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Tag Archives: art
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:
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
Wordless Wednesday – Persist
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I know today is Wordless Wednesday, but I have just been told about an offer that is too good not to share – Check it out!
Free Spring Beauty Gift ($106 value) with any $30 Julep Purchase
This Pretty in Paradise Gift with Purchase ($106 value) will be yours FREE with any $30 Julep purchase, today through Sunday 4/17. Get six full-size products including electric iris sheer polish Kayla, summer berry shimmer polish Lainey, Skip the Brush cheek stick in Golden Guava, Julep Lip Gloss in Enchanted, When Pencil Met Gel eyeliner in Blackest Black, all in a handy Julep cosmetic bag. That’s a $106 value!
To redeem your free gift, add the Pretty in Paradise Gift with Purchase to your cart along with $30 of other Julep merchandise, then enter in promo code ONBOARD at checkout.
Offer expires 4/17/16 at 11:59 PM PT, or while supplies last. Promotional code ONBOARD must be entered at checkout, and is valid for 1 free gift per order. To receive free gift, add the Pretty in Paradise set to shopping bag, in addition to $30+ of other julep.com products. Promotion excludes the Jule Box, Savvy Deals, Julep add-ons, Sweet Steals and Secret Store catalogs. Not valid for purchase of julep.com gift cards, gift boxes, Gift of Maven, or Mystery Boxes. Orders placed for the Monthly Maven Reveal (e.g. monthly Maven Boxes, Upgrade Boxes, and add-ons) are not eligible. No exchanges or returns on free gift. No adjustments on previous purchases. Taxes vary by location.
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Happy Spring! Wordless Wednesday
A Shot Of Vitamin C For Your Phone: Best of Zazzle – Cell Phone Case Edition #5
It is widely known that Vitamin C is good for our overall health, from strengthening our defenses against colds, to giving us a healthy glowing skin, but did you know it could also be good for your newest cell phone?
Of course, I mean via the following beautiful cell phone cases, that feature various citrus designs. It is like a wellness treatment for your newest tech!
Wordless Wednesday: Black And White Flowers
This post is a part of the following blog hops:
Black And White Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
xmasdolly’s Wordless Wednesday
8 Tips To Spring Clean Your Pinterest Account
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. See Disclosure page for details
Spring will hopefully be upon us soon, and during this time of the year, spring cleaning is on the mind of many. Why not extend this sentiment to your social media presence? Today, I will be talking about getting your Pinterest account ready for ultimate performance by doing some simple spring cleaning.
Before we talk about cleaning and organizing your boards make sure your profile has been optimized:
1. Make sure your website/blog have been verified
2. Make sure your description contains your relevant keywords
3. Update your profile picture, preferably using one that features your face.
Now to the eight tips to spring clean your Pinterest boards:
1. Move your seasonal boards into the correct order according to your season, for example, your spring and summer collections should be pulled forward while your winter collection should be on the very end of your boards at the moment.
2. Combine any boards that have only a few pins
3. Delete boards that either have too little amount of pins and can not be consolidated with another board, no longer fit into your website/brand/blog niche or do not have a large following.
4. Move your most popular boards to the front – use Pinterest analytics tools to see which boards are the most popular/ active at the moment, and display them as the first two rows. Remember that when looks at your profile, those are the only ones they initially see.
5. Edit board descriptions – make sure all of your boards contain relevant keywords and updated information to make them easy to be found in the search results.
6. Split large boards into two boards – narrowing down some boards to a separate subject matter makes it easier for the followers to find your individual pins.
7. Update your boards featured image – move your most popular pins to the featured position, in order to draw in more followers. But most importantly make sure that the featured pin describes your boards content well.
8. Check your pin’s URL’s. Make sure your pins go the actual post or merchandise with the correct link like they are supposed to. If not, change that immediately.
A few more tips to keep you sane during the Pinterest Spring Cleaning
1. Choose only one or maybe two specific tasks to complete every day
2 Be clear about what you want to accomplish with your Pinterest presence – what do you want your boards and profile to say about you – do this before you start any spring cleaning, so you have a clear mission in mind.
3. Keep the amount of the group boards you are a part of to no more than 15 but no less than 5. Make sure they are all relevant to your brand and mission.
Have a great day!
Claudia
10 Minute Mugs
The following post is a guest post by Elizabeth, the Author, and Creator of the 10-Minute Mugs course.
Raise your hand if you like coffee? How about tea? Hot chocolate? Me, I’m a hot chocolate girl. In contrast, my husband can down a pot of coffee and 9:00 at night and go to bed shortly after. If you took a poll of your city, your state, or even your country, odds are good that a vast majority of the people would report that they drink some kind of beverage from a mug.
Not only am I a hot chocolate fan, I’m also obsessed with crafts. These two interests led me to one of my favorite kinds of projects: mug-making. It started with dotted Sharpie mugs. I made a mug for my sister-in-law and she loved it.
It turns out other people like mug crafts, too. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be a consensus for how to make Sharpie mugs and thus was born The Ultimate Guide to Sharpie Mugs, a guide for others who wanted to create these mugs but didn’t know how.
And then came Marbled Nail Polish Mugs and How to Transfer a Design to Mugs. It was mug madness!
Out of this mug madness was born 10-Minute Mugs, an eBook devoted to quick and easy mugs that you can make yourself. I know, you’ve got to be thinking, “Can there even be any more ways to make mugs?”. Why yes, yes there can be. 10-Minute Mugs includes tutorials, tips, tricks, and designs to help you create beautiful mugs in a flash. While some of the mugs have been featured on my blog, there are three mugs that are exclusive to the eBook (and honestly, out of all the mugs I have made, I think these are my favorites.)
Glitter Mugs
Metallic Spray Painted Mugs
And if you’re not a designer or don’t have perfect penmanship? Never fear! 10-Minute Mugs has 18 downloadable patterns for your next DIY mug.
If you want to become a mug-making master, make sure to check out 10-Minute Mugs.
About The Author:
Elizabeth is the author of Destination Decoration, a crafting blog devoted to providing tutorials that make crafting accessible to all. Destination Decoration is a home to all things crafty, from woodworking to watercolor, from canvas art to Dollar Store crafts. Elizabeth is also a self-taught calligrapher and an eager and willing learner of all things hand-lettering.
Apart from crafting, Elizabeth enjoys spending time with her husband and cats (though admittedly, she’s more of a dog person). She is an avid reader and to be honest, drinks more soda than she probably (definitely) should.
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:
Here are a couple of other designs that caught my eye, today!
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!
Reading And Taking Action
Many of us have a to-read list for the months ahead. But you merely read or do you implement?
To me, reading lists and book implementation lists are two different things. A reading list is a book list of stories I read to entertain me. They do not necessarily have to be fiction to do so but are more likely to be. Those are the books that I approach with a different mindset than those on my implementation list.
Now, what is an implementation list, and what are these books?
Those books are volumes that I read with the intent not only to learn from them but with the direct intent to take at least one of the points presented and to actively try them out. I seek out these books because I want to learn something, but learning is not enough, it is doing that creates the results. And because I am living in a growth mindset (more on that another time), I am approaching these books with the up-most intend to take an active part from the lessons held within.
For a long time, I was like many people I know – I read, a lot (okay more than the average person), but I never truly followed through on the lessons presented before me. It was easy to say how interesting a particular chapter was but was it enough to change what I was doing, or add a new active perspective into my life? Not really. The truth is, that I meant to take these action, but never followed through.
“Always strive to be better than you were yesterday.” – Tom Bilyeu
But I made a promise to myself that this is no longer an option. If I read a book that has repeatable actions within them, and that I chose to learn something from – may it be because I read a review, found them on a list of a person whom I admire (like this list by Quest Founder Tom Bilyeu), or because its premise leads me to believe that there was value within the covers, I will take at least one of those actions and practice them. Now, I am not expecting to do that if I find myself in the middle of the book and it does not resonate with me at all, of course, but I will do this more often than not, and because I am already picky about what I add on my reading list, which is ever growing, that should not be a problem. Which brings me to my questions for you:
Which book have you read in the last year, and actually implemented something from it – may it be in your personal life, or in your business adventures? What made you take these actions, and why did you pick up this book in the first place?
As we are approaching the middle of January, I am in the middle of implementing some of the goals I have set for the year. I have been lucky to have been encouraged to create some more motivational designs over the last few weeks, and I am especially happy about my notebook collection that ranges from themes of courage to sharing your thoughts with those you love. So check out my truly unique custom notebook collection here. Absolutely, a reason to be grateful.
It is my pleasure to serve you, so if you have any suggestions about notebooks and journals you want to see in the future, please let me know. I also accept custom orders – and can combine my art with specific messages for you. Simply drop me a line at claudiablanton@live.com or leave me a comment below.
Do It. Motivational Notebooks
I will not be stopped – Notebook
Mom, I want to thank you… Notebook
Meditation Journal
Soulmates – Romantic Notebook
Have a wonderful week!
Claudia
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Avalon-Media - A LifeStyle Blog 
