Mind Garden Designs

Your shop name *	Mind Garden Designs
Zazzle to me is a... *	Hobby that I wish would become a part time job
What is the best advice you have received from a fellow shopkeeper about your shops or designs you would like to pass on to another shopkeeper? *
Love the Zazzle forum. Other shopkeepers ask all kinds of questions that I should ask but never think of! Lots of good advice there, and well worth taking the time to read through for ideas on how to promote your store or solve problems that may have come up. Especially when you are first starting out. Zazzle shopkeepers seem to be very open with suggestions on how to make it all work, which is good, because the more of us that it is successful for, the more success we all are likely to have. Encouragement from other users really boosts morale too. Having people drop by and make a comment about a product or the look of the store helps to keep me working on it.
What PODs do u currently use or have shops on? *	Zazzle Imagekind
What did you do with your free time before zazzle or other POD's....and what do you do with it now? *	I paint, draw, do photography, write and wander in nature as much as I can. Nature is always reflected in whatever media I happen to chose that day. Before I got involved with Zazzle I used to sell my works individually and in person. This is so much better and less time consuming. I can spend my time creating and exploring.
What programs do you use to make your designs *	Photoshop (any version) Other photo-editing software
Tell us more about what you like and do not like about each software you use, what makes it special. *
Adobe Photoshop CS2 - I like because I can save in a variety of different file types, which means I can transfer to other programs fairly easily. I do not like the fact that it can be cumbersome to create some of the effects I would like to create. ArcSoft PhotoStudio 4 for Canon - works well with my Canon camera for editing photos easily, but also contains several paint-style features that I find easy to use when creating art work from scratch. Gives me user friendly control over editing. Do not like the fact that there are few file format choices to save as. To save as .png I have to save my work, then open the work in Photoshop and save as .png from there.
Will you make custom orders? *	Yes - no prepay required
Elaborate on your answer above regarding custom orders... *
Custom orders can be challenging because you frequently get customers who change their mind mid-stream. I would do the work with no pre-pay required unless the design included aspects that would not allow me to sell to anyone else, particularly if the customer cancelled the order or returned it dissatisfied. For example, if they wanted a design that I could easily adapt for 'anyone' I would not charge ahead of time - if they wanted t-shirts for their business with their logo, name, or other personal aspects on, and I could not adapt to selling to 'anyone', I would ask for pre-payment.
List your shop URL's *	http://www.zazzle.com/marilyn58

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