CanvasPop Custom Art, $49+

CanvasPop takes your photos and turns them into custom canvas art. They’ll work with images of any resolution meaning you can even send them your iPhone snapshots, and they connect easily with Facebook, Flickr, and other social networking sites. There are a variety of filters to enhance your image if you want, too, and they’ll send you a digital proof to OK everything once you’re done. They also have a team assembled to talk you though it if you need help. Available in tons of sizes.

from CanvasPop.com

This is what I bought from the Renegade Craft Fair:

A small bundle of soap odd ends from Biggs & Featherbelle. They create huge rectangle logs of soap and then cut them into individual bars to sell. There is always an odd end left which they cut in half, bundle with other odd half ends, and sell for $1. Much better than going to waste. Brilliant! (first photo from their website, second photo by me)

A blondie from the Treats Truck. (I nomed it before I got a photo)  They’ve named their truck Sugar.  (photo from their website)

Some much-needed body lotion from Bunny Butt Apothecary. (photo from their website)

A mish-mash of “seconds” coasters from Sesame Letterpress that I might not let you use if you come over; they’re really pretty. (Listen to me and Breck from Sesame Letterpress having a great interview here).
(photo by me)

One pin for my purse from Miniature Rhino. It took mere hours of wearing it for someone to ask me if I gave blood. I’m going to have to make up a meaning for it so I don’t have to explain it doesn’t “symbolize anything, I just thought it… looked… cool” which makes me sound like a total poseur (sidenote: do people say “poseur” anymore?) Any suggestions?
(photo by me)

A stone magnet from by Cary. I saw it and liked it, but wasn’t going to spring for it (it was only $5, but still). Rob, in a fit of brilliance, sneaky-bought it by sending me to “check out that stuff over there” while he slid Cary his money. He gave it to me later at lunch, which was so sweet. When we went back on Sunday she beamed at us both and asked if I was surprised and happy (and did Rob have a brother?) Her website is coming soon, and I suggest you keep checking back. I really liked her coasters, too, which are slightly bigger versions of the magnet.  (photo by me)

I’m back to selling photography! See my new store here!

I had a go at selling on Etsy a while back, but didn’t like it. On Etsy you pay a tiny fee per listing. That’s fine – it’s an amount I could cover with the coins dug out of my couch cushions – but it was annoying to pay given the lack of volume of business my store did every month.

I closed up shop and let it sit dormant. My best sellers were my copyright violating P*ep photos, anyway, and I couldn’t continue selling them.*

***

One of the beauties of SxSW is the people you meeting hanging out in the hallways, at the parties, in the bars, and at the dinners. I serendipitously wound up one night at a table full of people who were launching a start-up called “Store Envy” storenvy.com

It’s a similar concept to Etsy; the biggest difference for me is that they don’t have a fee per listing. Like Etsy, it’s free to launch a store, although it’s in private beta now. (They currently have Pro stores available that offer warehousing and shipping for a 15% fee) I requested a free beta store and got one, because they like me.

You can visit it by going to theambershow.storenvy.com Right now I’ve listed nine different 8×10 and 8×12 prints.

One thing I’m going to do in the near future is offer custom-cut mats. The problem with the way I (and a lot of people) shoot is that we compose our images in 2×3.  That’s normally a 4×6″ photo, and if you blow it up again, 8×12″.   Most frames, of course, come in 8×10″. There would be a HUGE market for anyone who starts making reasonably-priced frames for 8×12″ prints, as many of us are loathe to cut off those two inches for many of our favorite pictures when we blow them up.

Since no one has thought to make millions doing this yet, custom matting is the solution, but Hello! Expensive! So I’m going to start offering custom mats (bought in bulk), sized to fit both 11×14″ frames (a standard size frame you can find anywhere) and 11.75×15.75″ frames, the size of the most common RIBBA frame from IKEA, and frame of choice for cheap people everywhere.

Go check out my shop and pass it along to your friends, if you would. I’d appreciate it so much. If you have a suggestion for me, please share. Currently, 100% of the profits from the sale of every $10 print will be going directly to getting these little guys off the beach and into a good home.  They are puppies born recently to a dog called Patches that some of my Puerto Rican dog rescue friends have noticed on the beach.  We really don’t want them to languish in the filth they’re in, but there is currently zero dinero to help them with.  Since I’ve gotten a handful of emails asking whether some of my prints were for sale over the past few months, this seemed like a good move all around.

*For you newer readers: I got a cease-and-desist letter from the maker of P*eps, telling me I couldn’t use their image for commercial purposes. If you’d like one, I still have a few of both “Godzilla vs. P*ep” and “4 P*eps” available, yours free with a $10+ donation to Manos Por Patas. Just forward your receipt to me with your address and I’ll send it along.

I got this email two weeks ago:
I have a question. Any thoughts on where I can get some cute prints for her room? Everything is light (you saw it), so I don’t want anything to crazy colored. You’re more up on the cool, fun, artsy stuff than me, so hook a sister up

I was all over it. I think I might have ignored the “nothing too crazy colored” part, but overall what I came up with is pretty good, and I’m pleased!

If you’re looking for art for small people, you should peruse my list, and if you are interested in even more things for small people, check out Poppytalk. They’re kicking off their own week of things for small people, starting with the custom birth announcement shown above, by Almost Sunday.

Birth announcements should all be as cute as this one, so that twenty-five years later you can hand your child’s spouse one that you’ve saved for years and years, and they can cry all over it and then frame it and hang it up. Also, now everyone who comes to our house knows that Rob was 7 pounds 8 ounces at birth. Probably half of that was his head.

“Do you want to see the nursery?!” she asked, grinning.

Did I ever!

It’s for a girl, but instead of being all PINK! it is blue and yellow and with green in the rug. Very refreshing, and so her. It’s not done yet, though: she needs art! I am put to the task of seeing out appropriate prints for the walls, and internet? This is so fun. We have come a long, long way from the pastel prints of Peter Rabbit and Noah’s Ark.

I’ve got a bookmark folder entitled “baby art” stuffed with goodies that I’ll be sharing on the Sideshow. If you all have some good ideas for nursery art, please share them!

Monsieur II, $30

Bag Girl Polka Dot, $25

Jessica left a sweet comment on Hey Brooklyn yesterday, and posted a link to her online store called The Shiny Squirrel.

It has so many cute things, and not just prints, either. I could write several blog posts on things I’ve come across in her shop, but I’ll let you explore yourself.

Thanks, Jessica, for letting me know about your fabulous store!

This print is made from a long process of covering a tree stump with ink, pressing the paper bit by bit onto the tree stump with fingertips and then what I imagine is a slow, breathless process of peeling it off.

You can see more photos of Bryan Nash Gill working at the Ashes & Milk blog.

This is one those “of course!” kind of art pieces. Like, of course you would put ink on a tree stump and make a print of it. Of course. I should have thought of that. I’m glad someone did.

I’m going to try this!

we make words is a sweet, interesting art project.

via say YES! to Hoboken

At a party during SxSW I met a representative of Foodzie, Emily Olson, who I bounded up to and said, “I don’t have a lot of time to talk to you, but I’m really excited about what I’ve heard of your company. Can I have a card?!” She gave me one, and a lollipop, too (I turned down the bacon flavored one and got “salted caramel”, a flavor whose recent booming popularity is sweet, sweet justification for the years and years I spent putting salt on the strangest of things while my friends *coughJencough* looked at me with their eyebrows raised, shaking their heads and going “That. Is. Disgusting.”)

I was interested in Foodzie because I overheard it described as “the Etsy of food”, and this got me SO excited. Small business, artisan products, and good photography. Love!

Today was the first time I got to poke around the site (which is well-designed and easy to navigate) and there are a lot wonderful things. I pulled out a few that really made my eyes light up.

Clockwise from the top left:

Easter Sugar Cookies from Little Laura’s Sweets, $24 per dozen
They’re organic and wrapped in eco-friendly plastic bags with bright bows. So cute.

Classic Gift Pack from Rick’s Picks, $40 for 4 jars
I really love the label design on these, and I love pickled things. Check out the name on the beets: “Phat Beets”. A pun!

Vegetarian Savory Tarts from Little Pots & Pans Co., $28 for six
I bet these are way better than the frozen, preservative-laden ones in the grocery store.

Das Lolli All-Natural Lollipops by Das Foods, $6 for 12
This was the brand of lollipop Emily gave me. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks wholesome. I have the Caramel Lavender. They also have “Naughty Ginger”, “Fab-O-Pom” which is pomegranate and orange, and “Maple Bacon” which they describe as “Man Bait” and I describe as “spew”. Still, if you try one, let me know how it is.

Smoked Sea Salt – Quoddy Mist Bold by Quoddy Mist Sea Salt, $8 a jar
I’m betting this would be amazing on salmon. Or straight off the tip of your finger.

Single Malt Scotch Bars by BonBonBar, $15 for 3
These look incredible.

Organic Ketchup by Happy Girl Kitchen, $6 a jar
No high fructose corn syrup in here. As a life-long ketchup devote, I’m guessing this would ruin me for all others.

If you order something from them, let me know how it is!

Quite possibly the most awesome maternity shirt ever.

By Michael Phipps, via say YES! to Hoboken.

Buy it here.

(ps ~ No.)