New! Bookmark My Blog on Your Mobile Device

In the sidebar of my blog you can now see the shiny new QR Code for my blog. When read with a QR Code Reader on a mobile device (iPhone, iPod, Android, etc) it opens a link to my blog. Add me to your bookmarks!

There are many apps to read QR codes for Apple products, Android, etc. On my iPod Touch I use RedLaser. This app works with the camera on your device. 

When you open RedLaser tap the little lightening bolt at the bottom. That opens the interface to align your camera to the QR code you want to open. You can see in the image below where it says to line up the edges with the arrows. Once the QR code is in place the arrows turn green and it tells you to hold still for the camera to read the QR code.

A little window opens showing you the URL that was read from the QR code. It offers you the choice to open the link or cancel.

Click "Open" and ta da! The link opens a tab in Safari and loads the page to which the QR code was directed. Usually it will open the mobile version of the site.

Now you can bookmark my blog quickly and easily on your mobile device! Yay!

I chose to use bit.ly to create my QR code. Above you can see the address I customized to make it clear that the link goes to this blog. When a QR code is generated through bit.ly, the service will track the number of clicks you get on that link. This is always juicy information for anyone who uses metrics to track website activity. 

The neat thing is that bit.ly creates a QR code for your link automatically. All you have to do is save it and plop it everywhere you want your readers to be able to open your links.

You can make a link to any website you want to - not just your own blog, Twitter, Facebook, Etsy, etc. I believe bit.ly is a better choice than to have just any QR code generator make your code.  

This isn't just for online uses either. You can print your QR code on business cards, fliers, and other promotional items so people can find you online from "real life". I've seen some really creative uses out in the field. I've even seen them posted up on billboards around town. (Please don't try to read that link while driving. Ask a passenger.) 

I'm going to print my code for my craft show booth so shoppers can learn more about me right away.

If you have questions please post them in the comments so we can learn from each other (or email me using the link at the top of my blog). I would love to see your uses of QR codes!

- Vickie 

How to Get an Awesome Facebook Timeline Cover Image

Recently my personal Facebook page was updated to the new "timeline". I kind of like it, but it requires a lot of scrolling down to see anything. 

At the top of the page is room for a giant "cover photo". I decided I didn't want a huge picture of little me in that spot. That's not very appealing to me. When I tried to put an artwork photo there it blew it up really big. I couldn't see all of it. So I thought, "What if I could make a photo mosaic of images that I *do* want on my page?" 

Look no further! I have the solution. And it's dead easy. 

Big Huge Labs creates a lot of fun things to do with your images. You can make jigsaw puzzles, trading cards, badges, calendars, and many other fun and funny choices. 

One of the most handy to me is the Mosaic Maker. There are many ways to customize photos, sizes (columns and rows), and where it can pull your images from. 

This is the main page of Mosaic Maker. These are the default settings. 

  

To make my mosaic for Facebook I needed to decide where to get my photos from. If I choose to pull my photos from Facebook I need to login. 

 

I want to fill my mosaic with my flickr set. I created a new set on flickr specifically for the photos I wanted to fill my mosaic. I could have also uploaded them individually from my computer, from a Facebook album, flickr photosets, flickr faves, flickr tags, or an individual flickr user. Here is my flickr photoset: 

These are my mosaic settings.

To fit in the Facebook cover image spot I chose a layout of "square tiles" with 8 columns and 3 rows. It shows a little preview of the shape the mosaic will be. You get 32 images for this size. (The maximum the Mosaic Maker allows is 36 images, but that's going to be too big for the Facebook cover spot.) 

I also have the option to choose the background color and the border color. I chose black for both. I chose 5 pixels as the space between images (the default). 

When "flickr photoset" is chosen the Mosaic Maker brings up the next box to enter the URL for the photoset. To find the photoset URL I opened the set on flickr and highlighted and copied the URL in the address bar. Then I pasted it in the box back at the Mosaic Maker page. It also lets me choose the page number of the set I want it to use if my set is more than one page. 

I clicked "Create". The next page opens my beautiful new mosaic. I can go back and edit it as much as I want if it didn't turn out like I planned. 

Then I clicked "Save" to download the image to my computer (pay attention to where it saved so you can find it). 

There are options to share it directly to flickr, Facebook, or an email address. Under the mosaic I made it has the HTML for the mosaic so it can be embedded in something like a blog post. I like that if you choose to use the HTML it makes links back to the photos so the creators get credit. (Play nice if you post a mosaic made with other peoples' photos and give the credits.) 

All the hard work is done. Now all I had to do was click "Change Cover" back on my Facebook timeline and upload my mosaic. Alternately, you could post the mosaic in your Facebook photo albums and choose from there. 

Ta! Da! 

[I'm no expert on pixel dimensions on web sites, but I think the image is roughly 850 pixels x 315 pixels. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.] 

Now you have the most awesome cover image! Wait - yours would be the second most awesome because mine rocks. :) 

- Vickie

Spring Flower

I stumbled across this really neat website last night. I'm a sucker for drawing and image creating websites! So I made a flower for the impending Spring. We've had a tease of lovely weather here even though Spring does not happen for us for at least 1 1/2 months. A girl can dream, right?

Take a few moments to explore this site. You can see other people's flowers, grow a whole garden, and email your creations to friends.

The Joy of Toys and Photographs Thereof

A few weeks ago I received a flickr-mail from someone who was interested in using one of my photos for inclusion on a website about a store in Austin, Texas, called Toy Joy. And today I got another flickr-mail from the same person telling me they are using my photo. Yay! I’ll be famous!

The website is called Schmap and the link to my photo is here. Hover your cursor over “Toy Joy” until you see my name, Victoria Porter, come up under one of the photos in the upper right corner. If you click it you will be sent hurtling to my flickr photostream under the guise of monkey123, my non-business flickr account.

I’m really excited about this. I guess it does not take much right now.

You may be asking yourself, “Hey, this chick lives in Rochester, NY. What was she doing taking pictures of toy stores in Austin, Texas?!” And to that I answer that I was visiting my best friend, Joolie, in Austin and she took me to the best toy store I’ve ever set foot in, Toy Joy. It truly is a place of joy. Toys are all over from floor to ceiling. No space in the place is wasted. They have some really cool things and very obscure items. They have so much to choose from that I cannot make up my mind what to buy and end up leaving empty handed or with just a few small trinkets. Then later I rue that I could not decide and I curse myself. It’s nice to know that Joolie is amenable to taking me there every time I visit!

Thanks, Schmap, for making my day!!

The Potential Value of Status Updates

Thanks to an Etsy forum post by redpandajewelry, I learned more about twitter and how to use it. Basically it’s just a whole lot of Facebook status updates, which I really enjoy already. You can post up to 140 characters. It’s kind of like little mini-blog posts for those of us who may not have a lot to say.

Redpandajewelry says she has gotten quite a few sales with some smart marketing strategies on twitter. For example, she sells chainmaille jewelry. On twitter she searched the word “chainmaille” and followed everyone who had made any mention of chainmaille. In this way she exposed potential customers to her Etsy shop. I’m not sure how this strategy might work for my particular product yet, but I am on my way to figuring it out. Plus it’s good to be socializing with other artists.

My feelings are “Oh, great. Something new to have to constantly update.” But it if helps my struggling business get its feet under it, then so be it. It only costs time, and I’m usually parked in front of my computer for much of the day anyway.

If you join you can find me at http://twitter.com/inmyheadstudios.