Five Revived

Combatting the red text of doom* is a never ending task on Zazzle, but occasionally it pushes me into coming up with a new, improved version of a product. Here are five I’ve revived.

1) Playful penguin christmassy contour stickers, now two per sheet with added editable text.

Snowball Fight Penguins Merry Christmas Cartoon Stickers
by NoodleWings

2) Frisbees for computer gamers. Leave the house under protest, get the fresh air and fitness required to sustain your screen time.

I'd Rather Be Playing Computer Games Funny Sloth Frisbee
by NoodleWings

3) It’s always cake time with this clock. A new, super simple caption bringing together product and cake theme.

It's Cake Time! Greedy Raccoon Birthday Cake
by NoodleWings

4) A caption that other creators had beaten me to… but it suits my chilled out capybara gymnast, so here it is on a mouse mat.

Don't Worry Be Cappy Capybara Gymnast Hoop Cartoon Mouse Mat
by NoodleWings

5) It’s a joke! I do not endorse drinking as a creative strategy. A stemless wine glass with new improved mole hole.

Liquid Inspiration Mole Writer In Burrow Cartoon Stemless Wine Glass
by NoodleWings

Got a different caption idea? Use "Personalize this template" on the product page to make simple changes to the text, if desired.

* The red warning text informing you that your product is not reaching your customers eg. Last viewed date: 15 months ago

Merry Pixelmas!

Following on from my previous post, I've added new front covers to the gift tags among my PixelPatterns Christmas products, along with coloured text labels to both the tags and the matching stickers.

As with all my Zazzle products, the text can be edited before purchase by clicking "Personalise this template" on the product page. You could add the recipients name, for example.

Mix and match these gift tags and stickers with the matching wrapping paper and tissue paper also available in the store.

Merry Christmas! Xmas Pudding & Holly Pattern Gift Tags
by PixelPatterns

Merry Christmas! European Robin Red Breast Pattern Stickers
by PixelPatterns

Merry Christmas! Dancing Xmas Trees Pattern Gift Tags
by PixelPatterns

Merry Christmas! Dancing Xmas Trees Pattern Stickers
by PixelPatterns

Merry Christmas! Happy Santa Father Xmas Pattern
by PixelPatterns

Jolly Top Hat Snowman Christmas Pixel Art Pattern Stickers
by PixelPatterns

Jolly Snowman Merry Christmas Pixel Art Pattern Gift Tags
by PixelPatterns

Merry Christmas! Xmas Pudding & Holly Pattern Stickers
by PixelPatterns

Merry Christmas! European Robin Red Breast Pattern
by PixelPatterns

Cruel Zazzle Is A Fickle Mistress

Back in 2022 I created a third Zazzle Store, PixelPatterns, an offshoot of my older PatternPie store and a new home for my blocky 'pixel art' style patterns. They stood apart from the other designs in their style, and they performed better, so it seemed logical to give those designs their own focus.

PixelPatterns

I added more products to the range for Christmas, Halloween and Valentine's Day. It was like starting from scratch but with some of the discipline I'd lacked in the scramble to get started.

It all made sense at the time. Two years on, I have an underperforming store which recently slumped back down to zRank 4, and needs some love.

There are a host of possible reasons, here are a few in no particular order, just a brain dump:

Not Enough Products

My earlier stores had more products, and if you throw enough stuff at the wall (trying hard not to compare my designs to mud here), some of it will stick. I'm certainly not recommending some of the shameless spamming I've seen on Zazzle (page after page of the same greeting card but with 'To My Uncle', 'To My Sister', 'To My Second Cousin Twice Removed'). Nor am I saying that you *must* have thousands of products, I just think it helps.

Small Repeat Patterns

The stock product images don't make the best adverts for small repeat patterns like these. As an example,check out the pens on this page; you can't see the motif. This can be addressed with a front cover showing a close up.

All Change at Zazzle

Zazzle introduces new features to try and stay ahead of the search engine trends, and boosts the products which follow their advice up the rankings. Video promotion was a recent addition. I'm still lagging behind making the odd static front cover.

All Change Beyond Zazzle

Sales are suffering beyond this one store (see the regular 'no sales' complaints on the Zazzle forum). Luxury spending might be getting squuezed out by economic worries. There's also an inevitable flood of AI designs hitting the marketplace. Leeches making quick designs (and money) from other people's art using AI.

 

Cute Pixel Art European Robin Red Breast Pattern Playing Cards
by PixelPatterns

Peeled Banana Add Your Text Pixel Art Can Cooler
by PixelPatterns

Funny Sheep Pixel Art Pattern Mouse Pad
by PixelPatterns

Love You x Pretty Single Red Rose Pattern Mug
by PixelPatterns

Pixel Art Gothic Skull Add Your Title Notebook
by PixelPatterns

Have A Sweet Birthday! Battenberg Gift Tags
by PixelPatterns

You're So Sweet! Cute Honey Bear Bottles Flask
by PixelPatterns

Classic Biscuits Pattern Add Your Title Notebook
by PixelPatterns

Tools Hammer Vice And Pliers Add Your Text Pens
by PixelPatterns

Once through to the Zazzle website, use "Personalize this template" to change the text if desired. Text changes are reflected on both sides where applicable.

Tasmanian Devils, Poker and Wanelo

Dear reader, cast your mind back to mid October and you may recall a minor story about the medicinal qualities of the milk of Australia's largest carnivorous marsupial, the Tasmanian devil:

BBC - Tasmanian Devil Milk Fights Superbugs

Yes, apparently for their young to thrive in a dirty environment, devils may have adapted to fight infections that would poleaxe your average mollycoddled human. Inspired by this miracle of nature, I decided to immortalise the devil on a selection of random merchandise.

Lucky Devil

I wanted a secondary theme and was considering 'handsome devil', a Tasmanian devil in smoking jacket and cravat, with pencil moustache and elegant cigarette holder; but 'lucky devil' conjured slightly more dynamic and less lung-damaging images to mind, and Zazzle sells poker chips and playing cards.

Wanelo

In tenuously related news, I recently created a profile on product sharing website Wanelo (Wa-ne-lo, a sort of contraction of Want Need Love), a Pinterest type site but for keen shoppers. There are no referral fees for items sold through Wanelo, but it's another platform for a Zazzle designer to introduce the world to their products, essential if you want to earn from your efforts.

I may be having some beginner's problems though, in that Wanelo hasn't associated this blog with my Wanelo profile, which is necessary to create a Wanelo store. This may be because this blog is a uk domain featuring products from Zazzle's uk domain, whereas I've shared products on Wanelo from the Zazzle '.com' domain to cater for American buyers.

The upshot is that I'm going to try posting some new 'Lucky Devil' products below but from the '.com' domain, Hopefully that will indicate to Wanelo that I am who I say I am, while visitors clicking the links will be redirected to their local domain. With fingers crossed, goodbye!

Boom! Tasmanian Devil Royal Flush Poker Cartoon Badge
by NoodleWings

Lucky Tasmanian Devil Royal Flush Poker Cartoon Playing Cards
by NoodleWings

Cute Tasmanian Devil Royal Flush Poker Cartoon Mouse Mat
by NoodleWings

Bushbabies and Tagging Issues

I'm usually a bit last minute when it comes to Christmas, so doing Christmas designs in October is a new experience. I've also had a bit of artist's block, but here's Christmas drawing number one at last. I picked an animal which I thought would be least likely to enjoy pulling a cracker.

I now have an unexpected problem; Zazzle doesn't like the word 'cracker' due to the alternative redneck meaning, so I have to list products featuring this harmless bushbaby as a PG, and submit it for review to reduce the age rating, which could take a while. So do I submit it now, or after Christmas, or does it even matter?

On top of this, I also have a bauble design from last year, but can't add tags relating to tree decorations, because Zazzle sells tree decorations and thinks I'm including a product type unnecessarily, which it then removes. Will anyone find any of my Christmas products? We shall see.

Cute Xmas Bush Baby With Cracker Wooden Box Sign
by NoodleWings

Bush Baby In A Christmas Jumper Trucker Hat
by NoodleWings

Cute Xmas Bushbaby Christmas Cartoon Contour Sticker
by NoodleWings

Fixing My Printer After The Windows 10 Anniversary Update

I've been going in circles for hours, spanning a couple of days, trying to get my old printer working again after Windows 10 suggested I 'update and shut down' a couple of days ago. My original, full upgrade to Windows 10 also caused a printer failure, to which I eventually found a solution; it's almost as if Windows didn't like the fact that I fixed it, so they broke it more thoroughly with an update. Rather than feel that my last few hours have been entirely wasted, I thought I'd blog the solution.

My printer is an Epson Stylus CX6600 (printer, scanner and card reader). Switching it on after the anniversary update prompted Windows to list a generic 'MFP' (Multi Function Printer) with a 'no driver available' message below, and no printing capability. Note that I was also fairly confident that I *did have* a working driver after fixing the previous failure. The following steps worked for me, and might work for you if your situation sounds similar:

My Solution

1. Once your PC is on and Windows is loaded, switch on your printer.
2. On the desktop, click the Windows icon (bottom left corner), and click 'Settings' (the 'cog' symbol). Choose 'Devices' in the 'Settings' window.
3. The 'Devices' window shows the list 'Printers & scanners', where the generic and non functioning 'MFP' printer should be listed. Ignore that for now, and instead scroll down the page and open the 'Device Manager'. My Device Manager showed an entry for 'Other Devices', where my printer was listed by it's real name: Epson Stylus CX6600 (M). Right-click the name, and choose 'Update Driver Software'.
4. In the 'Update Driver Software' window, click 'Browse my computer for driver software'. Next, click 'Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer'. In my case I was then offered a choice of two drivers for the Epson Stylus CX6600 (M). The older of the two drivers installed successfully (the newer one failed).



Picking an existing device driver

5. The successful driver installation should have three effects. Back in the Device Manager window, 'Other Devices' is now replaced by 'Printers', with the printer listed below. In the Devices window, the generic MFP Printer is renamed Epson Stylus CX6600 (M). Finally and most importantly, your printer should now work again.



'Printers' now appears in the Device Manager

Around The Houses

Before hitting upon the above correct combination of steps, I tried removing the offending 'MFP' printer from the 'Printers & scanners' list and adding my CX6600 manually. This resulted in a error when trying to print, which the Windows Troubleshooter recognised but could offer no suggestions for a fix - baffling when the eventual solution seems so simple. I also read several forum and support threads where people were struggling with similar issues after the update, I don't think I saw the above solution. Hope it helps somebody.

Rock and Roll Owl in a Jumpsuit

Travel back with me now, back through the mists of time to December 2015, and my first creations on Zazzle. Unfortunately, my early enthusiasm was met with a slapped wrist, as my owl design (above) was pulled for trading on the name of a certain celebrity. I thought I'd changed things enough to be safe; the celebrity was, after all, human and not an owl.

The original design also included a pun on a famous song title, and search terms referring to the celebrity in question. Rather than guess where the exact infringement was, I replaced all references to specific rock and roll stars with generic terms, and hopefully I'm now legit. New designers beware!

Rock and Roll Guitar Owl in Jumpsuit Cartoon Greeting Card
by NoodleWings

Rock and Roll Guitar Owl in Jumpsuit Cartoon Clock
by NoodleWings

Rock and Roll Guitar Owl in Jumpsuit Cartoon Mouse Pad
by NoodleWings