street magnets! a kinda "how-to"

I lied when I said that I haven't done ANYTHING to market my cookie chang products. Last fall I had this idea to do what the crumz were already doing -- graffiti. But, being a 42 year old woman in a new country, I thought it might not be too smart to get busted drawing on public buildings . . . and anyway, what the crumz are doing is "virtual crumfiti" not "actual graffiti."

So I said to myself, "Self, what if you could leave your mark around town without actually defacing property?" And what magically popped into my head? MAGNETS!

Being a natural cheapo-minded artist, I fit a bunch of 1" circular designs on an A4 page, printed it out on my inkjet printer, painstakingly cut out little "www.cookiechang.com" labels to affix to the back of each, laminated the page, cut each out with my 1" circle punch and stuck a little magnet to the backs. Fantastic idea, right? Uh, not in rainy olde England is wasn't!



One beautiful sunny day kpie and I put them up all over Lewes and Brighton. I skipped home, certain that the next day I would check my web stats and find thousands of new hits! Well, I did get a few extra from my efforts . . . until it rained . . . and rained and rained. When it finally let up I scoured the places we'd put them, only to find soggy, smeared paper and peeling lamination.

POOP!

Now, several months later, I've discovered a better way . . . and I want to share it! I've been getting postcards and ACEOs printed online at vistaprint.com (or vistaprint.co.uk) for several months now. They're all over the world and well-known for their free business cards. You can get 250 for free, but apparently they have vistaprint info on the back. Smart marketing on their part! But if you're like me, you want the thrill of seeing ONLY your designs on printed material.

So I got on their mailing list. They send one promo a day -- all advertising FREE products. Now if I've learned one thing in this lifetime, it's that nothing is FREE. But sometimes you can get a damn good deal if you pay attention!

Get on vistaprint's mailing list and take the time to look at the promos when you need something printed. Some of the postcard offers give you free uploads, free B&W printing on the backs and free glossy finishes. If you're willing to wait 21 days, you'll only end up paying £3.70 + VAT for 100 standard postcards.

I digress. We're talking about MAGNETS, not postcards. But the idea is the same. Vistaprint's magnets are 4-colour process on vinyl magnet sheets and don't fall to bits when it rains! I spent considerably more than £3.70 + VAT, but did some work to make sure I got 6 different designs on the large size (same size as the standard postcard), and cut them out with an x-acto knife. Voila! 100 sheets magically became 600 bright, colourful magnets which advertise my etsy site and my website! Easy peasy! The whole thing cost me £65.00 . . . but are FREE to you if you find one.

Now all you have to do is look for them on the streets! The crumz are busy putting them up from Seattle to Portland to Brighton to Lewes . . . to a metallic urban surface near you! Let me know where you found yours.

cookie do whatcha make of it. (heh?)

It's a rainy, dreary day in Southeast England and my youngest sister (mert) is no doubt tucked up safe and sound in her bed in Seattle after her long flight home yesterday. For the two faaabulous weeks she was here with us, I did very little work on cookie . . . so today I followed my other little sister's (mel.e) lead and got me a spot on blogspot.

Since I launched my website (cookiechang.com) and opened my etsy shop (cookiechang.etsy.com) last May, I have admittedly done little to promote them. And how stupid! I spend so much time creating things: making dolls, painting, illustrating, writing, yada yada yada . . . how is anyone going to know they exist and are available to purchase if I don't actively tell them? Duh.

Joining the UKTeam on etsy has been really helpful and I'm learning about the importance of networking sites, etc. Talk about time consuming though! It's hard to divide my time between creating and producing art and promoting it -- but, as I'm learning, there ain't one without t'other.

So I'll end this entry with a couple pictures of my recent work.

This is my Mamey Beergarden doll. Look familiar? Like someone else we might know? You can have her for your very own by clicking on my etsy link on the right!


I've also had limited edition ACEOs of some of my paintings printed. In case you don't know what an ACEO is, it stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals and must always be 2.5" by 3.5" -- the same size as baseball and other trading cards. They're meant to be an affordable way to collect art. And at just $8.00 for 4 signed edition prints on etsy, I'd say that's pretty affordable!


You can also visit cookiechang.com and learn about cookie's "crumz" -- the naughty little characters who like to do their virtual crumfiti on various landmarks in the UK. You can even hear their voices (god knows I do).