pattern! This has always been one of my favourites, and I will be designing new watercolour plants soon!

Peacock blue modern watercolor leaf design passport holder by TanyaDraws

My best selling design along with a personalized monogram! Everyone always loves a classic owl. 

Hand Drawn Black and white Owl Passport Holder by TanyaDraws

Nuvango Artist's Review: Selling on Nuvango

*Update #2 (Sept 22, 2017): The makers of Nuvango have launched a website called notion.ca - a website where you can upload your art on products to purchase on demand. They do not seem to have an artist shop option, but this may be good for artists who go to art shows, or sell their art products themselves through their personal shop. See the new notion.ca here. If Notion decides to open up artist shops, I'll definitely post about it here.

*UPDATE (Sept 27, 2015): Nuvango is closing artist shops October 2015. For information on how to sell designs on the new Nuvango platform, you will have to inquire through Nuvango's contact page or through their social media. No information has been given on whether they will be accepting new artists or not at this point in time. I will update this blog post if there are any changes!*





So I decided at the beginning of the new year I would experiment with a variety of different print on demand sites to see which ones I like and why. A few days ago I joined one that I hadn't heard of before, Nuvango! You can view my gallery here! If you ever heard of GelaSkins, Nuvango is made by the same people. It is basically GelaSkins turned into a print on demand website, aimed more at artists than the previous GelaSkins brand was. They are a relatively new POD site, but they have garnered quite a bit of attention from artists so far, so there is no lack of art on their website. You can choose to put your products on Fine Art Prints, Stretched Canvases, Greeting Cards, iPhone cases & skins for just about any device. They will be adding Pillows and Tshirts to the collection on Feb 10.

Here are some key things you should know about Nuvango when you are setting up shop.


1. Artists Ownership

The first thing that I look for when joining a new POD website is if I keep the rights to my images, and if they want exclusivity or not. At Nuvango, you keep the rights to all of your images, and you can choose to remove them from your gallery at any time. The only rights that Nuvango has to your images at this time is the right to print and distribute them on items that you choose, and to use your images on products for promotions. Nuvango doesn't have exclusive rights to your artwork, so you can sell on Nuvango while continuing to sell your designs on other websites.

2. Royalty & Wholesale

Unlike Redbubble and Zazzle, you don't get to set your own royalty rates at Nuvango. Your royalty is set at 20% by default for all products. Nuvango also has a wholesale option, that you can opt in or out of for products. Royalty rate for wholesale purchases is 12%. Not setting your own royalty rate is both good and bad at the same time, bad if you like to set your royalties per product, but good for marketplace viewing, because every product from its line is the same price. There is a 30 day processing time for payments to clear, but after that you can withdraw your earnings at any time.

3. Putting up a collection

On Nuvango starting a collection is very easy, and comparable to redbubble in the sense that there is little customization. When you add your artwork, it must be saved in RGB colour format, atleast 2000 px in size and saved as a JPG or PNG (and of course, you must have rights to use the image you are uploading). You can't change the position of your image on individual products, but you can customize the "sweet spot", the focal point of your image, ensuring that what you want on your products will actually be there. When your artwork is added, you are asked which products you would like to opt in to sell. When you select these products they automatically change the wholesale settings as well, so if you would not like to opt in to wholesale you will have to change those back yourself.

The gallery profiles in Nuvango are beautifully laid out, and the product previews are gorgeous! You can add up to 30 pieces of art in your gallery, making sure people put up their best work rather than everything. You can replace art in your gallery at any time.

Here is what my gallery looks like on my phone.
Easy to browse, looks very simple and nice. (and yes my phone is almost dead!)

** Just a note on iPad and Phone cases: when you sell a case, it comes with a matching wallpaper to set on your phone. Just a warning for people who don't want their art being given out in a digital format.

4. Searching art on Nuvango

Nuvango's marketplace is curated into different galleries of artwork that is chosen by Nuvango. This makes for very beautiful galleries, however I am yet to find a way to search for "newest" (unless I am missing something huge) so there is little chance of someone stumbling across your work unless they are searching for specific keywords. So if you are going to successfully sell on Nuvango, you will have to rely heavily on marketing yourself and work on making great keywords that people will search for. As far as I can tell, there is no limit on keywords, so describe your product to the fullest in keywords. The people who get featured on nuvango are those who have the most "likes" on their products and therefore are more popular. So getting to know the nuvango artist community over social media streams will be useful for you.

A screenshot of the Gallery/ Shop page on Nuvango. You can browse popular
artwork and curations.

My Thoughts on Nuvango

These are the big points that I really looked into when creating my Nuvango gallery. The things I like the most are the way your gallery looks, it really is professional and beautiful. I like the product previews a lot, they are very clean.  I really don't mind the royalty rate being set at a default 20% and I like that there is an option for wholesale.

The only issue I have with Nuvango is the marketplace. The galleries are curated beautifully, but if customers don't know what they are looking for, they are going to stay in those galleries rather than search the marketplace. When you do use the search function and search for a keyword, there is no way to further limit your search by things like popular or newest (or by product) so there is a very big chance that your design will be lost in the marketplace forever. There is a chance that when someone looks at an item yours will show up under "related artwork", but I find that the related artwork isn't really related, and they are again usually the most popular items.

In all, I think Nuvango is a great place for artists who already have a huge following, but it will be tough going for artists who are new. For artists just starting out who have very little social media exposure, redbubble and zazzle seem to be a better place to start with.

I will keep you updated on how my shop is doing throughout the year, and compare it to Redbubble and Zazzle at the end of each month!

Here is what a phone case in Nuvango looks like on preview! They look so pretty.

Are you already on Nuvango? Are you selling things on this POD website, and what are your likes / dislikes about it so far?

New Zazzle Items: Bridal Drink Bottle Cooler

Hey guys, I'm here with a shop update on this lovely Saturday morning! Yesterday I found out that Zazzle has three new items, drink bottle coolers, moleskine notebooks and ink pens. Since there were new items, I went on a creation spree! Creating products is 10x more fun now that I have a whole library of designs. I didn't realize until yesterday just how many I had! My hard work & practice of my pattern and illustration work these past months is really starting to show. Since there are three new items, I am going to feature one today!

Added to my wedding & bridal collection today is... drink bottle coolers! You might be thinking that its really random that I am adding drink bottle coolers to my wedding collection, but if you think about it, it fits! When you are at weddings, everyones drinks get mixed up. If the bride and everyone else in the wedding party had their own drink bottle coolers labeled with their names, drinks wouldn't get mixed up ever again! Good idea, right? ;) These drink bottle coolers say "Bride's Drink", but you can change the text to label this drink cooler for anyone.

I have designed them in most of my floral and chevron patterns... here are some of my favourites! These designs are available in both bottle & can shapes. If you would like to see a bride's drink bottle cooler in a different colour or design, let me know and I can personalize one for you! :)

This chevron pattern is decorated with a wine red, and the alternating colour can be changed to be whatever you want! 

Wine Red Chevron Bride's Drink Bottle Cooler by TanyaDraws

This one is one of my favourites! You can pick whatever colour you want, and it will show up as a lighter shade in the alternating chevron. This one is perfect for colour themed weddings! You could customize this one to give everyone in the wedding party different shades of your wedding colour. That would be really unique!

Choose your Colour Chevron Bride's Drink Bottle Cooler by TanyaDraws

This is my old pink chrysanthemum design on a pale pink. This bottle cooler has matching invites, so if you are thinking about using those for your wedding you might want this too! ;) 

Pink Chrysanthemum Bride's Drink Bottle Cooler by TanyaDraws

Cherry and Blue Alternating Chevron Collection

Yesterday I had a really awesome day! I got a call early morning that I didn't have to go to work because of the snow... so I got to get paid to stay in with my boyfriend, who also got a snow day. I watched tv, drank tea (apple custard from Davids tea... mmm!), and worked on some new designs, all cozy warm inside the house. :) Having such an awesome unexpected long weekend made it harder for me to wake up for work this morning though. I didn't laze about the house the whole weekend though, I was pretty productive for the most part! I created different chevron patterns this weekend to add to my fabric collection on zazzle, and added my favourite one to a wide variety of products.
Also, I sold something right after I finished my monthly roundup! My see through pink watercolour valentines iPhone 6 case sold on the 31st of January. Since I had 2 sales January and 1 sale December, my goal for February is 3-4 sales. Here is the item:

Thanks to my buyer! This is a personalized case where you can add your  initials.

Pink Watercolor Hearts Valentines Uncommon Clearly™ Deflector iPhone 6 Plus Case by TanyaDraws

Now here is my new design, my cherry and blue chevron pattern! It is fun with retro colours that are offset so that the lines of the chevron pop. Chevron is a staple pattern to have, its timeless and trendy, and always looks awesome! Here are some of the items I created yesterday and the day before. See how cheery they look? It is a reflection of how I felt this weekend! ;)

A sticker that says hi! These stickers come in sheets of 20. This is a cute way to start hand written notes. :) 

Cherry and Blue Faded Chevron Pattern Hi! Square Stickers by TanyaDraws

Its a good morning because you now have your coffee or tea in a cute mug!~

Cherry and Blue Faded Chevron Pattern Coffee Mugs by TanyaDraws

My favourite! I wish I had one of these in college, I wouldn't have lost my usb stick if it was cute and personalized! Personalize the monogram, and choose the size. It is available in sizes 8GB - 64GB.

Cherry and Blue Faded Chevron Pattern Swivel USB 2.0 Flash Drive by TanyaDraws

A cute monogram chevron wristlet! Perfectly girly and a great size for your phone, makeup and cards.

Cherry and Blue Faded Chevron Pattern Fabric Wristlets by TanyaDraws