It was Friday the 13th

OK, my second day of restarted blogging should have been on Friday the 13th but when I signed in the blog from the 12th was gone!

Then life happened again and now it is Wednesday, almost a week later. We are in the season of school gifts, making gift items that celebrate and commemorate life events. It may be something for a graduation, or recognition and thanks to a great teacher. This week is kept busy with an order for 55 mugs for one school. If you are not close enough to come to our store in Webster, NY - then click the link below to see some great cards with our images at Greeting Card Universe.
Teacher Appreciation Cards on our Greeting Card Universe Page

We are in Webster, New York which is a suburb of Rochester, New York. Rochester is know for its Lilac Festival, click the next link to get to festival information.
Lilac Festival - May 13 to 22, 2011

Restart My Blog

Now is the time... to restart the Zachary Bear blog!

As you can see it has been some time since my last blog. Blogging is like jogging or any other exercise program. You really need to do it on a regular basis to see any results. While I did start with good intentions to blog about Zachary Bear and all of our designs, it did not seem to spark any interest. Recently a friend who is a pastor encouraged 'friends on facebook' to get moving... Right now I am trying to walk on a regular basis and I will try to blog on a regular basis as well.

With a variety of things to write about in the areas of art, art shows, selling art, photoshop and raising a family, I hope to generate a greater interest in my future blogs. While I am writing under the banner of Zachary Bear, any views or opinions are my own. I am Ed at the Zachary Bear Store in Webster, New York. My background is in Audiovisual Technology, although AV Tech in 1974 was a lot different than what it is today. I learned to create page layouts in a cut and paste manner long before it was done on a computer. In recent years, I taught myself to use PhotoShop and have developed a variety of tips and tricks that I will share with you here. I also learned PageMaker layout software which became InDesign.

I have all good intentions of writing again tomorrow. We will see what happens. - Ed

April 15th - Tax Day

Happy Tax Day!
The Zachary Bear® designs for Tax Preparer look stressed out, but they made it to tax day! This is a good day to send a card or order a gift for your tax preparer.

You know that they would not have had time to open a card before today.
So today is a good day to send a thank you note.

Feb 11 - Valentine, Anniversary and Wedding Couples

Trying to get back on track after some family illness and such...
Life goes on and the right things happen at the right times.

Today we will look at three designs featuring Zachary Bear® and Sarah as a couple. Of coarse this is the time of year to look at the Valentine design. Flowers and candy to celebrate and commemorate the special day. The area at the top with "Be My Valentine" printed may be personalized in any of many ways. We can personalize this spot with the couples name (lady's name is usually first since she is on the left. It could also be done with a special date or a short dedication.

Next is the Anniversary design, which may be used to commemorate any anniversary. Again we suggest the lady's name goes first since she is on he left. This also has options for personalization in addition to the name. A date of the anniversary may go below the names (but the names will be smaller) or in the space below the rug. When it is a special year that is being celebrated it is fun to write that in the space above their heads on either side of the heart. This would be something like Happy 25th, or Happy 45th or any significant number of anniversary. The other place that we like to personalize is on the Wedding Album. Since they are looking back on their wedding day this would be personalized with the date they were married.

Our final design for this blog is the Wedding design. This makes a very special way to celebrate and commemorate the special day. When it is hung in the couple's new home it is a great way for the husband to remember the right anniversary date. Can you tell the I have trouble remembering mine? The good news is the I remember it to be a day earlier than it actually is...

So with this design I always recommend that you include the date with the names. The date can be put in the banner with the names a little smaller or put in the white space at the bottom below the feet.

280 designs to go, 323 days to go...

Jan 21 - Cooking

I thought today should be a post of the Zachary Bear® design, Cooking. Since the idea of blogging the way through the Zachary Bear collection was inspired by the movie Julie & Julia, it is most appropriate to personalize this design for Julie.

This design has two places to personalize. The name goes at the bottom in the frame where we have put Julie. The frame on the back wall with "I (heart) French Cooking" can be personalized for your favorite cook. It could be the name of a cooking school they have attended or any school they have graduated from. Personalization can also be a favorite phrase (ie. Kiss The Cook) or simply Sarah's Kitchen.

The whole idea of the Zachary Bear collection is to celebrate or commemorate the things that people love to do. What do you love? It could be a sport, a hobby, an occupation or a family life event that you wish to celebrate. The pink that you see around this picture represents the mat around a matted or matted and framed print. We offer three sizes of prints which come in a mat with an outside dimension of 5"x7", 8"x10" or 11"x14" in size. Our standard mat colors are pink, blue, red, green, tan or ivory. We offer frames that are gold or silver tone metal or walnut colored wood. If we put a picture on a t-shirt or other gift product it is printed without a border around it. So you could have this picture matted, framed and personalized to hang in your favorite cooks kitchen. You could also have an apron or a mug made with this fun design. Lori has fun drawing these designs and you should have fun giving them.

283 designs to go / 344 days left

Jan 19 - Meteorologist

When you live in Rochester the weather is always changable. Around here we say, "if you don't like the weather wait five minutes and it will change." With that in mind we pay tribute to Lori's meteorologist design. As hard as they try, they can't get it right. It is a science that is subject to the "winds of change." Meteorologists predict as best they can, they model all the possibilities and the determine the most probable based on science but are always at the whim of nature.

As you see in the designs, Lori usually does a male and a female version of each design. She pays great attention to detail and finds as many facts as possible to pay tribute to the profession, hobby or special occasion that she is depicting. She will also have a content specialist review for accuracy.

To further clarify, Zachary Bear and friends live in Webster, NY which is a suburb of Rochester, New York. We have been told that there are very few cities with fewer gray days than we have. I believe Seattle, Washington was one of these.

If you have a friend who is a meteorologist, this would make a great gift in one of many ways. They can be matted and framed for the wall. They may be printed on a mug or mouse pad. They can be printed on a shirt along with a favorite saying. Just give us a call or send us an email at zachary@zacharybear.com

284 designs to go / 346 days left

Jan 15 - Happy Birthday

After celebrating Lisa Fox's birthday it seems like the perfect day to do the Birthday Bear design.

While you see the design here with the banner filled in with Happy Birthday, this is an area that may be personalized in many ways. We have used it to say Happy 50th are any other significantly large birthday number. You could have a name or a favorite saying in the banner. There are times that you need a second area of personalization and in that case we write on the table cloth. This area may be used for a name, a favorite saying, a special date or dedication.

As you can see this group is having a great time being together celebrating a significantly large birthday. This birthday is so large it can not be represented with individual candles, here the whole cake is ablaze!

This design has been used for many years in our shop, printed in three sizes with mats and frames. We have also printed it on mouse pads, shirts and mugs. Because it works so well from a group, this card has been a favorite as a business birthday card from a group. Click here to see our business birthday card at Greeting Card Universe.

285 designs to go with 350 days left in the year