Last Day!

Hi all. Just a reminder that it is the last day to join my mailing list in time for this month's giveaway of 10 Beardy Santa cards! I'll be drawing a lucky winner out of a hat tomorrow, so if you want a chance to win...sign up here! Or by clicking the link on my sidebar.

And, just to fancy up this post a bit, here is a little Monday Musical inspiration from Seattle based Fresh Espresso. Pretty much the most catchy re-sampling of the Bee Gees, ever...now, dance!

Back in time...

If there is any one song that can bring back my childhood to me full-force it is this song by Chuck Mangione. One of my earliest memories is dancing to this in the mall as it blared over the mall muzak system, when I was about 3. It is a cheesy song to have as your childhood soundtrack...but hey, it was the '70s. What song brings back your childhood memories?

Illustration Friday: Crunchy

Here's a little something for Illustration Friday: Crunchy. A nice Dill pickle spear. Yum! For me there is only one kind of pickle: dill. I used to be a sweet pickle girl, but an unfortunate night that included too many sweet pickles and lemon meringue pie ended that love affair pretty darn quick.

Pixel & Post's first giveaway!

That's right folks! I'm hostessing my first giveaway on this here bloggy blog. All you need to do is follow this link to sign up for my monthly newsletter, and you'll be entered to win a pack of these exceedingly cute, earth friendly Santa beard notecards - perfect for a holiday thank you, or just a friendly "Ho Ho Ho".

I'm super excited about my new email newsletter. Probably more excited than I should be (nerd alert)! I have been using word of mouth, old fashioned email, and facebook to let my friends and fans know what's up with Pixel & Post for the last year or so. And, it is just getting too complicated. I figured it was time to go BIG and do an official, fancy, email newsletter with pictures and stuff!

The best thing about it is that it is easy to subscribe and unsubscribe and you can do it all with a click of a button. And, to reward you for your friendship & fanship I'll be giving away free Pixel & Post swag on a monthly basis. Yipee!

Illustration Friday: Entangled

I'm not sure it is all the cold medicine I've taken in the past week or what, but this is how I'm answering this week's Illustration Friday challenge.

In the 5th grade I stared a sketchbook dedicated to a cast of characters I invented. One of the main characters was named Agnes. She had an impossibly huge beehive hairdo, was terribly grouchy, a nose like a hot dog, eyes like Gene Wilder, and smoked lots of cigarettes. I was obsessed with drawing beehive hairdos - I think I still kind of am. I'm thinking of this lady as an evolution of Agnes, post nose-job and with a lot of crap entangled in her 'do.

Just because...

We are all sick and grumpy at my house this week, so I don't have too much to say. There is nothing like a little vintage Welk to cheer me! A bearded lady in a blue sequined dress, that rocks out on a pink piano? Come on!

New Custom Holiday Cards are ready to roll!

In the past few years I've done custom holiday and New Years cards for friends, and last year I sold some via my etsy site. There were a few issues with doing cards this way. First was the cost - they were far more expensive than I wanted them to be. And, people had to order lots of cards since I was having them professionally printed. So, this year I am trying something new to make it easier - and much more affordable for everyone.


make custom gifts at Zazzle

I created a Pixel & Post Holiday Shop on Zazzle.com where I designed 7 holiday and new year's card templates. Using Zazzle's Design Tool you can add your own photo, custom text to the front, and fully customize the inside of the card with more photos or a holiday message (long or short).

Best of all you can order as few as 1 custom card or as many as 20,000 and any odd number in between. Need 34 holiday cards? You can order just 34. Card prices start at $2.45 for one card and are cheaper by the dozen ($56.10 for the 34 cards I mentioned above - about $1.64 each). A pretty sweet deal, and you can create them at your leisure. To top it all off, I'll be donating 10% of my profit from the sales of these cards to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Most designs are offered in two sizes: a 5 x 7 folded card and a 4.25 x 5.5 folded notecard. They all include envelopes.

Zazzle is also running a special right now where you can save 10% off your order by entering the code when you check out: GIVEZAZZLE09

I ordered a few test cards from Zazzle and was very impressed with the printing quality and the speed in which I got my order. The cards are glossy on the outside and a satin on the inside (you can write easily on the inside with a pen). I typically prefer a matte finish but was impressed with the way the glossy paper looked with the designs and photo combined.

Here are a few tips about using Zazzle and the Zazzle Design tool:

1. Create a Zazzle account
It doesn't cost anything, but it allows you to save your design and come back to it later if you get interrupted. Some of my testers didn't do this and got frustrated when they could not save their design without creating an account.

2. Take your time
My test crew found the cards pretty easy to customize, but they did say it took some time to get used to the Design Tool. My advice would be to set aside some quiet time, get yourself a cup of hot cocoa, spin some Yuletide tunes and have fun. If you get stuck, Zazzle has a very thorough tutorial here.

3. Order a test card
Since you can order one card at a time, you might consider ordering 1 test card before placing a large order. It took about 3 business days to get mine in the mail. Nevertheless, Zazzle has a 100% satisfaction guarantee and claims that they will take your order back if you are not 100% satisfied.

I hope you will enjoy these cards and have fun playing around with them!