RB Duvet Covers & Fox Wreath

Well, its Monday again, and its snowing! Sadly not snowing enough for me to not go to work, but its still pretty. Although, I would much rather be sitting here near my fire, drinking tea (chocolate chai tea today, mmmm) and drawing, than having to actually go out in the snow to get to work soon. Since I only have limited time to write today, I'm gonna try and summarize. ;)

Since I was waiting for a lot of things to process through quick create last week, I made it a week of improvement and experimentation. Thanks to suggestions from the zazzlers on the Zazzle forum, I was able to implement a few things onto my blog, and have many more on my to-do list! If you are looking for some things to spruce up your blog, here is the forum post for a bunch of great suggestions.

One of the resources I realized I wasn't using to my advantage was google+... even though I had an account (and it was getting quite a bit of views, despite having no picture, no content, no circles... just a whole lot of nothing!). So I updated that, and linked my blog to it. On my to-do list is adding all my social media links to my blog, and also learning tools to market myself!

I also experimented with different digital styles that I had been itching to try for a long time now! I learned how to create a watercolour painting effect using masks, watercolour textures, and simplistic objects in illustrator. I used this effect to create the leaf shown in my pattern trick post (another thing I learned!), and I can definitely see myself using this in the future for more of my plant and floral designs. I may add a tutorial about this in the future.

My zazzle shop was looking pretty category heavy, so I changed my categories from individual design to subject, with subcategories inside of it. It is much cleaner and easier to navigate now. I also started working on templates, and I am still getting the hang of them. Up until now I have been using zazzle's generic quick create, and then manually creating everything else that I want. I plan on making templates for now on, it will save me a lot of time and keep me from making duplicates!

Today while I was adding one of my new designs to redbubble, I realized something really exciting! Redbubble now has a tile option for their duvet covers!! ITS THE BEST. No more ginormous file sizes, which means no more beachball of doom, woohoo! Its nice that they actually implemented that, and I hope it will be available on more products soon.

As for my zazzle shop, the long awaited quick create items actually were created! I showed you my fox and hearts products, but I also made another version of that.. foxes, laurel & hearts wreath! Thats right.. I had to turn my foxes into a wreath.. cause, you know. Just so cute. Most of the products give the option of personalizing the inside of the wreath with your own initials or custom text. Some of the items feature an old french proverb... "Every Fox Carries His Tail In His Own Way", which to me is a positive message about individuality and independence.

Phew! That was a longer post than I intended... but done just in time to go to work! ;)

An iPad mini case, featuring personalized monogram surrounded by an adorable fox wreath. :)

Foxes, Laurel and Hearts Wreath iPad Mini Case by TanyaDraws
More Red fox Cases

Every Fox Carries His Tail In His Own Way: Great message to display in your house.

Foxes, Laurel and Hearts Wreath Tiles by TanyaDraws
See all the decorative tiles from Zazzle.

Cute monogram necklace. The gold finish looks great with the colours in my design!

Foxes, Laurel and Hearts Wreath Custom Necklace by TanyaDraws
Check out more Red fox Necklaces at Zazzle

Having Multiple POD shops is a good thing

Hello everyone, aren't you glad its Friday? :) This morning after I had made myself some tea, I sat down to do my daily social media and checking my shops routine.

As I was looking at my redbubble shop, I noticed I have quite a few views on my work. It seems to be much more than my zazzle shop,  and I have only had this shop for two weeks. I use the same tags and descriptions for all my designs, and the designs look pretty much the same. The only thing that is done differently is the redbubble "groups", which I have utilized for every single one of my designs. But then again, there is also the "show me" forum on zazzle, which I use frequently.

Then I realized that the reason why it seems like a lot of views is that redbubble groups views are sorted by design rather than individual projects. Unless I were to add google analytics to every single one of my categories in zazzle, or added up views on items in each category individually, it would be really hard to tell how many views I have gotten on that one design.

... So I manually added up views for my zazzle "Owls" collection, cause, you know, I was curious. XD

Redbubble Owls: 103 Views
Zazzle Owls: 70 Views

So, in the two weeks I have had my redbubble account, it has somehow gotten more traffic with less social media exposure and less time put in.

Browsing in redbubble is quite easy, and my products show up in great spots in the search results. For example, my most viewed collection is my "Beautiful and Colourful Carnations" (Yes... that name... XD). I searched one of my tags "Mothers Day Flower", and if I refine it to "digital art" I show up on page 3 of the "best sellers" and page 1, first row of recently added. Even my tag "beautiful Carnations" shows up really easily. To get my carnations to show up on the "newest" or "popular search on zazzle with the same tags, I have to narrow it down quite a bit, for example products "for her", and then I chose "accessories" (which has my products and least amount of items), where my carnations still show up in newest. If I wanted to see my design on the first page of popular in this section, I have to get really super specific, and choose "luggage tags". Then my designs show up on the first page.

Now I still prefer Zazzle for creation and fun purposes. But if I am getting more traffic to my redbubble account, why not utilize it too? Maybe I am filling some sort of niche there that is just already overdone in zazzle. This is quite encouraging. I have been putting off setting up a society6 and designbyhumans store, but after seeing the results of my redbubble account after two weeks I will aim to build those ones up next, maybe in February I will launch designbyhumans and in March society6. I am just curious to see what will happen on those ones.

Right now, my focus isn't sales, because I don't really expect any yet. I just really want to gain some good exposure, encourage myself to keep designing, and to find out what designs work and which don't. See, this is my inner nerdy librarian coming out. :) I can't just post stuff and wait to see what happens, I need to research it extensively and then when it works or doesn't work I need to know WHY. XD

I hope that my curious ramblings provide useful insight to others trying to learn the POD world like I am! :)

Birthday cards & invitations

I haven't featured any of my birthday cards & invitations here yet, so this post is to give them some love and appreciation! Zazzle has plenty of card options to choose from, which makes designing these guys so much fun. All of them are fully customizable, btw!

Reminder: This is the last day to save 50% off cards and labels and $5 postage sets! Enter the code SAYTHANKYOUZ upon checkout.

Have yourself a wonderful Tuesday! :)

Adding a custom name and age to this card makes it very unique- not to mention adorable! 

Cute Penguin Wearing Scarf Design Cards by TanyaDraws
Check out other note cards online at Zazzle.

Here is some belated birthday humour, with snails.

Illustrated Snail and Swirls Pattern Greeting Cards by TanyaDraws
Find more note cards online at zazzle.com

Cute sheep on an invitation, this would be great for baby showers or early years birthday parties.

Cute Sheep Invitation Card by TanyaDraws
View Cute baby shower Invitations online at zazzle

Honourable Mention:

This isn't a birthday card or an invitation... but its so punny that I had to include it somehow. Valentines card maybe?  I am still amazed that this made it from my brain to this card, and even more amazed at how funny I think it is

Simple Illustrated Owl Card by TanyaDraws
Find more note cards online at zazzle.com

Hearts Design: Wedding items

Along with valentines day, I also customized my heart pattern to be great for wedding favour items and couple wedding gifts from zazzle. I might also make this pattern available in a light blue or violet as well in the future. As for now, the red is cute and will be nice for people who are using the colour red in their wedding!

These customized playing cards would be great as a wedding guest gift, or great to have on the tables at your wedding.

Red Patterned Hearts Bicycle Playing Cards by TanyaDraws
More Hearts Playing Cards

Just married? Share your happiness with the drivers on the road!

Red Patterned Hearts Bumper Sticker by TanyaDraws
View other Hearts Bumper Stickers

These stickers are great for adding to thank you envelopes or to DIY wedding gift packages.

Red Patterned Hearts Round Sticker by TanyaDraws
See more Hearts Stickers

These Jelly Belly tins are a great way to fill a wedding favour gift with something sweet.

Red Patterned Hearts by TanyaDraws
Browse other Hearts Candy Tins

A photo plaque to commemorate your special day. The font and text, scalloped boarder and background are all fully customizable, so you can move things around and add your own wedding picture.

Red Patterned Hearts Photo Plaque by TanyaDraws
See more Hearts Plaques

These wedding favour bags are my favourite! They are very cute with the ribbon at the top and hearts on the front and back. The text inside the scalloped boarder is fully customizable, and the ribbon on the top is available in different colours.

Red Patterned Hearts with Scalloped Monogram Favor Box by TanyaDraws
Browse Hearts Favor Box

Valentines Red Hearts

Today I completed a new heart design with valentines day in mind. I created it using adobe illustrator, and made it a repeatable pattern. I really enjoyed picking the types of patterns to display in the hearts. I experimented with everything from polkadots and lines to plaid and chevron, but I loved the look of  the vintage patterns with japanese and tribal print patterns. I uploaded this to many items on my zazzle shop, some for weddings and some for valentines day.

Here is my pattern in some of my favourite items that can be great gifts for valentines day!

I love the couple mugs... they are really great for adorable couples.  They would be cute to use and to display in a cabinet as a personalized item.

Red Patterned Hearts with Scalloped Name Frame Couples Mug by TanyaDraws
See other Hearts Lovers' Mugs

Are you planning on creating great memories this year with your significant other?  Start a year long project on valentines day by scrapbooking or creating a photo book of your year. Spine and Front fully customizable!

Red Patterned Hearts Binders by TanyaDraws
View more Hearts Binders

Great gift for her: Hearts wristlet with her initials! Its super chic, customizable and available in multiple sizes and materials. 

Red Patterned Hearts with Scalloped Monogram Wristlet by TanyaDraws
More Hearts Bagettes Bags

So you just started dating and don't want to get any of that fancy stuff, or you just want to give out cards to people you care about? These cards are great. They are unique and you can change the message on the front to be anything you want.

Red Patterned Hearts Greeting Card by TanyaDraws
Make your own card at Zazzle

What do you think would be a great valentines day gift?

Tanya

Redbubble VS Zazzle

When I was thinking of joining a print on demand website, I searched for comparisons to find out which to start with, and settled with Zazzle. I later joined Redbubble, and I am glad that I did. Today I am going to share some of the things I have liked and disliked about both these websites thus far, mainly their usability but also how artist friendly they are. I hope my experiences can help you decide where you will start your POD journey. :)

Now before I joined Zazzle, I was quite skeptical about the whole POD selling style. The user agreement, royalty rates and usability were things that I was concerned about. I knew for sure that I wanted to maintain the rights to my own images, to set my own royalty rates and to be able to put my designs on products hassle free.

1. Artist Rights: Do the Terms and Conditions allow you to retain the rights to your work?

The good thing about both Zazzle and Redbubble is that you maintain the rights to your images. The main thing is that you are not giving them exclusive rights to your artwork - you can still sell and use your artwork anywhere else, while also selling it at Redbubble and Zazzle. When you sign up for these websites you grant them the right to print your images on their products, and to use your designs in advertisements if applicable. When you remove your designs from these websites, that terminates the user agreement and Zazzle and Redbubble will not be able to use your designs anymore.

I recommend reading the terms and conditions for any Print on Demand website you sign up for. You always want to make sure you are comfortable with, and know what you are signing up for.

2. What is the default Royalty Rate at Zazzle & Redbubble?

Redbubble and Zazzle both allow you to set your own royalty rates, which is good. Redbubble recommends the default royalty rate of 20% although you can raise and lower the rate accordingly. I opted to do different default prices for different products, depending on what I would personally purchase something in a retail store. On Zazzle you can set your royalty rate anywhere from 5% to 99%, though they recommend that you set your royalty rates to 5% - 14.9%. I've always thought that their recommended rates are rather low, considering they have 40% off sales rather often (which lowers the amount of royalties you get). The important thing is that you can choose your rates, so you can set them to whatever you are comfortable with. Keep in mind that your designs are unique - so if someone really really likes it, they will buy it, regardless of what so-and-so's item is priced at!

3. Usability & Customization

As for usability, both are relatively easy to use, although Zazzle is definitely more tricky than Redbubble. I actually found Redbubble very easy to start up... I am not sure if it is because I tried it after I had learned Zazzle.

Zazzle has a more in depth customization system, and more things to consider when designing. You can either add items individually or you can use quick create. Since quick create often "breaks" and does not give you the full range of products, most people add each item individually. Both of these options allow you to adjust your artwork to your liking, change your background colour, add text, etc. You can even use Templates at Zazzle that allows customers to easily change the text or add their own pictures to products you design. This is especially useful when making invitations, greetings cards and photo gifts.

It did take me quite a long time to get zazzle's customization system figured out, and I am still learning new tricks as time goes by. Zazzle is considerably more time consuming than Redbubble, because of the care it takes in making each product customizable for customers, and because of how in depth you can go in personalizing each product. Not to mention the hundreds of products they have available to design and sell!

Redbubble on the other hand does not allow customers to customize the products, and since there is less you can do with your artwork on a product it takes less time to add your work. The great thing about Redbubble is that you add your artwork first, and it then loads on all of the products available. Here you can resize it, choose placement for each product type by dragging it around on a template, and there is even a tiling option on most products. I do like how easy it is to add things here, and that they group similar products together for an easier creation experience. The products look eye-catching and professional in the preview, which is a nice bonus.

The Verdict 

As of today I still prefer zazzle, even though it takes me a lot longer to upload products there.
What I like about Zazzle that Redbubble lacks is the customization. I like that I can pair different design elements and template fonts together to create unique designs that people can customize themselves.

Another thing I like about Zazzle is their product selection. They literally have hundreds of products, so you can design on almost anything, from luggage tags to wedding invitations. Redbubble has been adding to their product line, but I do not think they will ever go this crazy in products. On the other hand, Redbubble is simple, easy to market, and clean. Its more art focused, whereas Zazzle is more product focused.

One thing I mentioned previously is that I love the tiling ability Zazzle had on its products. Redbubble now offers this on their products as well, so its a tie in this regard! I love to pattern my illustrations. This is great because if you are creating patterns you can add a single pattern tile (which looks great in product previews) and repeat it to fill the entire space on a product using Zazzle & Redbubbles design tools. This is also helpful because it means you can save smaller files, instead of tiling it yourself and taking up massive amounts of space on your computer with huge patterns.

Right now this is still a hobby with potential for me, so my decision is partially based on how much fun I have creating on each website, and Zazzle wins out in that regard. :) There are things I have been noticing about Redbubble that makes me feel like I will have more success there, but that is something for another post.

Maybe in the future I will add another POD site to the mix, who knows? (I am open to suggestions!)

Do you have any questions about Zazzle or Redbubble? Feel free to ask in the comments below, and to share your Redbubble or Zazzle shop! :)

Updated September 25, 2017 to add new information.

Redbubble shop open!

Hi guys! A couple of days ago I opened up a redbubble account, and would like to share some of the stuff on it with you! It seems they have a pretty wide variety of items. My fave so far is the option for duvet covers and stickers. What I don't particularly like about redbubble is that they do not have the option to "tile" your image... so if you have a repeatable pattern, you literally have to tile it in photoshop or illustrator, save a HUGE file and then you can fit it on everything. My computer is older and can't handle giant files like that, so when I make duvet covers the design really only fits on a twin or queen, not a king. Which is okay by me, because my designs are aimed more at children rather than adults.

Here are some of the products though,  let me know what you think!

Here is my sheep and hearts pattern in a twin size duvet cover!  I think it is pretty cute. I would make more duvet covers if the option to tile the picture was there!

One of the things I like about redbubble is their stickers. The stickers are cutout which is nice!

Penguins in Scarves Pattern... looks great on a blue background, but you can change the background to be any colour!

One thing I just found out... sharing from redbubble to blogger is rather hard. I had to screenshot my products and then manually link them. I guess I will have to get used to it :P 

Does anyone else use both redbubble and zazzle? Which one do you prefer and why?

Tanya

Slippers

Hello everyone, it is officially 2015, woohoo! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and time of relaxation. I know I did :)
As for my zazzle shop, I have decided today to feature the new fuzzy slippers collection! Fuzzy slippers are a recent addition to zazzles wide range of products... and they look so darn cute! They are all available in cream, grey and open toe. Check out some of the designs I have made so far!

These ones are my fave so far!

Cute Smiling Penguin with Scarf Pair Of Fuzzy Slippers by TanyaDraws
Find another Zazzle Pair of Slippers

This floral pattern is kind of vintage.

Beautiful Carnations design Pair Of Fuzzy Slippers by TanyaDraws
Check out other Carnation pairs of slippers at zazzle.com

These slippers have a matching pillow set.

Grey Polkadot Sheep Design Pair Of Fuzzy Slippers by TanyaDraws
Check out more Zazzle Slippers

Snails, for the lazy slow days!

Illustrated Snail and Swirls Pattern Pair Of Fuzzy Slippers by TanyaDraws
Find another Pair of Slippers

Adorable sheep and hearts.

Polkadot Sheep and Hearts Design Pair Of Fuzzy Slippers by TanyaDraws
Find more Polkadot sheep pairs of slippers at Zazzle

Stay posted for more slippers, they are quickly becoming my favourite collection. ;) 

As for new designs, I have a couple in the works, and even a whole new side project lined up! More on that to come. 

Tanya

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. :)

Illustrated Flowers & Laurel Leaves Barely There iPhone 6 Case by TanyaDraws
See other Golden alexander Casemate Cases

Illustrated Flowers & Laurel Leaves Cherry iPhone 6 Bumper by TanyaDraws
Browse more Golden alexander Wood Cases

Turquoise and Yellow Chevron Case Barely There iPhone 6 Case by TanyaDraws
Browse Chevron Casemate Cases

Owl Pattern Case Barely There iPhone 6 Case by TanyaDraws
See more Owl Casemate Cases

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 :) 

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!

Counting Sheep Pillow by TanyaDraws

Illustrated Snail and Swirls Pattern Pillow by TanyaDraws

Little Sheep Pillow by TanyaDraws

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