Check out this week’s Foto Friday Fun!

What’s Foto Friday? It’s our weekly blog post of customers enjoying their Zazzle products. Want to join in the fun and earn $5 towards your next Zazzle order? Read below for details on how to participate in Foto Friday.

Superhero in Training Toddler Dark T-Shirt

A Happy Haunting Tote Bag

Dagger, Skull, and Roses Shirt

Want to join in? It’s easy and fun! For every photo you send us we’ll give you $5 to use on your next Zazzle order. So get started taking those pictures and join in on the Foto Friday fun!
Rules:

1. You must be in the photo holding, wearing, hugging, or otherwise enjoying your Zazzle product
2. If the product is available in the public Zazzle Marketplace, include the product link
3. Be creative and have fun!

You can tweet your photos to @zazzle or do it the old fashioned way by emailing them to community@zazzle.com.

The Avery & Zazzle Recipe Binder Design Contest is over, the votes have been tallied, and the winners have been chosen! But first, we’d all like to thank everyone that entered in the contest. Each design was amazing and unique in its own way!

Without further ado, I present to you, the winner of the contest…

Congratulations to Winter_Wonderland for the 1st place entry Christmas Holiday Recipe Binder! Zazzle Seller Winter_Wonderland will be receiving a check for $2,000! See below for all the winners.

Winners:

• 2nd Place: Recipes A to Z Binder by jamierushad
• Honorable Mentions:
  • Recipes made with love Binder by TheSpottedOlive
  • I bake the artistic cook’s fun RECIPE Binder by eyecontact
  • Recipe Binder by chrisklee
  • Holiday Recipe Binder by golden_oldies
  • Vintage Italian Binder by YesterdayCafe
  • Color Block Recipe Binder by rtremblay62
  • BBQ Recipe Binder by JamaDesign
  • Cleanworld77 Binder by clean_world
  • Recipes for Healthy Living Cookbook Binder by artladymanor
  • Personalize your own family binder recipe binder by aslentz

See all the contest entries here and stay tuned if you’ve still got the contest bug…there’s another contest brewing…

Jen, from the Zazzle Store colourfuldesigns, was kind enough to sit down and answer some questions about her experience here on Zazzle. Check out the interview below and don’t forget to check out her store Colourfuldesigns!

Zazzle: First off, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Jen: I am a full-time stay at home mother. I run a daycare during the day and I design on Zazzle in my evenings. I graduated from College with a three year business diploma. My husband and I have been together 5 years, and we are the proud parents of two beautiful children, both under the age of 3 years old. I live in the beautiful North ~ Ontario to be exact! I love to play volleyball, basketball and baseball in my spare time.

Zazzle: What’s your inspiration for your designs?

Jen: I’m inspired by everything around me. I’ve loved the arts since I was a little kid ~ when I see bold, vibrant, fun patterns I get this drive inside of me, it’s what makes me want to come up with cool and fun products that are unique and modern.

Zazzle: What has been your favorite design you’ve created, and why?

Jen: I really don’t have a favorite design. When I go into ”The Zone”, time stands still and my favorite design is usually my final product. Once I am finished creating that particular design, everything kinda just starts all over again.

Zazzle: What is your favorite Zazzle feature? How do you use it?

Jen: Believe it or not? I’m still quite the rookie, so I have yet to grasp all of the fabulous features that Zazzle has to offer. I enjoy that I can place flash panels and links from my local website to Zazzle and make referral income, that’s a huge plus.

Zazzle: Do you have any fun stories about being a seller on Zazzle?

Jen: I’ve met a wonderful group of supportive artist on Zazzle and becoming friends with other designers has been lots of fun.

Zazzle: What got you interested in selling your art on Zazzle?

Jen: I have always loved designing, but never had any formal training. I use to decorate wedding halls, cakes, design brochures, decorate interiors, but never have I had the opportunity to work for such an AMAZING company such as Zazzle.

I was actually googling something on the internet…I was pregnant, with mommy brain at the time, so I can’t remember what I was searching for. For some reason Zazzle popped up on my screen and I was quite curious. I browsed around and realized that Zazzle was exactly what I was looking for. I had nothing to lose by opening shop.

I wanted to stay at home with my kids and make a little extra money on the side, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Zazzle has been 100% “The best thing” that has happened to me since the birth of my two children.

Zazzle: What tips can you give someone who is just starting out on Zazzle?

Jen: I think people need to understand that it’s important to find yourself as an artist before you start designing on Zazzle. It’s very easy to get caught up in what’s already out there. Once you find out what kind of artist you are, then everything just starts to fall into place. Zazzle was never about money for me, it was always about having fun and following my passion. It takes many, many hours of hard work and dedication in order to climb the pro-seller ladder, it does not happen overnight. If you are committed to your gallery and put time and effort into your products you will, without a doubt, do well.

Thanks Jen!

Many of you have been asking for an update on the Zazzle Germany’s Lamson ankle. So, we asked Lamson to let everyone know how he’s doing (yes, he survived). See below.

Hallo Zazzlers und vielen Dank für Eure Besserungswünsche. Nach einem kurzen Betriebsausfall ist mein Fußgelenk wieder vollkommen funktionsfähig und somit bin ich jetzt wieder der ordentlich arbeitende, humor- und gefühlslose und äußerst effiziente Roboter, den unsere Kunden in Deutschland besonders gern haben!

Can’t read German? Seriously? Here’s the translation. Also, just to prove to you that he is really OK we took a little video of him using some sweet moves in a game of office ping pong (Lamson is in the red). Rest easy everyone, Lamson’s OK.

Hello everyone and thank you all for your kind words and concerns. After a brief malfunction of my ankle it is performing at a satisfactory level again and as a consequence I am once again the same old humorless, ultra-efficient Zazzle.de robot with no emotions that our German community loves so much.

As for how he hurt himself, well it wasn’t that exciting. Lamson was walking on the street and tripped on a curb. TeeZazzle had the closest guess and wins a Zazzle.de hat. In addition, because there were so many great (and funny!) guesses, we decided to share a Zazzle.de hat with everyone who participated. Hooray!

Halloween 2009 was full of fun for the Zazzle Team. Festivities included a costume contest, some strange Halloween foods and of course a pumpkin carving contest. See below for pictures and explanations from Zazzle’s Halloween 2009.

The pumpkin carving contest winner!

ummmm…..

“The Roberts” represent different stages of Robert’s Life. There’s Baby Robert, 60s Robert, Present Day Robert, Model Shot Robert, and Future Luchador Robert.

We even had dogs in costumes and snuggies. No dogs in snuggies though….

The above picture is just a taste of the Halloween pictures and video we’ll be posting later from today’s pumpkin carving and costumer contest. Be afraid, more is coming .

Also check out the photo below of seller MHartshorn’s Halloween pumpkin – It’s the Zazzle Logo! Very nice! Thanks for the Halloween love MHartshorn!

Check out this week’s Foto Friday Fun with bonus Halloween pic!

What’s Foto Friday? It’s our weekly blog post of customers enjoying their Zazzle products. Want to join in the fun and earn $5 towards your next Zazzle order? Read below for details on how to participate in Foto Friday.

Twick o’ Tweet T Shirts

2010 Calendar – Egypt

Want to join in? It’s easy and fun! For every photo you send us we’ll give you $5 to use on your next Zazzle order. So get started taking those pictures and join in on the Foto Friday fun!
Rules:

1. You must be in the photo holding, wearing, hugging, or otherwise enjoying your Zazzle product
2. If the product is available in the public Zazzle Marketplace, include the product link
3. Be creative and have fun!

You can tweet your photos to @zazzle or do it the old fashioned way by emailing them to community@zazzle.com.

Professional cartoonist Bill Greenhead (stiktoonz) talks to us about being a Zazzler, and his “World of Cows”. Check out the interview below, and be sure to check out his gallery Stiktoonz!

Bio: Professional cartoonist for 21 years. Appeared in the Big Breakfast, FHM, The Times, Punch, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror….Amongst many others. 43 married with 3 children. He’s a prolific creator of silliness who has over 790 cartoons from his World of Cow series on display in his blog at http://wwwstik.blogspot.com.

Zazzle: What’s your inspiration for your designs?

Bill: I’m a professional cartoonist, so I’m always sketching gags and images that pop into my head. I do a cartoon strip daily for my blog called “World of Cow” so I use a lot of these designs for Birthday and Christmas cards.

Zazzle: What has been your favorite design you’ve created, and why?

Bill: Probably the “We come in Peas!” Birthday card. A very silly joke, but it always makes me titter.

Zazzle: What is your favorite Zazzle feature? How do you use it?

Bill: I just love the ease in which I can create designs on Zazzle. I can upload as many images as I like. It means I can spend less time making merchandise and more time creating the designs to put on the merchandise. I love it, it’s so sexy.

Zazzle: Do you have any fun stories about being a seller on Zazzle?

Bill: I stupidly started putting one design of mine on several different shirt designs one at a time, not realising that they automatically go on all the different designs of shirts. When I finally worked it out it saves a lot of time, I’m telling you.

Zazzle: What got you interested in selling your art on Zazzle?

Bill: It’s sooo sexy to use. Not only is it easy and quick, I like the social network aspects of it too. I also liked the way you can use any face of a card in my design. It gives you a lot of freedom, especially if your joke needs a double page spread inside, which a few of my designs did.

Zazzle: What tips can you give someone who is just starting out on Zazzle?

Bill: I love using different models for my t-shirt designs, and putting them on Twitpic to promote my latest designs. It’s a good way to promote yourself, and looks very professional.

Thanks Bill!

There’s a great new lesson in the Zazzle University! This one is about how to properly tag, title, and add descriptions to your products. As simple as this may sound, it is one of the fundamental ideas that will help create a successful store on Zazzle. Or as Professor Rob says, “If the shoppers can’t find your products, well then… they won’t sell.”

Happy Halloween and happy birthday to Casper! The world’s friendliest ghost is turning 60 this Halloween and we’re helping him celebrate with a limited edition Casper T-Shirt that glows-in-the-dark! See below to see the shirt’s animation in full effect.

This shirt is perfect for Casper lovers around the world. But, order your shirt soon because Casper’s glow-in-the-dark shirt is going faster than full candy bars at the rich kid’s house and we’re only selling it until Sunday (keeps the edition limited). Get the shirt here.