Surface Designing for Print on Demand: Where to start?

In a previous episode of my Fearless Artcast podcast on Anchor, I talked briefly about print on demand resources. However, you may think you don’t have the expertise to create designs for these sites. I am here to tell you that you can.

My Navy Spring Florals seamless surface design on a tote bag for sale in my Redbubble Shop.

Recently I’ve been taking Skillshare courses by surface designers. My favorite right now is Cat Coquillette. Check out her Instragram here. She shows you how to make seamless designs you can easily upload to any products on these print on demand websites. As a matter of fact, I created a seamless design called Spring Florals recently that I uploaded to my Redbubble account. You can check out those products at papercrfternook.redbubble.com.

Vintage Green Spring Florals seamless surface design pattern by me on A-Line dress for sale in my Redbubble shop.

Some of the design tools you can use include Procreate for iPads, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator on your PC (purchased through Adobe Creative Cloud for a monthly fee), or even free options such as Gimp or the free version of Canva. For Canva you can upgrade if you want to access the pro features. But to start I would recommend trying the free version to see how it works for you. What is nice about Canva is that it provides templates for different social media sites. Just be sure to check the terms and conditions on what you can and cannot use their images for sale. Usually, you can use some as long as you change them significantly. Check those terms and conditions just to be sure!

Going back to that Skillshare class with Cat Coquillette…She mostly uses Procreate, which I personally prefer. For the record, this blog post nor my podcast are sponsored by Skillshare or Cat. I just love both and want to share these valuable resources with you.

If you don’t want to pay for Skillshare or are on a limited budget, you can always check Youtube for tips and tricks on how to create surface designs. And, also don’t forget the tried and true…Books. Personally I love books. I have multiple books on art, crafts and how to create and sell your art. But, I’ll leave that for another podcast and blog post. For now, I urge you to put yourself out there and try to learn these surface design techniques and get your work out there. You’ll never know how well your designs will be received until you try and try again.

Good luck & Keep creating…

Art & Soul Mixed Media Retreat: Colorado Springs

First day of the retreat.
Ready to get started!
Colorado Springs
View of mountains in Colorado Springs from my hotel room at Hotel Elegante
My goodie bag from the retreat
Beautiful Fiber Arts examples during the evening reception prior to day one
More fiber arts examples
Fiber Art
Fiber Arts
Fiber Art attached to a wood substrate
Paper craft examples incorporating nature

I attended the Art & Soul Mixed Media Art Retreat in Colorado Springs, Colorado from Monday, October 18th, 2021 through Wednesday, October 20th, 2021.

During my time there I took the following courses:

  • Snapshot Paintover with Lisa Bebi
  • Boro Needle Case with Ruth Chandler
  • Wabi Sabi, Boro and Collage with Donna Watson
  • Pet Portraits with Lisa Bebi
  • Cabinet Card Reinvented with Clarissa Callesen

I will cover each course over the next few blog posts.

Snapshot Paintover with Lisa Bebi

My first class began at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, October 18th with Lisa Bebi instructing the workshop on how to paint over black and white photocopies of family/loved ones or images she provided. She taught how to colorize an effective art piece on photocopy paper and adhere it to a substrate (canvas board or wood in this case). She is a Certified Golden Paints Artist Educator. Her works include a huge variety of whimsical and fun paintings featuring her family members. As she said in class, she has “sold her parents” numerous times. Ha!

A lot of her customers/clients identify with her work because it reminds them a certain family member of their own during a different time period. She uses a lot of older images that portray a bygone time period. And sometimes she’ll take those old pictures and place the subjects in a new time period (such as a painting of her mother in a spaceship).

I made my mug shot image provided by the instructor into a witch. Perfect for Halloween! And the final image I painted over was of an adorable little girl I gave collage wings to courtesy of Lisa’s collage images provided by a couple of graphic elements books she brought to the workshop. Check out the gallery of images:

  • Mug Shot image
    Witch Mug Shot
  • Adorable Girl Image
    I painted this adorable girl and added collage butterfly wings
  • Natural History images book
    Book of images available to cut out for collage elements
  • Vintage journal images
    Vintage journal images were provided by the instructor for collage elements

Up to $15k in free business grant money!

Listen to the most recent episode of my podcast: Up to $15k FREE money for your small (art/creative) business! https://anchor.fm/fearlessartcast/episodes/Up-to-15k-FREE-money-for-your-small-artcreative-business-e15531u

https://anchor.fm/fearlessartcast/episodes/Up-to-15k-FREE-money-for-your-small-artcreative-business-e15531u

The Creative Hustler: Increasing income streams through your art

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Axolotl

A Painting Workshop

Recently, I was interviewed on the BiggerPockets Money podcast with Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench (check out episode 190).

I had heard they were looking to interview more women for their podcast to review their finances. I figured, sure…I could use some help.

I’ve been trying to get my financial house in order for quite sometime. As an early middle-aged single mother of two sons (ages preteen and teen), I realize I have a long way to go.

But, there’s hope.

Mindy and Scott gave me a lot of great advice. Regarding my multiple side hustle ideas, Scott in particular suggested that I focus on one at a time for 90 days at a time to really give one a chance to grow. Mindy suggested that I continue to submit my artwork to Redbubble on the side because it’s so automated after that I don’t need to really do anything except wait for the money to come in.

You see…side hustles have always been my “thing”.

I started making handmade greeting cards and papercrafts to sell at local craft and vendor shows. Then, I branched out to selling wedding invitations as a dealer for the Birchcraft brand. During those times, I attended a wedding vendor show in the Pittsburgh area as a wedding invitations vendor. And, I even attended the National Stationery Show at the Javits Center in New York City. I have friends who live in Brooklyn who allowed me to stay with them while attended the show.

So, what have I done so far since the interview?

I’ve painted two new paintings and posted both designs onto products in my Redbubble shop. You can check it out here:

https://www.redbubble.com/people/papercrfternook/shop?asc=u&ref=account-nav-dropdown
Redbubble Shop

As for my “main” side hustle, I’m focusing on teaching step-by-step painting workshops. My first step was researching how to market. I went to YouTube to see how other people are doing it. Now, I’m ready to move onto the next step, which is outreach to local organizations. I’m keeping my outreach short and sweet. Telling them what I do, giving an example of one I’ve done before and seeing how I can help them. Below are some photos from my last painting party. It was for a college friend’s daughter’s 11th birthday. I taught the daughter and her friend how to paint the axolotl, the daughter’s favorite amphibian.

The birthday girl painting her favorite amphibian, the axolotl

I’ll keep you updated on my side hustle progress.

Happy Hustling!

~ Rachael Caskey

The Creative Hustler

Print on Demand Resources for Artists and Designers

If you’re anything like me, you’re looking for ways to monetize your art and designs. But, you don’t have the money to manufacture products.

Lucky for us, there are print on demand companies willing and able to do that for you. These online companies include Redbubble, Teespring, Spreadshirt, Printful, Printify, Zazzle and many more.

If you have an Etsy shop, some of these sites integrate with Etsy so that you can post your art and designs on various products that are printed and shipped directly to your customers. The beauty is that You don’t even have to pay for these services up front. They take their money after you get a sale. Check out my Etsy shop Papercraftersnook to view the print on demand products I have there.

One of my print on demand products featuring one of my paintings

In these print on demand sites you can set your profit percentage to control how much you get paid from the sale. If you have any questions about print on demand or would like me to go in depth on each one please feel free to contact me. Have you used print on demand with your art or designs? I would love to hear from your experience. Until next time!

Happy creating!

Rachael