Win a $50 Amazon Gift Card

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Editors note: Aug. 13, 2014 - HIGH FIVE!! Just sent the $50 Amazon Gift Card via email to Kristen. Thank you everyone, this was fun! :-D Check the newsletter and follow me on social media for the next giveaway.

Editors note: you don't have to sign up for the newsletter - probably the easiest way to enter is to like my facebook page through the giveaway box above. I am using Rafflecopter's free service because it make it easy for me to notify the winner. I won't be keeping your email addresses unless you do sign up for the newsletter :-) You can also read the Terms & Conditions above.

I need your help to get my newsletter off the ground and blog post ideas!

 

Thank you all in advance! You can come back tomorrow and enter again by giving me another blog post idea. You can sign up for the newsletter and like my Facebook Fan Page only once. Each task gives you another chance to win.

Giveaway ends 12:00 a.m. Wednesday August 13th. I will email and post the winner same day (on the blog). Only US citizens can win.


I would be really grateful if you are interested in getting my monthly newsletter. Sample of what it looks like is below. Get tips, freebies and artist spotlights that I have on this blog delivered right to your email in-box! It will change as I get feed back from all of you. BIG THANKS-A-LATTE for getting it off the ground :-)

The blog stats give me a good idea of what post are popular - but I want to know your ideas for blog posts. The whole point of this is what works for you guys!

If you have already signed up for my newsletter prior to this giveaway, you are already entered to win! You can enter again by liking my fan page and/or leaving a blog post idea.

Thanks again for your time and input - I hope you win! Make my day and follow this blog :-D

Bucking "Target's" Color Trends this Holiday

Traditional colors work too.

Last night my high school senior daughter and I decorated a gingerbread house. We have been doing this for MANY years and usually buy a kit from Target. This year Target's kit had pastel color candy in it.

I figured my daughter would like the colors. When we got started she was unhappy with the pastel color selections. The side she decorated is in the photo above on the left with the traditional red and green. She is by far the largest consumer of stuff in our house and is a walking resource of trend information!, —right down to her brand new Vera Bradley iPhone case. I would never have guessed she would want traditional colors.

That got me thinking. I am sure there is a LOT of thought that goes into what colors will be trendy in the coming year. But given the choice at the store, "trend consumer daughter " would have bought the traditional red and green kit.

Are color trends all that trendy? Or are they just what's available at the time of purchase. Weigh in and tell me your thoughts - Thanks!

Make my day and follow this bog :-D

More Hand Painted Holiday Ornaments

MORE Fun ideas for painting your own pottery ornaments!

Above are our latest batch of ornament ideas for the Holidays!  Just to revisit (if you didn't read the last post on ornaments), they are three inch round tiles that my daughter and I painted. Before we started, we had the person working at our local paint your own pottery place drill holes so we can hang them with ribbon.

My daughter painted the Starbucks and Kitty ornaments. The Starbucks ornament is for a friend who is a Starbucks fan!

We sketched out our ideas on paper and then colored the back side of the sketch with a number two pencil making our own cheap carbon paper :-) Next, we traced the design on the the ornament. As you may know, number 2 pencil burns off when the piece is fired in the kiln.

You can find the first three ornament designs here:
http://anniesdoodlebugz.blogspot.com/2013/11/cute-hand-painted-ornaments-for-holidays.html

Thanks for stopping by doodlebugerz!

File Formats - Down and Dirty

Do you know about this helpful Photoshop website?

 

Recently I have been asked about if a TIFF file is better than a PSD file. I am sort of an old school graphic designer and we used to send flattened TIFF files to printers because of the great image quality and there were less issues with a TIFF file than sending a PSD file. Now a days Photoshop is compatible with a lot more than the current version and I haven't sent a TIFF file in ages!

I agree with this website PhotoShopEssentials.com that I save my master files as PSD. Of course different people have different ways of working.

Below are snippets from PhotoShopEssentials.com post on different file formats

Photoshop .PSD

Of all the file formats that Photoshop supports, the PSD format is probably the most important. PSD stands for "Photoshop Document", and as the name implies, it’s Photoshop’s native file format.

JPEG

The JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) format has been around for nearly 20 years now and has become the most popular and widely used file format for viewing and sharing digital photos.

GIF

The GIF file format, which stands for Graphics Interchange Format, has been around even longer than JPEG, and it’s the format of choice for web graphics.

PNG

PNG (Portable Network Graphics) was originally meant to replace the GIF format (PNG also stands for “PNG not GIF”). That never happened and GIF files are still in wide use today, yet the PNG format improves upon the GIF format in nearly every way.

TIFF

Like PSD files, TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is one of the few file types that support all of Photoshop’s features and is another great choice for archiving your images, with lossless compression that allows you to save photos with the highest possible image quality. The quality comes at a price though, as TIFF files can be very large, especially when compared with JPEG files.

EPS

EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) is another print industry standard format that’s been around for quite a while, but its use has been in decline over the years. EPS files are not really image files in the traditional sense. Instead, they contain a series of instructions for how a printer should reproduce the image. They can be imported into most page layout programs, but the “encapsulated” part means the files are essentially locked and can no longer be modified unless they’re re-opened in Photoshop. (My note: I still create and get request for a lot of .eps files for logo design).

PDF

Finally, while most people are familiar with PDF files for viewing, sharing and printing electronic documents (hence the name Portable Document Format), PDF is also gaining in popularity as a great choice for saving images destined for print. Like the PSD and TIFF formats, PDF supports and preserves all of Photoshop’s features, including the ability to use spot colors, something the EPS format does not support.

 Hope the link to PhotoShopEssentials.com is helpful as well as this post - thanks for reading and commenting!

Cute Hand Painted Ornaments for the Holidays

Fun ideas for painting your own pottery ornaments!

The ornaments above are "hot of the press"! They are three inch round tiles that my daughter and I painted. Before we started, we had the person working at our local paint your own pottery place drill holes so we can hang them with ribbon.

We sketched out our ideas on paper and then colored the back side of the sketch with a number two pencil making our own cheap carbon paper :-) Next, we traced the design on the the ornament. As you may know, number 2 pencil burns off when the piece is fired in the kiln.

Thanks for stopping by doodlebugerz!
See more ornaments here: http://anniesdoodlebugz.blogspot.com/2013/11/more-hand-painted-holiday-ornaments.html

THANK YOU Middleville Michigan

Waving hello and thanking my collector in Middleville MI for purchasing these two greeting cards. I really appreciate all of you for supporting my art. Buy it here:
http://pixels.com/profiles/ann-troe.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=85692

SURTEX 2103! Selling & Licensing Original Art & Design Show in NYC

 

My Experience

I went to Surtex for the first time and Loved! Loved! it! (Had a great time being a tourist in NYC :-)

Above are my simply fabulous agents, Lainey on the left and Teresa on the right, ParcaiDesigns.com and yup, that is my AnniesDoodlebugz art in the background.

Not long after I arrived and met with Parcai Designs, Sarah Hudock  spotted me and introduced herself. We walked Surtex, a little bit of CLA and the Stationery Show together on Sunday.

It was so inspiring to see all the amazing art and artists! I walked around with my mouth open gushing over everyone's art. REALLY enjoyed talking with so many artist that I have seen on Linkedin and swapping business cards. I got lucky and happened to get a chance to speak with a few manufacturers/art buyers. Was great to hear a bit about them and how their businesses work.

Sarah and I spent quite a bit of time at the Stationery Show. Not only was the art just as wonderful as the Surtex Show, but being a graphic designer is was cool to check out all the different types of papers, die cuts & printing methods being used. Since we were so enthusiastic about the art & products, it gave us the opportunity to speak with several greeting card companies and opened up the conversation about if they were in need of new art and handing out more business cards :-D

THE UP SIDE for me was I have an agent who works(ed) their butts off! They get the booth ready & work it. They pitch my art and do all the follow up. Meanwhile, I am back here in my office working on my next art collection and publications that went to print today. Now an agent isn't for everybody, but for me they are priceless.

Thanks for reading and commenting :-)
Much Success ~Annie