I have decided on my web hoster, my business name and bought my domain, I am building my website and started building my Etsy shop. How am I going to get my art uploaded onto the Etsy shop. What will make it look the best, how can I get the right pixel sizes? There are many options but I chose to get an Epson Perfection V600 Scanner. I LOVE this scanner and it does so many things that I have only touched slightly on. With it came Adobe Photoshop Elements program, which is perfect for editing what I want to do. It is a scaled down version of Photoshop. A scanner makes the pictures sharper. If you don’t know how to do something read the handbook, go to Epson, input the question online and something will come up. Don’t be afraid, just forge ahead and find your answers. Use the resources that are available. The Best thing I have found with Photoshop Elements is how to get my whole picture scanned when it is larger than the scanner. You scan all pieces of the art, make sure they are straight and all going the same way and photomerge it. The program and computer put all those pieces together and make it into one picture that can be printed off to any size you want. To learn to do this, I went to Adobe tutorials and I also went to YouTube. Everyone explains it differently and you can find someone who talks your talk. I took a 24 X 36 painting and stuffed it into Etsy. It is magical.

You then have to decide when someone buys your art how will you get it printed off and sent to them. Will you send it out to various places or will you print it off at home and send it yourself? I chose to do it at home and purchased a Epson Stylus Photo R3000 printer. It makes fabulous prints and I would follow blogs and read what other artists were using. I bought it through Amazon because I could not find anyone local who sold them. It was about 700.00. The scanner and printer were my largest cash output in the beginning and I don’t regret it one bit.

This ia another book that I downloaded recently that gave great information about what places there are out there to have your art printed and he gave his opinion on what works better than others. It also gave more in depth on where you can sell your art, where you can get your art printed on other items like coffee cups and t-shirts. It was very helpful and I also downloaded it for $3.99 because I have a Kindle app on my Ipad. Save anywhere you can.

I took Kelly Rae Roberts advice and used this Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster. I tried other papers and decided this was the look that I wanted. With this paper and my Photo R3000 printer I have beautiful prints. I have a couple different sizes depending on how I want the art print to look.

I couldn’t miss showing the logo I designed on Adobe Illustrator. I love that program and it was one of the best classes I took in college. It is amazing also because anything you make on it can be put on a matchbook or a billboard without losing any sharpness. Like anything you just have to practice it. I pay a monthly fee through Adobe Cloud for it because I didn’t want to pay $300.00 for it right away. I never know when I am going to need it but it is handy. I put this logo on my business cards and my website. I plan to put it on a banner also. Since I took a class on this program I have books to find answers but the biggest help for me was the Adobe tutorials.

I wanted to be ready when I got an order. I am going to jump in here and buy the items I will need to ship my art. Clearbags company is where I bought cellophane bags to put the print in and also a piece of cardboard for stability when it is taken out of the mailing envelope.. It’s a great site, all kinds of good items to look at. I also bought from Uline a large size of stay-flat sturdy envelopes to mail the art print and also tube mailers for quilts. The only thing about these sites are the shipping costs are phenomenal. I needed to purchase another size of stay-flats and I just decided to try Amazon and found what I needed at a more cost effective shipping.

So I end this post to tell you that no, my business is not going great guns yet. It took me 5 months to get my first online order. It’s not “If you build it they will come” like the wonderful movie quote. It is “build it, let people know and eventually they will make their way to it”. Find places to show your art, submit it. Brave Girls Club asks for art to highlight with their “a little birdie told me” email. I had quite a few paintings that had birds in them. I submitted and they showed one yesterday.  I had 36 visitors and 100 views on this blog. It was very exciting to me because maybe some of those people will come back and some went to my Etsy shop. You just have to keep working it, follow others blogs and make comments. Make them to be thoughtful and heartfelt comments and others will read them and quite possibly make it to your site. Participate….is a great word. You won’t be found if you don’t do that. I feel comfortable that I am at the right place with Etsy for myself at this time. They get the highest traffic and a great support system. Kelly Rae Roberts book was my life source in this endeavor. I love to create….it is good for my soul. I am very happy being able to do this everyday. You will meet so many different people online and otherwise. If you are interested in Kelly Rae’s book I have a link on the front page of this website. Click on the picture that looks like the one above. I hope that these two posts have been helpful and informative.