New Look at Zazzle & Blogger!

Hello everyone! After a while of inactivity, I have decided to start fresh with a new blog design that matches my new Zazzle Storefront! I opted for two of my favourite colours for this fresh, summer / spring look. See my Zazzle Storefront Here!

While I have been inactive on the blog front, I have been busy with working full time along with adding new products to my Zazzle, DesignByHumans and RedBubble shops! I have been focusing a lot of my efforts to my DesignByHumans shop lately because I do really well there, however I would like to start dividing my time between Zazzle again because I have TONS of patterns that would be suited for the wide variety of products there.

On My Zazzle shop I have decided to start updating my fabric line with new patterns. I have a beautiful pastel line coming up, and have recently added a purple ornate pattern collection and updated my summer time fabrics collection with some new patterns as well!

Purple Ornamental Patterned Fabrics by Tanya	Trending: Summer Fabrics by Tanya

I have also been updating my DesignByHumans store with some exclusive, text based designs! Since DBH is mainly for wearables, typography and simple graphics work really well there, whereas my patterns do better on RedBubble and Zazzle. Some of my designs were even added to the DBH summer collection! :) 

I've got a lot of catching up to do, but my goal is to have my Zazzle shop fully caught up with my new designs by November, giving me lots of time! Not counting the new designs I plan on making, of course. Next week I am taking a trip to the Royal Ontario Museum, which will mean lots of sketchbook drawing for me and hopefully the start of a brand new pattern... :)

This Month on Zazzle and Redbubble

Today marks the end of my 2nd month on zazzle and my first month on redbubble! This month was up and down for me, for many reasons. For the most part I was really productive, I added many new designs, explored different things, did tons of research, branched out to different social media platforms and even updated my zazzle store front! But at times I felt really discouraged, despite the awesome feedback I received from friends and fellow zazzlers on my shop and items, because my shops didn't see much action this month. I added most of the designs from zazzle to redbubble, but I don't advertise my redbubble shop as much as my zazzle shop. Here are some of my noteworthy things from each store.

My Redbubble Shop

I've now been on redbubble for 1 month. Earlier in the month I noted that I get way more views on my redbubble items that I do on my zazzle store. That trend continues, even with minimal advertising off site. What I have continued to do is add my designs to groups. I add each design to maybe 1 or two zazzle groups that they appropriately fit.

Page views: 2738 Total views across 14 designs
Most viewed design: 365 views on my Red Fox and Hearts pattern
Despite the high amount of views, I have had no sales in my first month at redbubble.

A pillow from my most viewed design. I do like how redbubble groups page views by design,
but it would also be nice to see which item specifically is popular.

My Zazzle Shop

My Zazzle store has been open for 2 months now. I was very productive on zazzle, I have now designed 1,465 items, and just in time for February I have designed a brand new organized shop front! As you know I made my first sale in December, and I was really excited about that. I expected atleast one sale in January, and I started to feel a bit down when it seemed like that wouldn't happen. Just as January came to an end however, I sold my first iPad case, which means I have sold something for each month I have been on zazzle! :) That definitely boosted my spirits, as I know all the promoting I am doing isn't for nothing. Hopefully I will see this trend grow. Here are some noteworthy things from my shop this month!

Pageviews: 518 in January
Most Viewed Item: I Survived Valentines Day Pillow with 36 views

I survived Valentines Day Pillow by TanyaDraws

My shops most liked item on zazzle (3 likes):

Pink Chrysanthemum and Chevron Coffee Mug by TanyaDraws

Sold In January: Illustrated Flowers & Laurel Leaves iPad air Cover

Illustrated Flowers & Laurel Leaves iPad Air Covers by TanyaDraws

My Personal Favourite from this month: Glitter Tropical Pineapple Pillow

Glitter Tropical Pineapple with Stripes and Dots Throw Pillows by TanyaDraws

Another noteworthy thing I would like to mention is that 7 people "like" my shop! :) I also learned a lot this month about creating items, designing patterns in illustrator, and new vector tricks as I continue to explore different styles of digital art.
Also, completely unrelated, but I really really like the Apple Custard Tea from David's tea. I am drinking it right now and it is soo good! I just had to share this. :P
So there you have it, the highlights from my January in one blog post! It will be interesting to see what February brings.

So what was noteworthy in your first month of 2015? :)

If you find this post useful and would like me to track something in my February 2015 summary, let me know!

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