Enter to Win Your Dream Classroom – The Educents Teacher Appreciation Giveaway

To celebrate Teacher Appreciation month, Educents, FreshGrade, S&S Worldwide, and the Sellers of Educents have partnered to give educators funding for their dream classrooms. The 7 educators with the most votes will win a combined $10,000! Any educator is eligible to win – teachers, homeschoolers, parents, and school administrators.

How to Win

Educators get pretty creative when it comes to raising money to cover expenses for classroom supplies. Many host bake sales, ask the community for second-hand supplies, or pay out of their own pockets. However, there’s a new way to get money for your classroom… and it doesn’t include raiding the aisles of your local dollar store.

It’s easy to enter to win the Educents Teacher Appreciation Giveaway, and it still requires a little creativity (see Step 3).

Step 1: Save up to $5,000 in products for your dream classroom in your Educents wishlist.

Step 2: Click “Enter to Win” on your wishlist page and create your voting profile.

Step 3: Share with your friends, family and community and ask them to vote for you every day until May 6. This is your opportunity to get creative – how will you share your wishlist, and how will you involve your community to vote for you??

Any educator is eligible to win – teachers, homeschoolers, and school administrators. Ready to get started?

 

Here are a few other entries I love – vote for your favorite!

“Vote for me because I LOVE teaching. I have a wonderful class that is full of spirit and who loves to learn. I will be putting all my dream items to the end of the year lessons and summer school lessons.” -Diana R.

“I am a homeschooling mom of 4 children, and one baby on the way! We live on only my husband salary. I would love to create a dream classroom for them.” – Gina H.

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!

 

Painted watercolor citrus tree in pot by watercoloring

Citrus Fruit Orange Botanical no. 2 Home Decor by GnosisPictureArchive
iPhone 6 Case

Refreshing Cocktail with Limes and Straw by PD_Devices
Lime Casemate Cases

Sour Lemon by kitteh03

Citrus crush juicy round lemon lime orange slices by FidesDesign

Lemon Slices by PawsitiveDesigns

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.

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!

 

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 – Halloween Edition # 3

Time to send out theHalloween party invitations! The following invitations can all be personalized, and you can purchase as many or as little as you need. Just click on the individual image for details. Enjoy your party!

Special Coupon Code! 15% OFF ALL ORDERS | 30% Off ALL Card, posters and plates      Ends Thursday   (Oct. 8th, 2015)   Use Code: ZSPOOKYSCARY

Please party responsibly!

Have a blessed Halloween!

Claudia

Best of Zazzle – Throw Pillow Edition # 1

Best of Zazzle – Halloween Edition #2

Best Of Zazzle – Quote Edition #1