Creative Business 101 – Pricing For Printable Art

by | Feb 16, 2012 | my creative journal

I must admit that a calendar alert popped up a few minutes ago reminding me to blog. Last week I had made that big declaration and subsequently sort-of, kind-of, forgot about it. Granted I did write up a bit of a plan for my various efforts and updated my calendar as well. That’s why the reminder popped up…

However, some freelance work came up and I didn’t have time to follow-thru said plan. I actually spent most of my non-working time, scrapbooking. I do feel a bit lame and you’ve probably never witnessed such immediate failure, after a semi-dramatic declaration… but instead of beating myself down, I took advice from karenika’s blog post about slipping. I am hereby admitting my failure and probably, lack of willpower, if anything else. It’s okay though, not the end of the world.

I can start heading down the right path now. I don’t need to wait until next week for a fresh start. We often do this with diets… “I’ll start on Monday. Seriously.” In fact, I actually did schedule my newsletter and it prompted someone to ask me about printable art. So I’ve got somewhere to start now, something to work on that people are actually interested in buying. One important creative business – or general business tip – is to work on those important items that actually lead to sales – closure – cash! I know it sounds all salesman-ish, but it’s simply true. If you have a hard time prioritizing, go with your survival instincts. That’s exactly why my freelance work takes precedent, because I get paid for those hours of work. Must eat. I really do like food.

So back to my issue of pricing for printable art. Previously, I had not considered offering my artwork as a downloadable PDF. Countless hours were spent researching about printers and paper – how to make beautiful art prints at home. Then more countless hours were spent researching companies and wondering if the commission was fair and if it would be profitable in the end. Most all my current customers are not from Italy, so offering downloads eliminates the cost of shipping as well. This option can prove to be a really smart path to take.

Of course, I still wonder if people would buy printable art. Would the value of it be dampened because it’s digital and printable and easily transferable? How much would people pay for such a thing and what kind of watermarks or signature would I include? Lots of questions in my mind. This is the problem I must tackle and to hold myself accountable, I need to figure this out by next week. I don’t want to add it to the list of things that never gets done. Why do I hesitate to give this option a try?

I worry that my art will be easily pirated? But do the people who buy my art… do that kind of thing? I might be worrying about things that I don’t need to worry about. What do you think about pricing for printable art and the whole deal? I know that the latest technology is actually in 3D printing… so perhaps it’s inevitable and actually cutting edge to offer digital products of this sort?

Please me out here. Please let me know what you think in the comments below – whatever your thoughts are, I would really love to hear them.

oasis scrapbook layout

by | Feb 15, 2012 | my creative journal

Today’s prompt for LOAD was about favorite songs from the past and I immediately thought of Oasis. I was so obsessed, seriously! I grabbed some photos online and created a simple digital layout.

After printing it all out, I added sewing around the page, a popped up heart and some diecut shapes in the right column area. It took me forever to die-cut the text right side up though… have to bop my head a few times for that. So silly. Since there’s so much going on, didn’t feel like adding anything else.

Journaling reads:

It all started at Islands in Brea, California. My friends and I were having lunch when the mesmerizing notes of Champagne Supernova started playing on the radio. Somehow the love for this band became a complete obsession. My friend Carol and I were crazy over them. We bought every single magazine that mentioned their name, we had all their albums, singles, boxed sets, printed books, and even interview CDs. It was most definitely more than an appreciation of their music. We were both crazy infatuated with the brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher… both of them for completely opposite reasons. grew up listening to Oasis, reflecting upon their music and lyrics. Somehow it all applied most seriously and deeply to my life and feelings. During my college years, I remember flying to Las Vegas to see a show at the Hard Rock Cafe… even though it was finals week. However, over time I became less frenzied and less little- screaming-teenaged-girl. Maybe I just grew up or maybe because the band changed and grew as well. But listening to the songs today still brings back happy times and great memories. Thinking about it now, I appreciate how music helped me bond with others. It also helped me reflect upon my own thoughts and emotions. Sometimes when you listen to a song, you can relate and feel something so strong… but you can’t put it in words. You just know that it’s important. The language of music and song is still magical to me…

just cruisin’ scrapbook layout

by | Feb 10, 2012 | my creative journal

It happens to be a super cold, windy, and gloomy day. I had to use this super happy yellow paper I designed… and it definitely brightened up my day. I’m so easily impressionable! A beautiful memory of my little Vash came to mind – all smiles. Yes, I am obsessed with my furbaby.

I used some pretty patterned paper to create the pinwheel embellishment…then the final remaining strips I incorporated into the journaling block… literally no waste of that patterned paper. Otherwise, it’s a pretty simple layout and I sort of messed up the alignment, oh well! I suppose my style is clean, but with some organic touches…like the crazy sewing. In my mind, it looked much neater, but I went out of control in reality. Note to self, sew slower!

The marathon scrapbooking with LOAD this month is definitely helping me to learn what I like to use in my pages and how satisfying the process can be, even without a whole lot of stuff on the page. At least for me. I suppose there’s no time to second guess or fuss too much. I’m a huge fan of little stickers, banners, and tags as well – I know it’s the trend these days. They add just a little something to satisfy my decorative tendencies, but not too much because I tend to not like those pages in the past that have loads of eye candy. I will have to take note to design my own little tidbits to scrap with…

The journaling reads:

Vash has always been a great traveler in the car, no problems since the day we brought him home. He has now associated the car with adventure and regularly runs up to the door and hops in immediately. We often have to tell him to get out, because we want to go for a walk, not a ride! I really love this photo because I caught his expression in the side view mirror. What a cutie. It makes me think of vacation, fun times, and rollin’ with my homies…

Creative Business 101 – Thoughts and Going For Weekly Updates

by | Feb 9, 2012 | my creative journal

I was surprised to look back at the date of my first creative business 101 post on this blog… almost a year ago. The unfortunate feeling though, is that I’m not very far from my original struggles. I’m still working to license my art, however I’ve actually added on some other ventures as well. Reading through the comments from people made me feel like I failed them all. It’s obvious my attempts to focus are futile. I can’t help but want to do more. The problem is that diverting my efforts causes chaos in my brain…and scarce results in real life. Taking on more than I was planning to, gave me an automatic excuse to fail as well.

I could go into a deep analysis of what this all means and how my actions are probably unconscious attempts to sabotage myself. Perhaps because I don’t really want what I think I want? It doesn’t really matter  though. The obvious solution is to just concentrate on doing one thing and get some damn results – or some definitive answer with measurable proof. But I don’t have the willpower to focus in that way. I often get distracted by a new shiny idea, derailing my own plans.

I’ve been thinking a long time about my struggles and I just need to suck it up already. I know it must be weird to be pep talking myself on the blog… but here I am typing this. I’m tired of not being able to do it. I want it all. So I’ve decided to swing to the other side of chaos. I will do it all…yes, call me crazy now and try to send me virtual shaking-you-with-2-hands vibes.

This might very well be the beginning of another failed experiment. Oh well. I’m going for it anyway. One aspect that has really helped me, is accountability and regular check-ins. So I’m going to be posting weekly and spilling my guts on how things are going. How I’ve been successful or how I’ve failed and fallen flat on my face. It will be my own fault, no matter what lame excuses I come up with. I hope these blog posts will not be used to analyze my psychological state in the future… hehe…

So why the sudden push? I suppose everyone hits a point where they need to make change. And often, change works the best when done in an epic manner…some kind of great gesture is needed. It helps with momentum anyway. Plus, I’m finishing up a project this week and should have no excuses to not be carrying out my creative business plans. So there.

As I mentioned previously, doing it all means that I have plans for about 3 people. I’m going to attempt to do them all as 1 person. I don’t really think I’m super human, but at the same time I also don’t think it’s impossible. So there. (I have no idea why I’m typing frantically, as if needing to answer back to a bully…maybe the fear inside of me is the bully I’m speaking to.)

And now, I just have to muster up the courage to publish this post. Wish me luck.