Many of you have asked if I sell my art or how you could get some of the images. I am so, so honored by these requests.
My artistic images are pastels- which are notoriously fragile. That is, to mail them, you can’t simply send them like a canvas. They have to be framed, etc. As I am not an artist by training, the whole framing process just seems overwhelming to me.
Also, for myself, I like doing combinations of images plus words.
After poking around for a bit, I found a site that enables you to make products with images and phrases. The products are made on demand- i.e. produced once someone orders them and I don’t have to ship them myself.
Where my concern lies is this- I really created these as gifts of inspiration and spirit. But, they are gifts you have to pay for. But, if you are like me, and love having inspirational things around- I thought some of these may interest you and truly be a gift you can give yourself or someone you sense could use some inspiration and support in their lives.
The site can be found at Soul Healing Art at Zazzle.
A little about the process:
I never know whether to see myself as an optimist or someone who is somewhat clueless, but there were some bumps in the road on this endeavor which ended up guiding the types and styles of products I produced.
First, though, was the creation of my “store banner”. Who would ever need a tutorial to do that? Well, I created a practice banner and the image loaded all wrong. I created another banner, but it did not replace the first banner. I tried different software/images and still the original, wrong banner remained in place.
An hour went by! The practice banner did not even have my name on it. Another 15 minutes went by-uploading one banner after another and nothing was happening! 2 minutes later- I finally realize you have to scroll down the page and hit “submit changes” to upload the new version. Yep. My store banner is not that great, but by God, I am leaving it as it is.
Then on to the products. Again, you think I would learn to not be so optimistic after the store banner issue, but why change my M.O. now? :) I thought making the products would be easy. Pull up an image, add some words, use the template and the products would create themselves almost.
Nope. Each product for each image had to be created individually because of formatting issues. Once I got the hang of it, I did not mind and I continued to learn along the way.
For some reason, when I first began doing products, I began with posters. Yep. That’s right. I imagined us all as 16- year-olds who put up posters in our rooms or something. Actually, I like inspirational posters and have them all over my office, so I guess that was the inspiration.
But, I thought that posters are so big, I should do some 8 X 10 prints. These were created on photo paper, which really upped the price.
Then, by chance Kate at Did That Just Happen mentioned my art would be great on a postcard and voila! I had a cheaper way to produce my art and words. So, I began making postcards. I also made magnets, because I love putting inspirational items on our refrig. This lead to coffee mugs- because who does not like to be inspired while they get some caffeine?
And, then I made some notebooks, because you can never have enough notebooks and journals. Because I tend to be a stressed out driver (I can not even park our Prius and the first 5 years of our marriage I would make my husband park it in the garage if the other car was already in there ), I made a number of keychains for inspiration.
I also made some greeting cards and so on. I really hope some of these may resonate with you. If you have a particular image that you like, but don’t like how I formatted it or would prefer it on another project, please let me know! You can also customize products I have made- i.e. if you want a different print size or different mug style, etc.
The site is Soul Healing Art at Zazzle. I would suggest searching under “Department” first. Perhaps begin with “cards and postage” to get some idea of the creations. Please note, you can also change sizes of what you order- i.e. check the poster or print size before ordering, you can always change it to something that works for you either in regards to cost or size.
Please enjoy and if you have any problems with any product, please let me know. I have ordered several just to check out the quality, but I have not been able to order everything.
I hope you see this as a gift :)
