Category Archives: creative business 101

keep drawing

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Draw. Everyday.

Last year I started doodling again, as a sort of stress relief. I have a lot less stress now, but have decided to begin drawing everyday; something, anything, everything! It will be a beautiful mess I’m sure.

Here’s today’s doodle: (note to self: buy more pencils)

iphoneographer

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“perfect is boring”

Do you have an iPhone? Do you use Instagram? Would you like to create a book of all your photos? Yeah, well now you can!

I do not have an iPhone. Heck, my phone didn’t even “get smart” until this year. But I do see a lot of beautiful Instagram images and think that a book of them would make a great gift. Maybe I’m just partial to printed materials and addicted to the smell of fresh ink?


It’s an insanely busy day (that’s good, right?). I’d like to thank all the servicemen and servicewomen (along with their families) for their dedication and sacrifice. You are loved and appreciated and should be every day. THANK YOU!

image link to source

found :: paper leaf

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I stumbled upon Paper Leaf‘s site recently and look at the goodies I found! The Color Theory infographic is now my desktop wallpaper and the Elements of Design is on deck. Paper Leaf is a design team of two (husband and wife) that offer web and print design. Their blog is a great resource for tutorials, infographics like the above, even tips on how to deal with clients. I’ve just added them to my favorites page (you should too!).

images link to source

creative business :: Outright for Etsy

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I use Outright for my accounting and list it as one of my top ten helpful tools for creative businesses. Now Etsy users can join FREE. I really like using Outright and I feel smart when I can easily print out my profits, expenses and all that jazz at tax time. I’m not money or math savvy in the least so if you are like me, and looking for user friendly online software with a great sense of community, Outright could be perfect for you.

post reflects my opinion as an Outright user and is not sponsored by Outright.
 
image links to source

how trends and creativity become contagious

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I recently watched an interview with Lady Gaga and was amazed to find out she is only 25. Then I felt really old, and uncool but I got over THAT (I’ve never been cool anyhow) and remembered this video I watched a while back from R+I Creative.

INFLUENCERS FULL VERSION from R+I creative on Vimeo.

giving credit

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This is a great infographic (and poster at MAMMOTH) from Pia Jane Bijkerk and Erin Loechner amongst other ladies about crediting your blog sources (photos). Things often get murky when you are pulling images from various sources. Most of us learn blog etiquette as we go along. It’s easy to be lazy. Admittedly, I use “image links to source” a lot instead of reiterating the blogger/artist/photographer since most of the time I am talking (gushing) about the image/item/person in my post anyway. But, that does bring me to another matter of linking images. When I’m reading blogs and there is an image with the post, I always, always click on it. It’s a bit disappointing when the image goes nowhere and just opens up a second window with that image in it. Am I right? Even if your image is strickly editorial it’d be cool to link that image to a related site or maybe something hilariously cute/funny/strange. Like little bloggy easter eggs. Just a thought.

image via Pia Jan Bijkerk