Tanya Draws Illustration and Design: redbubble duvet cover

Friday, 17 July 2015

RedBubble Duvet Covers Feature & W-8 BEN Saga Continues

So I realized that I have never actually discussed duvet covers here ever! Now is as good a time to start as any. Its a rainy day and I've been stuck inside all day so long that I am actually getting bored of video games (is that even possible?) so now is the perfect time for my new blog post.

In other off topic news, but still deserving of an update, some of you may know I have been dealing with a frustrating issue at Zazzle where they won't accept my foreign TIN number on my W-8 BEN form, and threaten to withhold 30% of my income as tax unless I get an ITIN number. Yes, that is still going on, a month later! I even emailed the IRS and sent their response to Zazzle, only to have them send me a generic response back saying that the IRS is recommending that they get ITIN numbers from people. It is contradictory information to what the IRS told me - That I DON'T need an ITIN! It is frustrating because the recent changes that Zazzle keeps referring to did the opposite - they made it so that people can provide a foreign TIN instead of an ITIN. All I know is that you can't just make up stuff to go on a government form, but it seems like Zazzle thinks they can just request a pink pony and designers would have to give them a pink pony by law.

Needless to say, I am focusing on my Nuvango and Redbubble shops now (I even started on a new POD today that looks really promising... I will share more details when I am all set up there and more familiar with it!).

Phew! Sooo back to the main point I started this post... RedBubble duvet covers! Redbubble has been adding new products quite a bit lately, and even changing up the way you design them. When I started on RB you couldn't tile patterns, which was a bummer, especially for the duvet covers which are MASSIVE! But they have changed that and now you can! So all of my patterns are now available on duvet covers and I couldn't be happier. :) This is the only POD I am on that offers them!

These duvet covers are made with polyester on the design side, and a cotton polyester blend on the back side. They have a concealed zipper and ties so that you can secure your duvet nice and cozy and not worry about zippers sticking out. You can even machine wash these, but on a gentle cycle in cold water! They come in Twin, Queen & King. Check out their sizing chart:

People who have bought this item love it; reviews say these covers are durable, the design prints exactly as seen on the website & very soft. It currently has a 4/5 star review (out of 7 reviews). The twin starts at $110, the queen is $130 and the king is $170.

Here are some of the duvet covers that are covered in my designs! :)

This is my watercolour turtles design on a bright teal background!

I think this would be fantastic for a little nature loving boys room.

Kiwi green flower tile duvet cover! This light and pretty duvet cover would
work well in many different rooms and would make a fantastic accent piece
for a light coloured room. This duvet cover pattern is actually made with all
the shades of a kiwi, so the lines are brown. It would look lovely on a brown bed frame,
or in a room with lots of wooden accents.

This is my colourful cat eye marbles pattern in duvet format! I think that
this is my favourite duvet cover of all. The marble pattern really matches this
cover, as it looks like just colourful dots from afar but the detail is really
interesting. The off white cream colour gives this duvet cover a vintage feel.

My penguins holding flippers pattern, another one that I think would be
perfect for a childs room! This pattern also looks fantastic in pink and red,
so feel free to contact me if you have a background request. I'm sure there are
plenty of children out there who want a penguin themed room, with so many
adorable penguin themed movies out there such as happy feet and penguins of
madagascar!

Monday, 12 January 2015

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! ;)