THIS BLOG HAS MOVED

I'm now up and running - after a head scratching "Where's my new blog at?" bit of technological glitchiness - on MargaretsBlog.com. I've moved almost all the articles from here to there, so everything should be in order.

This sure is a year for changes. Busy hands are happy hands, I guess.

A gift certificate you can be proud of...on a budget

It should be titled "where to get really rockin' envelopes" because the gift certificate part is super easy. You print your gift certificate on a regular sized postcard a la the one pictured here. Doesn't have to be complicated, doesn't have to be overly fancy. Just professionally printed, which is the only way to go unless you're crafty and have time to spend printing or stamping, cutting, and gluing stuff. I don't, not for stuff like this.

Anyhoo, what you really need to dress up your simple creation is rockin' envelopes, and there are tons of options out there. They aren't necessarily cheap, but the time and trouble you save by ordering free postcards from Vistaprint and not having to print one out every time you need one (and you usually have to do it at the most inconvenient times e-ver!) allows you a bit of a splurge on envelopes and they'll really make your gifts look super special.

Just make sure you get the right size envelope to fit your postcard. Vistaprint's regular sized postcard fits an A2 envelope (5.5 x 4.25) but Overnightprints.com's is a bit different at 6x4 and fits an a6 envelope.

100 pack of metallic envelopes in every possible color at Envelope Mall.
Just $16.95

Lots of colored, sturdy envelopes with lots of colored foil insides at Jam Paper
25 for $15

Beautiful handmade paper envelopes from Handmade-paper.us
Around $3 for a package of 5, and lots of lovely leaves and stuff embedded in the papers they use.

Find some really rockin' envelopes at Etsy, made from recycled stuff (or not!). One example - Moment in the Sun's shop. It can take some doing to find what you want at Etsy, but the wait is always worth it, in my opinion.

Culinary bookmarks to mark your favorite recipes

I just finished up the design for these pretty cool bookmarks that will be packaged in a series of 6 by the Hospitality Management and Culinary Arts Program at Gateway Community College. Basically you check of a category for the recipes you make note of, write down the name of the cookbook or magazine you got the recipe from, the page number, and the recipe name. Then you can have a quick reference of recipes you like or want to try. Prof Stephen Fries got the idea from some ancient cards he picked up...somewhere...and they'll turn out to be a pretty fun package!

Premade chef or catering logo and business card combos

I've opened up my new shop, Cooking Clip Art, and will be moving all my clip art and commerce stuff from my website to Etsy so I can have a more efficient and fun website. I don't really like going to my website a lot because it's gotten pretty enormous. I need space to inform, renew, and feature.

Anyway, I now have to transfer - in Etsy's case that means re-doing everything from scratch - all the new cheffy design stuff I put into Crafty Chef at Etsy has to be relisted in the new shop one by one (*sigh*), and I'm plugging away organizing all the clip art so I can put 4 images into one listing instead of having a gazillion individual listings for each piece of clip art. (*sigh*) There's a lot of sighing involved here.

Along with the premade logo-through-brochure design packages, I'm now offering premade culinary logo and business card designs for personal chefs, caterers, and other cooking peoples. When I first started out as a chef I looked around the online printing places for a business card and proceeded pretty quick to make my own. I'm getting as many styles up as is humanly possible.

Following my own print advice

I just got these bookmarks in from Vistaprint. Very slick indeed...but they weren't bookmarks to begin with. I designed 4 bookmarks onto a large postcard - you get 50 large ones "free" at Vistaprint - had them printed, then when I got them I punched holes and stuck some string fringe in there. They look great, but I've since purchased some different colored strings. Gold doesn't go with everything.

I had a bit of fun with the wording and especially liked the "carry around the crap you can't find in new, unique ways" for The Pocket Shop. Heh.

OK, so getting the freeb from Vistaprinted netted me 2oo bookmarks, 50 of each kind. That's a far superior deal than ordering one kind of bookmark for a much higher price. A little work on the back end, but totally worth it.

New marketing premades for chefs and caterers

This pretty steaming pot was originally made in...2007 and has been re-colored to fit this beautiful personal chef logo, postcard, and brochure ensemble. Nice green and brown, very respectable and peaceful. As with all my premades, you get customization (within reason; the alloweds are all listed with each product). Logo, business card, postcard, and brochure. We designed it, you print it.

New custom rack cards listed, too
Don't want to shell out the dough printing brochures? A rack card is a less expensive alternative. They come in 3.5 x 8.5 or 4 x 9", typically the weight of a regular postcard, not too heavy, not too light. I recommend 48hourprint.com or jakprints.com for printing. Vistaprint rack cards, though I'm thankful they've finally come out with one, are a bit flimsy and don't provide glossy backs. You still want to impress folks, don't you?

Rack cards are custom designed; since the space is limited for text, I'm not going to be offering these as premades; most chefs or caterers have their own unique inventory of services, so it's pretty much a custom writing job on every one.

It's a pink, pink, pink world.

I was flipping through my Cafepress (Stuff for Foodies!) for a bit of a cleanup and saw this Cupcake Connoisseur journal I did up last year. So cute, if I do say so myself. One of my favorites in the dessert category.

One of my most popular images at ole CP, though, is a less beautiful "I Live to Frost" happy frosting girlie cake. You never know what people are going to go for; in the end they usually like the cute clip art kind of stuff. I'm a bit baffled considering the choices they make when purchasing from my inventory of foodie clip art from my website. But then foodies looking for clip art and people looking for funny tees are two different animals.

Another buyer favorite is this simple pig with a chef hat and the word "tasty" written in all the little delicious pork sections. I've got tons of images over at Cafepress, but people tend to want the same things over and over. If I have just 15 images over there I'd probably be doing the same amount of business.

Maybe everything needs to be the same shade of pink?