A Simple Business Card

Several weeks ago I decided to place some ads for my custom portraits
in a local newspaper.  An added bonus was one week the
ad ran in a Dogwood Arts Festival supplement to the paper.

A simple business card.  Simple?  At one of our church events in Plano, TX, I was working on one of the women's events and learned hundreds of dollar had been spent the previous years on tickets, flyers, etc.  One of the committee members the following year printed out the event tickets using the Avery brand she had bought at Walmart. She used the business card format for the tickets.   I was so impressed with the tickets I decided I would try to print my own business cards.  I have had professionally printed business cards in the past and plan on doing it again sometime. One drawback in the past of the self-printed Avery cards was the perforations on the cards' edges.  Gone are the perforations.

I liked the freedom for design with the Avery brand but had problems saving my work projects on their site.  Also, I had not been able to open PDF files for a long time and had a problem with my Adobe Reader.  Finally I was able to uninstall the old version and install a new one. I tried out the online Vista Print version but did not have the same amount of design freedom as with the Avery brand.

Long story short, it took me five days of trial and error to come up with these cards.  The good

news is I learned some things along the way, things that should help me in the future.  The trial and

 error method seems to be the best way to learn. 

(I'll admit at the time it was very frustrating)

I had not planned on adding my own photo but Clint suggested I needed
it for a personal connection to the prospective customer.  I did not want it to
appear my photo was a portrait I had drawn or painted.

By turning my photo sideways and adding my name beside it, I thought
 somehow that would set me apart as giving the message I was not a
portrait commission example.

The back of the card.  An example of pastels and pencil.  I thought
 these two portraits displayed a good representation of my work.

Got to get some pets drawn for examples, I have done
some precious dog portraits in the past.



Clinton, drawn with pencil.





Emma, drawn with pastel pencils and pastels.



A proof from the newspaper for my approval.  There were changes made
from my original business card design.  The only change I requested was having a larger
font for the words Custom Portraits.  This is before the change.

.

A Different Kind of Sunday

Some trees today in the shopping center.

So many things I could write about ... I've been very busy these days.  Clint and I both are trying to become more disciplined and have positive routines in our days.  For days I have been working on my portrait business, designing and making business cards.  My local bank has a table for the members' business cards.  I marched in there a couple of days ago to ask for permission to add my newly printed business cards to this table.  I left the bank being scheduled as the Business of the Month for June.  Yeah for me!  I will have a display in the foyer of the bank, displaying my art for an entire month.  I feel this will be great exposure.

Clint and I have returned to the gym and walking two miles everyday.  It is amazing how much this makes a difference in our lives.

Today my daughter Lucinda and I met at the gym and worked out together.  We had such fun, laughing like teenagers.  Afterwards, we walked over to a little Mexican restaurant and had lunch.  We need to get together more often! 

Lucinda and I sat there and discussed the differences in chile rellenos.  All chile rellenos
are not created equally!  :-)  Give us deep fried ones!

Clint left for the gym early one day this week.  He had not been gone long when I received a call from the gym owner, John.  He had asked Clint why he had not brought his "bride" to work out and had picked up the phone to invite me back to the gym.  John even offered, "What if I come and pick you up?" 

(A very LOUD and LONG drum roll inserted here ...)



This is John.

Can you imagine the neighbors seeing John pull up at our house in
his fancy sports car, ever the gentleman coming to the door
and whisking me away!