Custom pillows for your home

After the sale mentioned in the last post, I have had a second wind on Zazzle. I have been adding a few products every day. probably still not doing enough but hey, there's real life out there.
Here are a couple of Mojo pillows for your perusal:-

African sunset(2) mojo custom pillow by ArtyfaxHome
Browse Zazzle for a different pillow.

Spanish sunset mojo custom pillow by ArtyfaxHome
Browse other Pastel Pillows

Forest path mojo custom piloow pillows by ArtyfaxHome
Browse Zazzle for a different pillow.

The images are of pastel paintings by myself and can be seen in my blog, Painting With John. The backs are a carefully selected plain colour to complement the art work on the front.

More new products soon and maybe even a sale or two to report - you never can tell. I have been writing about my My first steps with Zazzle in a Squidoo lens (or web page) which you might like to browse through.

New Sale From My Zazzle Store

Is this news? Most definitely, I have not had a sale since early June and I must admit to have been getting quite despondent.

However this morning when checking my e-mail I saw that (by now) unfamiliar message - YES!

And to make it even better it was for an i-phone case which gives me a decent royalty, not just a few cents for a card, etc. Not that I wouldn't like to see more card sales, of course I would but seeing the royalty in dollars rather than cents is so much more fulfilling. Do I sound mercenary? Well that's the reason I am on Zazzle after all. This is the item sold:-

dancing couple in sillouette iphone 4 covers by artyfax
Check out other custom cases at zazzle.com

The only issue is that as an artist, the head of the male dancer being hidden is a faux pas. I designed the item on an i-3 phone case, on which the head was quite visible.  Zazzle allows the design to be used on several versions of products, such as different i-phone cases; the idea being that.you design one product and the buyer can select the version. In this case it seems that the lens is quite different and spoils this particular version. Oh well, the buyer can always return it if upset - and my royalty can go down the pan, LOL

New Tee shirts with text designs

I have been neglecting my blogs of late, a number of family illnesses have kept me occucpied , however I am beginning to se the light at the end of the tunnel and will hopefully be getting back to normal.

On here I would like to post a coulple of newly designed shirts, one for the man in your life and one for the ladies. The text is humerous and perhaps not quite original but I wanted to hit the floor running so here are a couple of examples. Most of the past designs have featured my art work or vintage images but whilst lots of interest and compliments have emerged, this has not lead to any sales. Must ponder on the question of converting interest to digging in one's pocket. Anyway this lack of sales success has lead me to try another tack and these are two of the first examples:

Genius In disguise Tee-Shirt by artyfax
Make cheap custom t shirts at zazzle.co.uk

HERE TODAY FAMOUS TOMORROW Tee-Shirt by artyfax
Browse Joke T-Shirts

I will be looking at some famous (short) quotes and trying to come up with some original and humerous (clean) texts.  

Poems On Posters

I read an article on Squidoo recently, making money from poetry and one of the suggestions as to how to do this was to try creating posters on POD sites and make money by selling the posters. Well I was not absolutely convinced but thought that it was worth a try.

So I have created my first two posters in this group. The first uses a background image provided by one of my pastel paintings .

Poster: A poem by John Dyhouse by artyfax
More Poem Posters

The second utilises a public domain photograph.

A Poem: The Waterfall by artyfax
View more Poem Posters

Both poems can be seen and read in my Squidoo lens, Poems on attitudes to life

I have ordered a couple of Tee-shirts from my store as nobody else seems to be buying them, LOL. Seriously tho', I decided that I really liked some of the designs and in order to use up some of the money which I have been accumulating, I would treat myself to a couple of shirts.

Vintage Mothers Day Cards

Wow, sure is hard to make posts here regularly - I really must try to gee myself up. With the latest new poetry blog I now have seven on the go and I am writing articles on one or two web-sites. I am going to have to start to make a concerted effort to rationalise and plan my on-line activities.

Do you find that you spend too much time on forums without doing anything really positive ..... thats me; always procrastinating. I read rather than get down to doing that which I should be doing. A much more positive approach is needed.

Ok, enough self-development, what have I been doing on Zazzle?

I made a set of St Patricks Day cards and begorrah, I sold 24 of one design. A nice little earner.

Mothers' Day in the USA in 2012 is Sunday May 13th and a few weeks ago I started to create some mothers day cards with a view to possibly getting a few sales for this holiday. So far I have sold one card. That isn't going to make me rich. It is a small victory however, and I will be looking for more opportunities to create cards and expand my portfolio.  Like everything else on the internet, you need lots of "stuff" to even stand a chance. I am also trying to improve my SEO understanding to bring more visitors to the Zazzle store as well as my other web-sites.

Here are a sample of the vintage cards that I have in the store:

Vintage mother and daughter greeting card by ArtyfaxCards
Shop for a different greeting card template online at zazzle

Happy mothers day greeting card by ArtyfaxCards
make your own greeting cards online at Zazzle.

Of course not being sexist, I am also putting together a set of vintage fathers day cards, June 17th in the USA. Here is an examples of this set I have designed so far:

Vintage gentleman fathers day card by ArtyfaxCards
create a card designs on Zazzle

All the cards can be customised by changing or adding/subtracting any text and sentiments to make the cards personal. You can even add your own photographs.

New Greeting Cards On Zazzle

So much has been happening at home and I haven't had much time for the internet in any form. But I am finally able to see a littlte light at the end of what has been a very long tunnel. I have not been working on my Zazzle inventory until today and I have added a couple of cards to my Artyfax cards store. 
I have been working on some vintage greeting cards, these are the  images I seem to have easily available. For instance, this image of an owl ( from a collage sheet by Kim Newberg) has allowed me to use a little Harry Potter reference. Is he still cool and of the moment? Anyway here it is:-

A message by owl post greeting card by ArtyfaxCards
See more Owl Cards

I wanted to use this next image, also from Kim Newberg, but couldn't see exactly where it might be used. However that is the beauty of Zazzle, a buyer can personalise their messages if an image catches their fancy.

to say hello, greeting card by ArtyfaxCards
create cards online at zazzle

This last card uses a recent pastel painting of my own, with sentiments from the internet. I do mostly use my own words but found this and will be trying it out.

Red and yellow landscape greeting card by ArtyfaxCards
Browse more Red Cards

Hope I will be  making more regular posts from now on.

A source of public domain photos - HubbleTelescope gallery

Looking for inspiration for a new source of available public domain images I came across a gallery of images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. As these are government sourced, they are in the public domain and an be used with attribution where necessary. In fact many government sourced scientific images are in the public domain and would provide a vast source of images. Try googling and see what you can find.

Being interested in the science of astronomy myself, I found this an absorbing source of images. It is necessary to be selective to find images of suitable size for the products on Zazzle but there are some very colourful and fascinating images available.

I have started with a few different products in my various stores, utilising these images. Such as these birthday cards:-

mystic mountain, hubble image birthday card by artyfax
See more Hubble Cards

Hubble photo: The Crab Nebula. Birthday card by ArtyfaxCards
See more Hubble Cards

or these small gifts:-

helix nebula keyring by ArtyfaxProducts
Browse other Keyring Keychains

white dwarf star keyring by ArtyfaxProducts
Make your own custom keychains on zazzle

Helix Nebula, look to the skies mug by ArtyfaxProducts
Browse other Hubble Mugs

white dwarf star tie by ArtyfaxProducts
Create your own personalised neckties on zazzle.co.uk

Many more products with these images on are available from other stores and I will feature some of these in my next post.