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Mon 31 Oct 2011
HALLOWEEN BLOG HUNT Gift Card GIVEAWAY! It’s a new twist on an old game. Find a HALLOWEEN post (NOT THIS ONE) you love and leave a comment. Any post new or old (all comments come through my email). I will pick TWO random commenters at MIDNIGHT tonight to win a $5 gift card. Happy Hunting.
(SCROLL DOWN – LOTS OF FAB HALLOWEEN POSTS BELOW)
Mon 31 Oct 2011
Happy Halloween!
Are you participating in the trick or treat frenzy tonight? Need a last minute, quick costume? How about a handmade mask that you can make in minutes?!
Grab your supplies:
1 piece of cardstock or heavy chipboard (the back of those yellow legal pads work great!)
1 sheet of your favorite Peppermint Creative printed patterned paper
Glue (hot glue and craft glue),
Scissors and a pencil
Dowel rod or wooden skewer
Feathers
Glitter
And follow these easy steps:
Draw a mask shape onto your chipboard. I drew mine freehand, with a pencil, and curved out the lines until it was the shape that I wanted. It’s ok if it takes you a few tries.
Cut out your mask.
Trace the mask onto the back of your printed patterned paper.
Using your craft glue, adhere the patterned paper to your mask. Embellish the front of your mask with glitter. Jewels or sparkles would also work!
Using your hot glue gun (or craft glue if you don’t have hot glue), adhere the feathers to the back of your mask. Glue the dowel rod to the side of your mask, in the back. Hot glue works best for this.
And, you’re ready to masquerade around town with your new Halloween mask, Peppermint Creative style! Happy Haunting! =)
Mary Jo
Mon 31 Oct 2011
HALLOWEEN IS ALMOST HERE!
Oh MY! Look what I just spotted in the Peppermint Creative Hybrid Gallery. Mint Chick and Hybrid QUEEN Mary Jo Johnston is at is again…crafting up a little dash of FABULOUS in her spare time. (Did you know she’s also the mother of twins AND manages a large catering company? How does she even find any spare time?
Ahhhh I LOOOOOOVE it!
Mary Jo writes:
I’ve seen these adorable little flags popping up all over scrapland on blogs and in galleries and I couldn’t wait to make a set of my own! You may see them in every holiday theme (just warning you!) 
They are so easy to make and soooo much fun! Hot glue your glags to a few light weight wooden sticks or skewers and attach ribbon or raffia for a fun twist. They’ll make a great centerpiece for your Halloween party! Thanks for takin’ a peek! Happy Halloween – hope you get to eat lots of candy!
Credits: Fright Night Kit from Peppermint Creative
Fri 28 Oct 2011
If you are just starting your vinyl business or are wanting to step up sales, designer Tay Silver is going to assist you in identifying market niches where demand for vinyl is booming!
Happy Holidays to you all! I’m Tay and just like you I often wonder what it is our clients want when it comes to vinyl designs so that I can use my working time most productively. After years of watching vinyl market trends, I have identified some areas where even a bad economy actually causes vinyl sales to increase because it is an inexpensive, custom and creative decorating option. Plus, not only is wall vinyl relatively new and exciting but it can easily be purchased online and used by anyone anywhere.
First let’s identify why vinyl sales in some categories have increased:
• Vinyl can fill a large wall area for considerably less than other works of art.
• Vinyl can be customized, giving a finished design the polished look of high-end décor.
• Vinyl goes beyond your walls. There is no end to the items and surfaces you can customize and decorate.
• Vinyl is exciting and new, giving those who use it a label of being more “trendy”.
Now let’s talk about the niches where we have seen vinyl sales grow so explosively that sellers have barely been able to keep up:
1. New Baby Coordinating Nursery Decor
Far and away this is the hottest market. No matter what is happening on Wall Street, babies will continue to be born into loving homes where parents want to give them the best, including comfortable nurseries that are delightfully decorated. Time and again we see that vinyl designs which coordinate with popular nursery bedding, such as our new Paisley Nursery and our Hand-Lettering Nursery Designs, sell so reliably that many shops must postpone accepting other custom orders to accommodate the increase in nursery vinyl sales. What seems to be the most popular? Jungle Animals, including our wildly popular Jungle Nursery Word Art, our Jungle Nursery Animals, our Monkeys Jumping Hand-Lettering, and Princess Vector Designs seem to take the cake! A close second are birds, owl and tree designs. (Keep in mind children grow quickly and most likely Mom will be back in a couple years to buy more vinyl when the “baby” room needs updating so good customer service now will guarantee repeat business!)
2. Custom Children’s Monograms in Decorative Frames
Peppermint Creative’s Shape & Silhouette Category is full of various swirly and scalloped frames for good reason: your customers want them. The biggest name brand children’s décor company shows framed monograms above children’s beds in almost every sales catalog they put out and customizing them requires nothing more than adding a single letter and/or a name inside the frame. If you are not offering these, you are missing out on incredibly easy sales. May we recommend our Whimsical Mats, Loopy Doodle Frames & Scalloped Square and Circle Frames.
3. Small Holiday Décor & Teacher Gift Vinyl
This niche requires a bit of extra know-how but we’ve got tutorials to help you out with that. See the list of related articles below. Irregardless of the economy, children still go to school. Every year, multiple times each year, mothers must come up with ideas for cute teacher’s gifts. You may not know it but this simple act has turned into somewhat of a competition to send the cutest gift that will win the most oohs and ahhs…and the pressure is on for start-of-the-year gifts and all the holidays (Halloween, Christmas/Winter Holidays, Valentine’s Day, Back to School & Teacher Appreciation Day) plus thank you gifts at the end of the school year.
At minimum winter and end of year gifts must be considered. Mothers who are short on time will buy up cute vinyl cuts or simple teacher gift assembly kits faster than you can create them. (Keep in mind a household with 2 children in grade school will need at least 1 teacher gift per child taught. This escalates rapidly if each individual child gives a gift to every teacher and there are more children per household. Price your vinyl affordably for best results.) If you’re looking to bring some new traffic to your site, consider offering tutorials that show your vinyl being used to create adorable teacher gifts and enjoy many add-on and repeat sales from new and existing customers! View our blog posts on Making Vinyl Décor and Vinyl Embellishing for some clever ideas.
4. Vehicle Decal Designs
I’ve got one and maybe you do too. Vinyl decals on your back windshield are a great way to personalize your ride and require nothing more for you than purchasing a single roll of white vinyl that is superior-rated for outdoor use. (Such as Oracal 751 in Glossy White, rated 8 years or longer for vehicle graphics.) Monograms are never out of style so the same monogram frames you are using for nursery monogram décor double as excellent vehicle graphics because they cut reliably, even at 4 inch vehicle decal sizes.
As with everything you sell online, you need to ensure you are providing your client with crisp, clear example images and the better the example image, the better your sales. You can find all the details about this in our Overnight Business Success Blog Post. I hope this sneak peek into the current selling trends helps you capitalize on your work time and design dollars in time for the holidays and the always-present nursery rush!
Don’t miss other related articles:
Fri 28 Oct 2011
My brother just sent me a link to this article from Geekosystem and I had to share because I just KNOW you will think this is cool as I do. Child’s Own Studio is producing one of a kind stuffed toys based on a drawing that your child has made. I’m just going to say it…you can’t stop me…here it comes…
Sew clever!
But really, is this not the BEST idea ever? According to her blog, unfortunately she has already reached her quota for Christmas but this is such a clever idea for any time of the year don’t cha think? Prices range from $60-$130 plus shipping and takes 2-4 weeks to complete.
Check out some of the awesome examples below! Maybe some of you are crafty enough to make your own. ;)
Adorable!
Creative!
Kinda scary…
Love it!
Makes me wish I could sew….I have a machine and everything.
it collects dust VERY well.
Ahh well…add it to ‘THE LIST!’ ;)
Wed 19 Oct 2011
I just came across an amazing article by Steph over at The Daily Digi that was too awesome not to share. I know I’m not the only one who has been utterly disappointed to find that you’ve captured the PERFECT shot…but it’s blurry.
Dagnabbit!
So you delete it. Reluctantly.
Well delete no more my focus challenged friends.
It looks like the folks at Adobe have solved that problem. They debuted sneak peeks of their latest developments at Adobe MAX 2011. No word as to when these features will be available or if they will be available in Photoshop but clearly the technology is there so it’s only a matter of time so you might want to hang on to those ‘almost’ winning shots! There is hope! Check out the video below. The gasps of shock and utter disbelief from the crowd (surely a room full of Photoshop geeks) indicate a truly impressive result.
The video is actually pretty amusing thanks to silhouette man #2 (actor Rainn Wilson). The “unblur technology” can also recover data (text) from blurry images that are unreadable. So let’s keep our fingers crossed that we find this in Photoshop CS6.
