12 New "Carster" Coasters for Cars Samples Arrived

On Fridays, I sometimes like to display samples of products I've designed.
I just received 12 new samples from a new line from Thirstystone call "Carsters" which are coasters for cars. Here is one sample.



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4 Card Designer Quizzes

Here are some quizzes useful the the greeting card designer. Check them out:

1. Greeting Card Quiz: How much do you know about the industry?

2. How to make a living in the Handmade Card Business

3. Take the Clutter Quiz: Start Fresh With a New Studio Space

4. How to Make a Good "Art Licensing Website."

How to Format Artwork So It Looks Good on the Internet

Article Worth Reading. Here is an excerpt. To read complete article go to blog post.
-Kate


By Lance Klass

Ever come across pages that seem to take forever to load, or you get on an artist's page and you wait and wait and slowly but surely the images start to appear and fill out? Even though the United States has one of the slowest load times of any industrialized nation (I understand France's internet is 12 times faster than ours), pages and sites and images should all load pretty quickly. If they're not, a reason might be that the image scans are just too large (and perhaps you've got a slow connection as well).

So here are some pointers on scaling your scans so they come up quickly and look sharp.

1) Make sure that your original scan, of whatever size, is clean, clear, and cropped well so there's nothing extra showing up, like unwanted background behind and outside the image.

If the scan isn't representative of the quality of the original, work with the color saturation, contrast, darkness and other qualities that can be manipulated in programs like PhotoShop so that you're happy with the scan. This is the master scan that you'll send out to licensees, assuming you've shot it large enough for most needs.

2) After saving the big scan just the way you like it, reduce the overall density of your scan to 72 dots per inch (dpi) and save it at that resolution. The reason for this is that most monitors can only show 72 dots per inch, so why have an image with 150 or 300 dots per inch? If you make sure that every image you post on the internet is at 72 dpi, you'll have cut down the overall size of the images from something in megabytes (millions of bytes, or MB) to something in kilobytes (thousands of bytes, or KB).

article continued....To read complete article go to blog post.

Art Licensing and Card Design Interviews

Here are a list of interviews on this blog applicable to the greeting card and gift industry.


THE HI-TECH ARTIST

Licensing Art for Electronic Devices

Art Licensing on Tech Products

Artist Publishes Digital Children's book

Licensing Artist goes "high tech" in Surtex Booth

How I Use Email to Sell Art & Get Leads

How I Sell my Designs Online: Jude Maceren

Selling My Art Through Social Media

How Artists Can Use Twitter in Their Business

How Blogging Led Me To Art Licensing

MANUFACTURER INTERVIEWS

Interview with Wall Art Manufacturer

Card Publisher Talks about the Digital Shift

Artists or Agents? Tips by Susan January

GREETING CARD INTERVIEWS

Meet the Master of Greeting Card Writing

Greeting Card Rep Talks about Trends

Greeting Card Award Winner Interview

Breaking into the Greeting Card Writing Market

Audio Interview: Getting into the Greeting Card Writing Market

ART LICENSING INTERVIEWS

When Religious Faith Meets Licensing

Surfboard Artist Talks about Art Licensing

Interview with Licensing Artist Patti Gay

Great Images from Italian Publisher & Artist

Interview with Licensing Artist Sara Henry

Artist BJ Lantz Talks About Licensing

Interview with Card Artist Valéry Goulet

Sean Kane: Fun Designs from Bikes to Teapots

CONSULTANT INTERVIEWS

How to Stay Positive & Move Forward in Art Licensing, in a Negative Economy

Special Interview with J'net Smith on Art Branding

Protecting Your Art: Interview with Alyson B. Stanfield

Interview with Greetings etc. Editor, Kathy Krassner

10 Things You Can Do, to Make Time for Art

Ebooks by Kate Harper

You can support this blog by ordering Kate's e-Booklets starting at only .99 cents! They can be read on your kindle, ipad, ipod, cellphone, or your computer. Free samples and lending options available. You can also view the list of all recommended greeting card books by a variety of authors.

 

Get Your Greeting Cards into Stores explains how to sell cards nationwide. Included are detailed guidelines on: How to price cards for a profit, get professional feedback, find sales representatives and follow industry standards. Information is also applicable to gift items, magnets, journals, calendars, collectibles, etc.

20 Steps to Art Licensing is a book about how to license your art to companies that publish greeting cards, or manufacture coffee mugs, magnets, wall hangings, kitchen items, and dozens of other gift items. Learn how to prepare your art, what companies to contact, how to find agents, and what trade shows to attend. Includes extensive resources on social media, copyrights, licensing community groups, and lists of interviews with professional designers.

7 Mistakes Greeting Card Writers is a booklet that explains what to avoid when submitting greeting card verse to publishers. Learn how to create a trendy card that reflects the contemporary world we live in, and how to use your own personal experience to create card verse. Topics include: how to avoid limiting your market, when to use adjectives, not creating card for enemies, write like people talk and a list of why card sentiment submissions are often rejected. You can increase your odds of success by 60% just by doing a few simple things. Includes a list of card publishers and their guidelines, links to writer interviews, and writing exercises for how to create good verse.

Unusual Ways To Market Greeting Cards, and 22 places to get your designs featured is a booklet on how to get your cards noticed in non-traditional ways. Everything from why you should send cards to your dentist, to how to get a special feature in national publication. Great tips for designers who are starting out and want to get their cards into the hands of people beyond friends and family. Special Section: 22 Gift Industry Trade Publications who seek out new greeting card designs and feature artists for free.

How to Make an EBook Cover for Non-Designers is an illustrated book will show you how to make your own e-book cover, even if you are not a designer. It is intended to help the indie writer who is on a budget and wants to publish and sell their own book in online stores such Amazon.com and the Apple ibookstore. Selling your book in these stores will allow readers to purchase your book and read it on multiple devices such as the Kindle, iPad, iPhone and many other electronic devices.

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Blog Facelift & New Blog

In cast you wondered what happened to the greeting card blog interface, I'm doing a facelift to try and make the information less busy looking. I welcome any ruthless, honest feedback (leave comment).

I also want to let you know I have another blog on my other passion: ebook publishing. It's for writers who want to publish their work on e-Readers. Check it out: http://ebookchatter.blogspot.com/



Sometimes people ask me "How do you find the time to do blogs?" In reality it doesn't take that much time. For me, it's a great place to store information that I want to refer back to such as lists of resources that are continually updated. If it's on my blog, I can just go find it in the search box. But if it's on my computer - for whatever reason it goes into the Twilight Zone and I can't find it. Going to a blog is like having a mini database of information I can visit easily and frequently...and in the process I can share it all with you.