The World Was Hers For The Reading (And Writing, And Designing)

I will start here with another recap of my Digital Designs story - this has been covered in the last 2 craft updates (about my bookmarks).

• I got into creating digital designs during the latest lockdown (January-April 2021).

• I decided I wanted to make products out of them - my first go-to was bookmarks using my photography designs (When Books & Photography Combine!! (wixsite.com)) and some book quotes and other bookish themes (I Don't Know About You, But I LOVE A Bookmark (Or Two, Or One Hundred). (wixsite.com)).

I loved how all the bookmarks turned out, so I wanted to try something else - a test of printing some designs on other products.

To start off with, I went with magnets.

I figured they were quite simple and straight forward, but that they would look quite effective - both on the fridge and as bookstagram props.

I had to amend my designs in order to make them the right shape and size for magnets - understandably bookmark shaped wouldn't work. So I pretty much did the opposite process that I used when creating the photography design bookmarks:

- I copied and pasted the design from the bookmark into a design area which was the correct size and space.

- Next I added the background, or in some places changed the background to a completely different one as the bookmark backgrounds didn't always look as effective on the design shape.

- I then altered the design - changed sizes, shapes, dimensions and added/removed/changed elements to make them look as good as possible.

I did this for all of the bookmarks (although some of them I didn't keep, as I couldn't make the design work, and I fell out of love with the designs due to trying too hard with them, making them achieve something the weren't designed to achieve. I then tested the magnets with three different designs (I didn't want to order too many if they didn't work out, but I wanted a couple of different designs to see how they would work).

I have 10 of each design available, which I will add to my Etsy shop as soon as I have the time to open it properly (hopefully within the next couple of weeks). Although I will be keeping one of each design for myself.

Once I had made these, I had a "suggested product for you using an uploaded design", which was the notepad - I LOVEEEEEEE notepads - I think I have a bit of an obsession with them, but I also always find a use for them, so I couldn't resist ordering one (especially with the quote "There's magic in every page" on the front! I mean how great was that! I also decided that I would buy one as a gift for someone as well. A recommended product when ordering photo notebooks is photo pens, and I thought that it would make a great addition to the notepad as a gift. I am aware that the pens were more for business logos/advertising, but I mean how good does that pen look!! I had to get myself one of these too.

The notepads and pens made great product testing items - I will absolutely be designing some more eventually and adding them to my Etsy shop as soon as I have.