Gearing up for sales

I know, I have been neglectful. I am waiting for an information about my t-shirt printing so I can place a few more orders for toddlers. Thanksgiving in the middle & working all week last week have put me behind my duties.
It's almost December & I have to finally post in etsy. Now I can't find the camera booklet so I can figure out the white light for photographing products.
It will happen soon. It has to happen soon.
Will print sign for World Headquarters of Piccolino Designs/Pingquik/Tweet&Flora to inspire me.

Tweet&Flora card line

Most of the images I am making for Tweet are funny. In the recent show that I participated, the "I like the View" gave people a chuckle and a smile. That makes me happy.

Baby Pingquik Designs for Onesies

Here are several designs which I have in the organic cotton onesies made by the local organization, Esperanza Threads.

Sizes are 3-6 months, 6-12 months, 12-18 months

The collar of the onesie.

Results of the Beachwood Art & Craft Show

It was an experience showing my work at the show. Many laughed at my Tweet&Flora card line. I call that one "it brings a chuckle and a smile."

Many ooohhhs and ahhhs at my Pingquik birdie's onesies. Sold 5 baby onesies! 

Sold many of my Penguin & Pingquik Thank You cards!!! A popular one! Thanks to Chiqui's suggestion of adding the letters Thank U to the penguins figures.

It's Halloweeeeen!

Last night my husband & I went to a costume party. It's been a while since we have been to one. Those were the days without kids. So last night Jim dressed as Survivor Man (Les Stroud in Discovery Channel) and I as Cleopatra. My son and his babysitter burned popcorn in the microwave. Thankfully, no flames, but plenty of smoke.
At the party, met a person who made me think about what I want to do with my business. I know I want to keep designing/drawing, but I also need to market myself so I can sell plenty.
My goal: to see my card designs in stores, to see my Pingquik, Tweet&Flora licensed in stuff.
Market-market-market!!!

Beachwood Holiday Art & Craft Show:
So in 7 days I will be selling in my first Crafts & Art Show. In Beachwood's Community Center on Fairmount Blvd. Sunday, November 7th from 10 to 5.
Items available: onesies for babies, tees for toddlers, greeting cards, thank you notes, note cards for kids & adults, calling cards, and a Catalogue to choose for personalized cards.
Much work this week...

A funny Christmas card from Tweet&Flora.
All images are copyright ©2010 cbrucekaiser

3 product lines: Getting ready for the Beachwood Holiday Art & Craft Show.

I am getting ready with my 3 product lines: Piccos, Tweet&Flora and Pingquik.
Got together with girlfriends for lunch to brainstorm ideas & to look at my designs so we could tweak here and there.
Make a calendar! Note cards, tees, so many swirling... And logos to go along them.

The birds are pretty funny. I get ideas just by looking outside my kitchen window at the bird feeder.
All illustrations should bring a smile or a chuckle.

The SHOW will be on Sunday, November 7th 10 to 5 in Beachwood's Community/Municipal Center.

Illustrator Conference

Pingquik is in the Tri-C Campus East Art show. By now quite a bit of students have seen my Pingquik Peace T-shirt & illustrations.

Today my son & his friend were wearing their Pingquik t-shirts. One had the Ripper skateboarding Pingquik dude & the other had the Master Pingquik (like a Jedi). So I gave my son's new friend a t-shirt. He picked the baseball Pingquik. He was extremely happy to have one. Hey, who knows, maybe this age group would like them.
We shall see...

Oh, I will be attending the Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators Conference. It looks good.

Entered the NOIS About Face art exhibit.

So at the last minute, not realizing that Monday was August 30th, the deadline to enter art for NOIS' Sept. exhibit, I frantically illustrated my Pingquik going to the school and hanging out at the beach. I wanted to paint a portrait of myself with a big straw hat, but this summer was too hectic. Meaning, I had no down time to paint. You need uninterrupted time to be able to paint.

Vamos a la playa

Lost in school

Anyhow, here are the 2 digital illustrations. The main artwork was the 7 human emotions portrayed by Pingquik.www.nois.com

Ahhhh....school begins. Now it's time to get serious about...

About the t-shirts. They are being printed as I write this. Got to get the local business list to show the toddler/baby line & get the organic shirts made. And post in Etsy.
I am in the middle of getting my son's school supplies ready for tomorrow, while he is playing Lego with his friends. Instead, I am writing this and I am supposed to start cooking. My husband might have found a client to make them a logo & I might get some freelance illustrating to do. That would be wonderful.
Today has been great, not that other days haven't.

Slow Summer movement...

Yep, I have been quite slow w/Pingquik, but I have created more Pingquiks and have altered the logo, etc...Editing, editing, editing.
I am finally ready to go to the printer & work with him to see how the t-shirts come out.
This should be a step forward; a commitment to finally get this product done.
Now I have to get buyers.
Let me say that Pingquik was inspired by the Puerto Rican endangered, little parrot that flies around my Mom's apt. back home. They are very noisy, but cheery. One way to sell them in PR.
Also, I have finally created a catalogue of my Piccos line. I have to create another one for Fairmount Letters, but it does take time to prep.
LABELS!!
I have finally found good, rounded edge, business size labels for kids & their books.
More news to come soon...

T-shirts & new ideas

I have been waiting for the t-shirts to come in. We have settled on the women's brand & sizes. We have for all ages. Good idea to feel them first. Now we are going to print them with pingquik in different designs that assimilate that person's tastes. 
While driving I came up with a pretty good story to explain why pingquik and his positive attitude. It's a start.  My friends and kids will be wearing them around. We are almost getting ready to launch them!! 

The Trashmen : Surfin' Bird ( 1963 )

Let's talk GOOOOOOOOOOOl!!!!!

After meeting with several friends yesterday to get some input in my pingquik designs, I created my little guy to commemorate the World Cup 2010 series. I love it! I just want to post it on Etsy (for t-shirts) & see if I get any emails requesting it, but I have a feeling I must type all the shipping, payment, etc. policies too.
Like I said, I moved the desk facing the door & boy, are the creative juices flowing. I am finally writing all the projects in small papers (to be transferred to a large poster on my wall) so I can see all my future product lines. (You should see my husband's office wall, full of stickies & charts outlining his 2 major projects.)
I am reading the The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp & I HAVE to follow a habit/a routine to start my creative day.
GO USA!!!!! (We are also for Spain & Italy-hehehehe)

Feng-shui Desk

I finally moved my desk facing the door. It feels much better & I hope I can focus better on the business at hand: finalizing the T-shirt designs for a focus group. I have the samples! I have the transfers! J-U-S-T  N-E-E-D to Do It!
I also need a punch line for my Tweet&Flora illustration in my head. I have the 4 birds, but I need that punch line (4 girlfriends chatting).
Good news for Tweet&Flora. I placed 2 cards in the flower store & people did enjoy the cards. Found them hilarious. Thanks to Jim's sense of humor. He wrote the lines after I illustrated them.
Jim is pretty good at coming up w/wise cracking remarks. BYT, Jim is my hubby.
Let's see what I can accomplish this week. I must start planning the week & set little goals (which I forgot today).

pingquik in the works

I thought of something. I think it's a good idea. I want to work with kids, make something they want, but also something that helps them. Very important is to teach children self-confidence, perseverance and integrity. I am getting these ideas formulated & how to illustrate them in my pingquik. If I can make a product that instill good ideas, help others to make a living, make money and donate, that will be a good thing to do. N'est-ce pas?

partner anyone?

Well, I am looking for a partner, a colleague. I do the artwork & stuff, but I need someone to do marketing, sales, looking for buyers, locally, internet. Bookkeeping, do the excell spreadsheet. I just stuffed the receipts in a folder for now. Quickbooks when we are getting semi-big.
Did some really & funny designs for pingquik. My friend Chiqui is pretty good at ideas.
The seminar was great. I am organizing the info into a big resource business book covering, you name it: branding, market research resources, definitely copyright the pingquiks soon.
Did anyone watched the season finale of Chuck? I like that silly show.

My brain is whirling with ideas...

Developing 3 lines: Piccolinos, Tweet&Flora, pingquik. My collection is divided into these. Now...start making production so we can sell them.
Tomorrow at the seminar and today preparing flower arrangements for a wedding. Got to go.

2nd Day of Seminar

Wow! There was such good info! We had Susie Frazer Mueller, an environmental artist & co-founder of Sparx in the City (Cleveland) which showcases artists & their studios. She gave plenty of good books to read, about wholesale, sales strategy: test market in craft shows, better than focus groups, try etsy...
We had Charity Ewanko who owns a graphic design firm Chartreuse here in the West side, with great info like planning your week, use a contract, where to money pinch, deductions, time tracking, networking.
A fellow artist told me about propay.com about doing transaction using a computer or phone when in an art show.
I have loads of info I have to organize so I can use. We were on info overload on Friday.
I already ordered those books from the library (we have the #1 library system of that size in the nation!!)
Books: 
The Creative Habit by Tharpe Twyla
How to Survive & Prosper as an Artist.


We had more info which I will write later. I am hungry now.

Attending the Artist Entrepreneur seminar

That was last Friday. A Big overview of basic business stuff. An attorney came in to explain legal identities: whether to be a sole proprietorship, Corp-S, or LLC, its tax implications. 
For me right now, I am sole, but it seems that eventually I will have to be a Corp S. Got to consult with accountant. Hopefully next week.
Pricing: the perceived value of pricing. Very interesting. Not good to go cheap nor good to be too available with donations for events. We have to be very choosy. I still need help in pricing my services.
Overall, it was good. Although I was already aware of many things.
Now, tomorrow we shall see. I hope there is new info.
Meanwhile, I am brainstorming ideas for my little birdie. Jim says that I have to have 500 shirts to sell. Tammy suggested I pick 6 designs. I am working on a French theme, another on a skateboard, Marco wants it with a lightsabre....
Tomorrow is another day, and a penny more.

Illustrator Raul Colon - NOIS

The group NOIS hosted a talk tonight with Raul Colon, a Puerto Rican illustrator, who is super nice. Suddenly, it hit me that I  recognized his illustrations from Banco Popular's music shows/CD covers. He is very good; has had covers for The New Yorker magazine and is has done many children's books.
www.workbook.com/portfolios/colon
It was nice to mingle & talk Puerto Rican for a while. He has an image of a vejigante-chupa cabra looking figure which he chuckled when I said Chupa-cabra. I like that word, just like Burundanga.
On more serious stuff--for we were all talking about copyright & how we must NOT sell our rights to our art. Must get a lawyer to  review all that before we sign.
I must copyright all the images I am now creating for the T-shirts.
Came up with an idea of a product shot. Marco wearing a T-shirt with pingquik figure while hiding his face with a set of cards (only showing his smiling mouth).

I am forgetting to write COPYRIGHT on all My images. Everything that you see here was drawn by me.

2010©cristinabrucekaiser

Making more connections

Making more connections this past weekend. There's an organization in Cleveland that helps out women learn to sew & create clothing to sell in Fair Trade practices. I want my t-shirts to give back too. So I will contact them soon.
Haven't heard from Tiny Prints. I made the mistake of not including a SASE postcard to tell me they did receive it. I guess I will send them another letter, brochure & postcard this week. I found a phone number which I will try to call soon. There's a 3 hour time difference.
I have figured out that by selling invitations here and there is not enough to make a living. I have to sell my designs----license them is the key---for cool object, like t-shirts, bags, mugs, etc...
I have created some funny animal designs for t-shirts (or cards). So far the name I like is PingQuik.

More card orders ready... heading to a seminar too!

Time is flying... and I still have to create more t-shirt designs. Yikes!!
I have printed 3 sets of invitations---First Communion is hot right now. I have made bookmarks as a token to guests. Some of the orders complement the invitation. A popular one is the little angel--blonde or brown hair, girl or boy done in blue & green.
So tomorrow the orders will be heading to PR & NJ. 
I enrolled in the Artist as Entrepreneur Institute for May. I am quite excited!
Happy Easter!!

Working on some orders

Well, I just finished a few orders--already on their way to PR & NJ. One already made it to FL. Now I have a several local orders that need to be delivered this week.
T-shirt designs: did a very funny group of penguins and another of budgerigars looking for something. I just googled that word & it means PERIQUITOS. I had no idea what my husband was talking about. I grew up with those funny birds. I love to watch them, but I remember I had to clean their cage.
Anyway, I will be enrolling in the Artist Entrepreneur Seminar held in May 7-14-21.

A bit of research...

I have a partner for marketing the T-shirts. We found a place where digital printing is done on fabric. Very cool. I also contacted a digital printer for printing cards, possibly for "boxed fill-in" invitations, greeting cards & note cards.
I have a series of funny animal drawings with expressive eyes that I have to develop.
I just need to sit still in front of the computer & create.
Besides that, I need to put this blog public (have to figure that out), organize the info for shipping, payment & other pertinent info on my etsy site. THAT is time consuming.
"Tomorrow is another day..." Scarlet O'Hara

Submission to Papyrus ...

Well, today after my mentor friend gave me a cool font for the type on the Easter baby chicks tug-of-war design, I emailed it to Papyrus. I love my baby chick & bunnies. I hope they like them. I did other religious designs, but I prefer my designs to be small, not large. 


I also went to a digital printer for fabrics. We are going to have T-shirts for babies-toddlers-tweenies & for adults a series about man vs. a particular animal. I have to work on all those designs.


Etsy is taking quite a bit of time to set up. The seller portion is partly filled out. Pay Pal account is opened. I need to write the info on shipping, payment, etc... Then take product shots. I have an idea of what I will try to sell there....so much to do...

Working on designs for a card company---Keeping my fingers crossed!

Well, I met my contact & she was very nice and helpful. She gave me some design ideas that particular card companies are looking for. So I made some for Easter & religious.
Today was my husband's birthday, my son's piano lesson & then  I got a slight stomach bug (probably from the Tempura food that I am not used to eating).
Tomorrow I intend to do a few more in other themes.
I hope that at least one of my designs is good to forward to a card company. As always, as a work-at-home mom, I have to balance house errands, subbing, a teacher conference, etc... along with creating.
I love to get into the zone of creating.

A hopeful new contact

I think I contacted someone that might give me good insight on this business. I shall be meeting with her next week. But for now, I am working at a flower shop...

In the Mail

I did it! 
After working as a sub in kindergarten today, I finally mailed brochures, samples, price list & cover letter to Tiny Prints. Let's see if they like what they see.
Serendipity: today I was talking to a mother from school that mention a person who has designs in Target. I googled her & she is quite accomplished. She represents other artists. I am going to give her a call.
Tomorrow I will be working at the Flower store.

Submitting to Tiny prints

I haven't done anything productive yet, 'cause I have been running around doing errands.
My goal by tomorrow is to finish the "brochures" of 3 categories, plus my kid's calling cards.
Designs for First Communion & baptism, baby announcements (including for adoption) & Christmas. A price list, cover letter & my business card. 
I should also make a postcard featuring 4 designs & info. using both sides?

Communion Invitations posted in facebook under piccolino designs

Yes, I just posted my precious designs in Facebook's Piccolino Designs. I haven't figure out how to place an icon (is that how it's called?) on my personal Facebook.


While attending mass, it hit me that I should post them if the nice people at the Sunbeam store on Fairmount is handing out my business cards so they can see what I offer.


Today I bumped into Cindy (Tammy's friend) who happens to know about the Artist Entrepreneur seminar. It will be held in May 2010. I hope it is not too expensive.
So now my incentive to make money is for our vacation expenses. I am dying to get out of this darn cold, snowy weather. I won't be going anywhere soon., snif-snif.
Back to work, need orders....


Happy St. Valentine's!


Note: Tammy owns the Heights Floral Shoppe on Fairmount--look for her blog.
Fairmount Letters has my catalogue too
Sunbeam is a non-profit children's store.

First Communion Invitations

I am ready for the First Communion invitations. I have the paper, the designs are ready so I am hoping people will come looking for a custom invitation at Fairmount Letters where I have a catalogue. I am hoping to get several orders from my son's class.

My favorite invitation is the little girl dressed in her outfit on the invitation. I can custom draw the dress and haircolor & style. Not to leave the boys out, they are dressed in their communion outfits and their haircolor & style can be customized too.

I already have orders for "recordatorios" small cards given to the guests, some invitations (2 of them are my gifts to my godchildren), 2 more from friends...

Let's see what happens.

What to do next?

I am sitting in front of the computer contemplating on all the ideas I have in my head as I read other people's accomplishments. They are selling their stuff in Etsy, or at local stores, etc...and I ask my self: Why does it take me sooo long to decide & do it (post it, call,etc...)?

Organization: I am organizing, deleting & fixing my designs. Then printing them to see what I have so I can choose & redo those designs.

I am in search of one single figure to be the spoke person of my little company. The elephant is not going to cut it. The elephant in the logo looks fine.

One thing I found out after reading an old copy of CBC magazine (Cleveland Business Connects): there is a seminar for us artists in need of business help called The Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute offered by Cleveland's Community Partnership for Arts & Culture. Hopefully they will have it in March or April, although I couldn't find it on the web.