Stunning Custom Notebooks That Make Journaling Fun

I am a fan of daily journaling – specifically regarding gratitude, appreciation and goal setting, so I am always on the look-out
for journals that actually inspire me to write in them. RedBubble artists design some of the most amazing spiral and
hardcover notebooks that make it easier to follow through on this positive daily routine. Check these out:

“Fall”

 

Weather Balloon

Splash

Surfer On Horizon

Forest Treasures

I have chosen RedBubble as one of the affiliates for Avalon-Media not only because they make high-quality products, but because they make it easy for independent and new artists to showcase their work and bring them in front of a diverse  audience. A purchase of one of these stunning designs, not only makes it possible for me to continue to bring you content, but it also helps those artists, who at no point lose any of their profit, by me, promoting them.

Thank you

Fiercely Independent Blessings!

Claudia

Peppermint And Predictions – A To Z Blogging Challenge Post Tea Leaf Reading Symbol Dictionary

Good to have you back for another day of Tea Leaf Reading Symbol Dictionary – A To Z Blogging Challenge Eddition. As usual I do not just talk about the symbols but want to also mention other interesting tea facts. I predict that you will find these just as interesting as I do.

My favorite herbal tea is Peppermint tea. It’s leaves, when brewed loose are a perfect match for Tea Leaf Reading. But it also holds plenty of health benefits, that make this tea not only delicious but an important staple in anyone’s household. Simply place one heaping  spoonful of the dried leaves into your favorite cup, fill with hot water, and strain (unless you are using the leaves for a reading) after 6 minutes. Sweeten to taste.

Here are a few examples of Peppermint tea has to offer:

 

A word of caution: Some people are allergic to this and other herbs. If you are prone to allergies to herbs, consult your health care professional before drinking this tea. Also, as always the information given in this blog is for educational purposes only. See disclaimer page for details.

Let’s get to our Tea Leaf Reading Symbol Dictionary:

Letter P:

Padlock: Is it open? That is a positive sign, it means a happy surprise. Closed? Be careful and take precautions.

Palace: Wealth and abundance are on the way

Palm Trees: A symbol of increased wealth, fortune and honor. There might even be some fame and recognition involved.

Parrots: It looks like you might have some travel outside of the country on the horizon. But there could also be some gossip surrounding you that is not all favorable, so be on the watch out for rumors.

Pears: You are receiving good news, and are able to advance in life. One pear means an addition to the family of some kind.

Piano: You are making the most out of what is given to you, and that is a good thing. Keep on doing that.

Pig: A successful symbol specifically in the realm of gardening, agriculture and related fields. There might be an unexpected amount of money coming your way.

Potato: Patience is needed.

Purse: Watch your belongings. Warning of possible burglary or theft.

 

I hope you enjoyed today’s dictionary.

Are you still looking for a Mother’s Day Gift? Then check out this wonderful and thoughtful gift idea from Julep!

Beauty-ful Mother’s Day Gift Idea from Julep

Today through Friday (4/22) Julep is featuring a very Sweet Steal just in time for Mother’s Day – the Timeless Beauty Gift. Send your mamma $88 of beauty and pay just $24. She’ll love the products in this set, which include a Light On Your Lips lipstick in carnation pink, a When Pencil Met Gel eyeliner in Rich Brown, Linnea (a vintage mauve shimmer polish), Rayma (an Italian plum crème polish), and a metallic wristlet. All for $24, plus free shipping! Get your Timeless Beauty Gift today so you can wrap it up for Mom in time for May 8th.

Offer valid while supplies last. Offer may not be combined with any other promotional codes or offers. All Sweet Steals are final sale, absolutely no exchanges or returns. Taxes vary by location.

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Plan Ahead – Editorial Calendar And Marketing Planner For Creatives, Artists, Bloggers and More (Free PDF)

Creating relevant content for the upcoming months, means to be up to date on major and minor holidays. But it gets more complicated, when you add to these often celebrated holidays those minor and less often remembered celebrations, such as National Pancake Day or the Summer Solstice.

This information can be not only useful for bloggers, who can plan their content around those holidays, but also adds a volume of potential marketing possibilities for Product on Demand Artists, Photographers, Writers, Affiliate Marketers and other creative people who have an online presence.

In order to make it easier for you to plan your marketing strategies for this year, I have combined a list of strategies and lesser known holidays and celebrations, as a gift for you. Simply click on this link: Editorial Calendar And Marketing Planner Year  and download it, to print out to build your own strategies for the upcoming months.

Please do not alter this pdf  in any way. You may share the PDF with your friends, in a non-commercial setting, but only un-altered.

Download it now!
Editorial Calendar And Marketing Planner Year

 

Because it is Friday, which on this blog means, it is time to talk about gratitude – I wanted to share with you what I am grateful for this week:

1. I am grateful that despite the fact that my husband was stuck in snow this morning, while traveling in Dallas, he was safe due to the fact that he had snowchains with him. Apparently everyone has been driving safely, because he has not seen an accident. That is a very good thing.
2. I am grateful that instead of being in snow, I am in Las Vegas to 85 degree weather. I will cherrish every moment of warmth today.
3. I am grateful that my daughter is feeling better after having had a cold. She was invited to a picnic last weekend, and got promptly sick, due to the fact that it was still a little bit more windy then everyone expected. But she is on the mend now.
4. I am grateful that it is Friday, which means it is bill paying day. It might seem a little weird to be happy about paying bills, but I am grateful that I can, when I know how many have to make decisions between eating and paying the electric. I am blessed in every way, and I am grateful for that fact.
5. I am grateful for the abundance of items I have on my list this week. I am exited to share with you those wonderful new products, and some special deals, which I have carefully weeded through. More on that over the next few days. (Some of these are for you pet owners out there)

What are you grateful for this week? Share with us here, or write a blog post, and join the many blogs that are participating in the following blog hops:

Thankful Thursdays

No Rules Weekend Blog Party

Winter Is Leaving

Share With Me Blog Hop

Be Inspired 

Celebrate The Small Things

How To Get Started In Zazzle Affiliate Marketing

 

You probably already know how  – at least in theory – to make money as an affiliate on Zazzle. But for those of you who are new to the website, allow me to share a quick recap of Zazzle’s affiliate program 

Becoming a Zazzle affiliate is really simple. It takes only about 10 minutes to do and to learn exactly how to make money as an affiliate. Once creating an account with Zazzle – if you are a designer with this program already, you will not have to sign up again, you already get an affiliate account and number, automatically. But if you just want to sign us as an affiliate, you never have to design anything. Simply follow the prompts that Zazzle gives you, and visit their associate page, where you are   is given a unique user code. Each time you share a product on the various social media outlets or via your own web page, using the share button that is a part of every product listing, your affiliate number will be automatically embedded, if you are signed in. That way you earn a 15 percent commission off any sale that is made through that link.

That is the theory behind It.

But like with everything else that sounds too easy, to be true, it is not that easy as it sounds.

First you have to convince people to actually click your links. That is the easiest part, as long as you are not spamming people. The second part is harder – to convince them to actually purchase the items or any item on Zazzle.

How do you do that?

There are quite a few ways you can convince potential customers to actually purchase an item on Zazzle. They are not limited to the list below, and with a lot of creativity, you are surely to come up with more ideas than I have listed, but consider this a start

1.You have targeted the correct audience. If you are trying to get people to buy pretty designer ties, and most of your audience and followers are women, you might get an occasional sale, but not too many. Know who your target audience is, know who your followers are, match the products you offer accordingly. The more niche your audience, the easier the sale.
2.You have established their trust. All of what you have to offer on your website or on your social media accounts are of high quality, and your followers know that they can trust your lead. Only then will they purchase from Zazzle via you, rather than some of the other print on demand sites, or simply Amazon.
3.You have a large enough following. Establish a base following first, before you are trying to sell stuff online. If no one reads, watches, or clicks on your stuff, simply because they do not know you exist, make yourself known first. There are a variety of ways to build up social media followings, and there are plenty of books and workshops on how to build your brand and yourself, some of which are available via CreativeLive.
4.You are very picky about what you share. Don’t just share any old product from Zazzle. Not all of the designs are high quality, and even if most of them are, sharing outdated, hastily designed, or poorly executed products will not get you a sale. Be picky what designers you work with.
5.You have established relationships with designers. Some designers offer an availability of custom orders. Know which designers go above and beyond regular customer service, and tell them that you want to promote their work. If you mention your particular niche – like for example, Yoga and Reiki Business Cards, and they already make business cards for other professions, they might take their time to create designs that fit your niche even better than before. That way you have always fresh content and both of you can increase your sales and profit. A win-win situation.

I hope this short overview was helpful. And as always, remember to diversify your passive income strategies in order to be able to make a living with your online adventures.

Blessings

Claudia

Best of Zazzle: Wedding Invitations

A fellow Zazzle designer created the most beautiful custom Wedding Invitations, and I just have to share them with you all. Can you imagine? You are planning the perfect wedding, and everything is perfect, then it is time to send out the invitations. Shouldn’t they be as perfect as the rest of your blessed event?

Check out the following designs by Leatherwood Music Shop to get inspired:

Sheet Music Wedding Invitation by LwoodMusic

Violin Music Wedding by LwoodMusic

Sheet Music Save the Date Postcard by LwoodMusic

Here are a couple of other designs that caught my eye, today!

White Groom and Groom Gay Wedding by fancyhouse

Modern Black and White Wedding Invitation by fancyhouse

All of the designs featured here are fully customizable! And you only have to order exactly as many you need. It could not be easier!

 

Words – Typography On My Mind

 

You Make Me Fearless by Claudia H. Blanton

I decided to try something new this week, venture outside of my artistic comfort zone and embrace the creation of some typographic posters. I do this every once in a while, move my focus upon a subject matter or a creative technique I have never tried before, and dive in. Sometimes, I find myself completely lost and drop it like a hot potato, but other times, like this week, I find a new creative outlet I actually enjoy. I enjoyed it enough to open a printable only Etsy store “No Plain Paper”.

Coffee By Claudia H. Blanton

These designs, like all of my other art work, are still available in my RedBubble and Zazzle stores, so you can purchase them on the many applications available there, like mugs, or as gratitude journals.

What do you do to push yourself outside of your comfort zone?

Spread Kindness Like Nutella – by Claudia H. Blanton

This week is the first time I am participating in the To-Know-Me Tuesday, where we are asked to post 10 things about ourselves.

So here they are:

1. I was born in Germany
2. My Dad was an organic gardener, in charge of our local gardening club, teaching green gardening techniques. I learned a lot from him on that subject.
3. I speed read – not as fast as I would like, yet – but I can get through a full-size novel in about 2 hours.
4. I am a fan of Chase Charvis, Gary Vaynerchuk and Tim Ferris
5. I can not dance – at all. Neither can my husband, so that works well.
6. I wrote, directed and performed in my first play when I was 10
7. I want to write the script to a featured film
8. I am a published Author. One of my books is available on Amazon
9. I can lip-read in two languages  – German and English
10. I wish there were 36 hours in the day – then I would probably find a way to fill them all, and wish there were 48 hours, lol.

Your turn!

This blog post is a part of the following blog hops:

Be Inspired Link Party

Amaze Me Monday

Inspire Me Wednesday

Tuesdays With A Twist

Manic Monday

Featured Artist Of The Week – Nadine May

I love you by Nadine May

I met Nadine on Facebook where she posted some of her Zazzle designs, and knew that I had to get to know more about  her work. Thankfully, she agreed to sit down for an interview with me. Her bright and colorful florals are featured in her store “Just Kidding”, such as this  King Potrea Pillow while her store “The Awakening” features fantastical images that are stunning, beautiful and visionary.

Me: How long have you been working with Zazzle?

Nadine: The 14th of October 2015 was my first anniversary with Zazzle.
I found out about Zazzle when two friends were chatting to each other on a Skype group about Redbubble and Zazzle. I was clueless as to what they were talking about so I asked them. That was my first introduction to this wonderful possibility that anybody can design images for products and can earn royalty payments. For the rest of that week I looked, read, and practised while now and then chatting to my friends on Skype.
My normal job doing book cover designs for Kima Global Publishers was going through a quite rough time, so I found myself glued to my computer chair for hours creating images for the Zazzle templates. I thought of all the leather work, drawings and paintings I had done over the years and was keen to see them displayed on their products.
I love illustrating – telling stories through imagery, and today I love working with Photoshop. I’m self taught and learn each day what I can do with this amazing program.

Fairy Kingdom Postcard

Me: What made you choose Zazzle?
Nadine: Zazzle has a lot of products and a very easy platform to create an online presence for a designer.
Kima Global Gifts shop
An idea came to me one morning that I could use many of my book design covers and I format these for the Zazzle templates and at the same time promote the title of the book! I thought the authors would be my first customers! That has not happened so far….but they do like my efforts.
Just kidding shop
It is here that I post all my past and present artworks, especially the leather work. I still have to do a lot of scanning, but now I had to start organizing my computer by creating files for the many images and photos I want to use for my designs.
The Awakening shop
I write articles for Hubpages. Most of these posts are about the research I’ve done over the years for my visionary fiction novels. I love creating images for these articles, but they are more about very alternative topics, so I created a different shop for these designs and two weeks ago I started to prepare an online doodle workshop using Zazzle products. I can also add the article links to the designs for visitors just in case they are interested

Me: How would you describe your process as an artist?
Nadine: I’m a visionary fiction author and learned over the years that to write a book is a lot easier than selling a book, and so I know that the same applies to images. As an artist, I had to invent myself all over again. I’ve created two blogs for all my product designs. One with WordPress and one with Blogpost. I do have other blogs that are more connected with my published novels available on Amazon and many other platforms, and I often post a product image on there if it links to the topics of my writings. I learned a great deal from other Zazzle designers on Facebook, and the friendships I have made with them are an added bonus.
I share theirs and my own products on my own Facebook shopping page and on Pinterest and Google+. I try to be creative by using Polyvore for display purposes. Now all I need is to be able to stretch “TIME”

Spring Basket Gatherers

Me: What do you think are your greatest obstacles in creating and selling art for an online platform?
Nadine: To reach an exposure level that results in sales takes hard work and time.
Many people would never spend the hours that I do each day after I have told them what I have earned so far over the one year period, but I have every confidence that each year my earnings will multiply. What is for me the most important is that I LOVE what I do. I could never do anything solely for the money, no matter how financially lucrative it might be.

Best of Zazzle – Fall Edition # 1

I love Autumn, in all of its colorful glory. This season’s holidays are my favorite – the fun Halloween celebrations, as well as the gathering of family and friends for Thanksgiving. Every year we carefully change our decor, the bright and deep reds, yellows and oranges surrounding us with every step. I try to make this change special for our children, as we do not always life in a place where we can truly appreciate the change of colors and temperature – like right now in Las Vegas – by adding some extra fun decor for them.

If you like Fall as much as I do, you will probably appreciate the following designs of independent artists surrounding this theme. They have captured my attention, and maybe you choose to bring them into your home, as I have done before.

For more information about the individual product, click on the image, or the link below the item.

Fall Pathway Postcard

Fall Colors At Portland’s Japanese Garden – Poster

Autumn Oak Leaves Mug

 

A Touch Of Autumn Serving Tray

Happy Autumn Postage

Tree Fall Wedding Binder

Aren’t these beautiful? As always, thank you for supporting independent artists with your purchase. You are truly appreciated!

Question:

What is your favorite season? Do you have any special activities you plan during that time of the year that you look forward to the most? I would love to hear from you!

Have a wonderful day!

Claudia

Best of Zazzle – Floral Edition # 2

Did you know that specific flowers have a specific meaning? And that the meaning can change with their color?

Take roses for example:

A red rose, of course, has the meaning of “I love you” while a pink rose shows appreciation. The innocence of a white rose is often tied to weddings, yet a pale peach flower speaks of modesty.

The amount of roses given are also not without meanings.

 

The Language Of Flowers available on Amazon

 

A single rose of any color depicts utmost devotion
Two roses entwined together communicate “Marry me”
Six Roses signify a need to be loved or cherished
Eleven roses assure the recipient they are truly and deeply loved
Thirteen roses indicate a secret admirer

The following designs showcase flowers as their main theme. Simply click on the image or the link below to get more information about the individual pieces.

 

 

 

Floral Cell Phone Case – Personalize It!

Vintage Floral Cell Phone Case

Monet Roses – Holiday Ornament

Butterfly Floral Postcard

“Blue Floral” Vintage Postcard

Vintage Floral Address Label

As always, thank you for choosing to support independent artists.

Blessings

Claudia

 

Best of Zazzle – Vintage Edition # 1

I find that placing vintage images upon modern applications adds an extra flair to our daily lives, as traditional beauty meets 21st-century tech and comfort. It is the unexpected, the connection of something seemingly unrelatable, but making it connect that is intriguing and thought-provoking. Here are some examples of vintage imagery placed on today’s items.

Delicate Vintage French Art Print Cell Phone Case

Vintage Rose Cell Phone Case

Vintage Cello – Cell Phone Case

Vintage Birds And Flowers Cell Phone

Vintage Floral Still Life – Cell Phone Case

Vintage Pay Phone – Cell Phone Case

Aren’t these unique? Many designs you can find on Zazzle are customizable, so you can make them extra by adding your name or a few words to each phone. I hope you enjoyed this selection, and as always, thank you for supporting independent artists with your purchase.

Blessings!

Claudia