Australian Loteria, Part One

Click on the picture to go to the NEH Oaxaca website, also known as the Wired Humanities Project. Scroll down to High School/Middle School Art / Celeste LeTard Williams / “Lotería” to download the PowerPoint tutorial.

Last summer, when I attended the NEH Oaxaca Institute for School Teachers, I created a PowerPoint tutorial on how to make an original Loteria game about any topic.  I am happy to say that it was posted on the Wired Humanities Project page along with some worksheets and resources for the classroom.  Just click on the image to the left and it will take you to the lesson plans prepared by myself and my colleagues from last summer’s Mesoamerican Institute.  You will need to scroll down to the section which says High School/Middle School Art, then look for my name and the title “Loteria”.  There are also some worksheets to be used for students to draw a loteria card, as well as a rubric and a sheet with the original cards and calling rhymes listed on it.

This year, I planned on having my students create a Loteria game about Australia.   The idea was to introduce the original Mexican Loteria and to have the students search out analogous icons and symbols from Australia to replace the Latino images.  I have done blog entries about this idea in the past. This one actually lists the different cards of the Loteria in order.   I also collect Loteria decks and images, which I use for classroom examples.

An important resource is also the gallery of Loteria Card Deck uploads at Elsewhere.org.  There are about 20 decks scanned and uploaded to the website.  They are great for examples.  You could have students research the images there, but just beware of the “Queer” Loteria because of inappropriate images.  Some of the other decks are great for pulling images.  Or, you can just purchase a Loteria game at a Mexican grocery or at an online source.

The thing I appreciate about Elsewhere.org is that there IS a variety of images.  So you can pick and choose your images for classroom appropriateness.  There are things on the traditional deck that could be considered inappropriate.  For example, La Sirena/The Mermaid is usually bare-breasted.  You can find images with covered breasts, such as the Anahuac Sirena and the Compadres Sirena.  There is a non-smoking El Catrin (also known as the Dandy, or the Gentleman), El Valiente (The Brave One)  without a weapon,  La Botella that is not Tequila – yes, I know, the one in the original deck is catsup, but I don’t like the image.

There are also some images that could be offensive, such as El Negrito (The Black Man) and El Borracho (The Drunkard).  And, El Soldado (The Soldier) is pretty much always going to have a gun.  But, you could replace those images with something else from one of the other decks, such as El Payaso (The Clown), or El Mono (The Monkey) or El Moro (The Moor, or Arab), or El Atleta (The Athlete) or Los Boxeadores (The Boxers).  Also, I like it that El Apache could also be El Azteca.  And… El Gorrito (the Bonnet – who wears a bonnet anymore?) could be replaced by El Sombrero (The Hat).  The possibilities are endless!

I really appreciate the work that was done with the Loteria Card Gallery.  Take some time to look throught the images.  Especially noteworthy are:

• The Clemente Jacques Series 2 and Alternate Series 2 – These were introduced  in the 50’s or 60’s.  The images in the Series 2 Alternate look older than the Series 2, which are more refined.  These decks are very hard to find – I paid almost $100 for a Series 2 on E-Bay.
• The Loteria de Teresa Villegas – also published by Clemente Jacques and available online – try E-Bay.  Teresa Villegas also has a website with more details about her Loteria project.
• My Loteria, by Cristina Sosa Noriega, was available at HEB grocery stores, along with coordinating products.  Some of the products are still seen on e-Bay and she has a website.
• The Loteria Zarela was commissioned by WalMart several years ago and was put on a product line for home and bath.  Zarela Martinez is a celebrated chef who has a restaurant in NYC and has authored many cookbooks.  She also had a designed loteria of fruits and vegetables.  These items are very hard to find now.
• Maison-Celeste.com – my CafePress Store is where I display and sell my own Loteria designs.

My Maneki Neko

Pink brings fortune in love. Southpaw attracts customers.

This next image from my Artist’s Journal is a collage piece that I did when I was in full Maison Celeste mode.  It is a maneki neko, or lucky cat – the kind you see in all sorts of sushi and other Japanese restaurants.  The cat looks like it’s waving, but the Japanese hand gesture to beckon someone is the opposite of the Western one.

There is a story or legend behind the cat – the most common was about a poor monk in the Edo period.  His cat attracts a warlord to get out of the rain in the temple rather than under a tree.  Then the tree is struck by lightning.  The warlord showers the monk with money and gets people to go to his temple, so he is no longer poor.  When the cat died, he was buried in a special cemetery, and a little statue of a cat with his paw raised was put on his grave.

When I started this journal, I painted a couple of pages first.  I started this page out by using my favorite paint color of all time – Color & Co(mpany)’s cerise. It is the most intense fuschia pink you will ever find.  It’s kind of a shame that it’s a tempera paint, because it might run if I tried to shellac over it, but I love it anyway.  I painted the center, then I blended it in with orange and then yellow, filling the whole page.

Before I put the cat on the page, I did some freehand drawings of flowers, leaves, and vines with two different sized Sharpie markers. It’s the first time I’ve tried that and I think it came out great.  I think it stayed that way for a little while as I tried to think of what to put in the middle of the page.

I found this coloring page and printed it out.  I could have taken the trouble to draw it freehand or trace it, but it is a collage piece, so I just left it like it was.  I thought that I would go ahead and color it using oil pastels.  I chose pink to go with the background, shading the outside of the figure in orange.  The ears, claws, and nose are yellow.  Like most maneki neko statues, this one has a collar, bib and bell.  This article says that cats were rare, hence the collar and bell to find them if they were lost.  This website says that the bib and bell stand for wealthiness and material abundance.

I glued him down over my background, accepting that she was going to cover some of the flowers.  Then, I went for total over-the-top glitter, accenting cat and koban (the oval coin that she is holding) with glitter glue.  It buckled a bit, but has flattened out over time.  As a side note, maneki neko can hold other things beside a big gold coin.  This website by Sushi Cat has a great illustration of the lexicon.

It wasn’t until after I colored him pink that I decided to do a little bit of research on the symbolism behind the statue.  Honestly, I didn’t even think that there were pink cats around. I found out that there are meanings associated with the color of the cat and also the beckoning paw.  A left-handed cat (southpaw, like me) is supposed to attract customers and the pink cat brings fortune and love.  Perfect!

After I scanned the picture into Photoshop, I played around with some effects.  I may put one of them up in my CafePress.com shop.

Of course, because I have been reading so many picture books with great art, I thought briefly that the  story of the Maneki Neko would make a great children’s book.  Of course, there are no new ideas, it seems.  I found four of them:

Maneki Neko, The Tale of the Beckoning Cat by Susan Lendroth, illustrated by Kathryn Otoshi – This is the most recent (out last month) and stays faithful to the tale of the monk and his cat.

The Beckoning Cat: Based on a Japanese Folktale by Koko Nishizuka, illustrated by Rosanne Litzinger – This book tells a different story – about a poor fisher boy and his cat who attracts customers.

Tama the Cat: The Story of the Maneki Neko, the Beckoning Cat by Robert Ogden, illustrated by Julia Preston – not available on Amazon.com, but you can order it from the U.K., along with prints from the book.

The Tale of the Lucky Cat by Sunny Seki – in this story, a toymaker is saved by a cat – beautiful illustrations, with text in Japanese and English.

So, if I want to do a children’s book, there are two possible legends to milk (from Wikipedia):

The Courtesan: A courtesan named Usugumo, living in Yoshiwara, in eastern Tokyo, kept a cat, much beloved by her.  One night, the cat began tugging at her kimono.  No matter what she did, the cat persisted. The owner of the brothel saw this, and believing the cat bewitched, cut its head off. The cat’s head then flew to the ceiling where it killed a snake, ready at any moment to strike. Usugumo was devastated by the death of her companion. To cheer her up, one of her customers made her a wooden likeness of her cat as a gift. This cat image then became popular as the Maneki Neko.

(doesn’t that one sound heart-warming and child-friendly?)

The Old Woman: An old woman living in Imado (eastern Tokyo) was forced to sell her cat due to extreme poverty. Soon afterwards the cat appeared to her in a dream. The cat told her to make its image in clay. She did as instructed, and soon afterward sold the statue. She then made more, and people bought them as well. They were so popular she soon became prosperous and wealthy.

(That one is also known as the George Rodrigue Blue Dog story – LOL)

Some fun links:

Canon Paper Craft Website – so awesome, and what a great idea!  17 pages of high output ink that you cut apart and put together. Instructions on assemblage are on a separate PDF.  There is a black maneki neko, a white maneki neko, and a calico maneki neko to print out.

ActionCat.com – there are lucky cat e-cards, plus you can design your own cat to print out or for screen capture.

Maneki Neko by Sushi Cat – great site with all sorts of information, also maneki grams, puzzles and games – children will love it!

Lucky Cat Museum – online collection of lucky cats.

There is also Lucky Cat Fabric – I did not post a link, but there are a couple of Etsy.com shops that sell fabric.  Those links become obsolete when they get sold, but just do a search for all sorts of products.  Try quilting fabric sites for other options.

New Vintage Loteria Designs: La Muerte and El Cupido

Just in time for Valentine's Day!

I love my Vintage Loteria Cupid!  I don’t know if it is a boy or a girl… The image is from an old Loteria set that I bought at a flea market in Mexico.  This version has been around for a long time, and has been copied so many times that the pictures are rather grainy and murky.  I love building them up from 3/4 inch by 1 1/2 inches to a usable size, then cleaning them up and making them beautiful again.

I think I am getting the hang of standardizing my image sets for CafePress.  I upload about 5 huge files to my image basket for each design I make.  The sizes of the images range from 9 by 12 inches to 23 by 35 inches.  I have found that the rectangles do well for shirts and oval objects, but the posters need specific measurements to get rid of any white edges.  The squares work well for circular items as well as squares, so I haven’t gone to the trouble yet of tailoring my designs to a circle shape (or an oval) yet.

Death in a pink frame...

My other design is La Muerte – which is seen in a lot of Loteria decks (The Cupid is not as common).  I like this image, which is a little more dynamic than the traditional standing Death in the Don Clemente deck.  I also liked the blue color in the background as opposed to the pink on the D.C. deck.  I chose elements that bring out the skeleton’s colors, as well as the scythe.  This is the 9 by 12 inch image.  The larger image for the poster has a pattern of colorful sugar skulls on the top and bottom, with a turquoise stripe coordinating the whole thing.

I like the idea of mixing up the designs in my shop, so that everything doesn’t just have the same image.  For one thing, one image won’t do for all of the items.  I have learned that over the years after my original impulsive shop opening with my Valentine designs.

I have 10 designs right now in the Vintage Shop.  After I’ve done two more, I can think about designing a calendar.  I have been selling quite a few calendars with my Milagros and Loteria themes.  It is very gratifying!  Here is a link to the Calendar Shop.

Vintage El Valiente – New Design

I spent last night creating this new design for my CafePress Shop.  This is a pretty unique version of El Valiente (The Brave One) from a vintage loteria game.  I had to clean up the colors first – the images are pretty murky.

I am trying to refine my formula for these images so that they are more standard. I basically have five sizes I put up right now, because the posters have different proportions.  The files are maybe too big, because I want the best resolution possible.

That means that uploading them to CafePress to store in my image bank is a big pain in the behind.  It takes forever.  Last night, I crashed all of our computers trying to upload while watching a streaming video on Amazon Unboxed.  My husband was watching Hulu.  I didn’t know that we couldn’t do all of that at once.

So today, I had to try at least 5 times to upload things this afternoon.  I realized that I could not upload all five at one time, so I split it up into 3 separate uploads.  During each one, I had to go away from the computer and do something:  take a shower, clean the kitchen, write some e-mails on another computer…

After I got the the images in my Image Basket, I set up a section in the Vintage Loteria section of the Maison Celeste shop.  I have some product set defaults, but I still have to make some adjustments of layout and size and color.  Then, voila!  Done.  Check it out!

I have to mention that, while I was working on this design, I happened to be watching the third season of Dexter – there are many El Valientes in that show!

It is true that CafePress is still messing around with our commissions, but until I can find a viable alternative.  I am thinking about buying some and selling them on EBay…

Make your own Loteria Deck!

So, I said on Mondays that I might start posting entries about Loteria art.  If you don’t know what Loteria is – here is a link to read.  I love creating new Loteria decks – so far, I think I have made or started about 4 0r 5.  Below is a card from a deck I was manipulating in PhotoShop a couple of years ago.  I think the focus was on artesania – or Mexican arts and crafts.  I like fooling around with those things.

So, how does one go about creating a loteria deck?  One thing I like to do is to print out a list of images from the traditional Don Clemente game and use that as my guide.  Here is a list of the images for you to peruse:

1 El gallo (The Rooster)
2 El diablito (The Little Devil)
3 La dama (The Lady)
4 El catrín (The Dandy/Fop)
5 El paragüas (The Umbrella)
6 La sirena (The Mermaid)
7 La escalera (The Ladder)
8 La botella (The Bottle)
9 El barril (The Barrel)
10 El árbol (The Tree)
11 El melon (The Melon)
12 El valiente (The Brave One)
13 El gorrito (The Bonnet)
14 La muerte (The Death)
15 La pera (The Pear)
16 La bandera (The Flag)
17 El bandolón (The Citar)
18 El violoncello (The Cello)
19 La garza (The Heron)
20 El pájaro (The Bird)
21 La mano (The Hand)
22 La bota (The Boot)
23 La luna (The Moon)
24 El cotorro (The Parrot)
25 El borracho (The Drunk)
26 El negrito (The Little Black Man)
27 El corazón (The Heart)
28 La sandía (The Watermelon)
29 El tambor (The Drum)
30 El camarón (The Shrimp)
31 Las jaras (The Arrows)
32 El músico (The Musician)
33 La araña (The Spider)
34 El soldado (The Soldier)
35 La estrella (The Star)
36 El cazo (The Bean Pot)
37 El mundo (The World)
38 El apache (The Apache)
39 El nopal (The Cactus)
40 El alacrán (The Scorpion)
41 La rosa (The Rose)
42 La calavera (The skull)
43 La campana (The Bell)
44 El cantarito (The Water Pitcher)
45 El venado (The Deer)
46 El sol (The Sun)
47 La corona (The Crown)
48 La chalupa (The Canoe)
49 El pino (The Pine)
50 El pescado (The Fish)
51 La palma (The Palm)
52 La maceta (The Flowerpot)
53 El arpa (The Harp)
54 La rana (The Frog)

Next, begin thinking of a theme.  If you have a theme or subject, such as your own culture, or your town, or your own group of friends, you can begin to conceive of your own images.  If you are doing a Loteria about Christmas, for example, El Venado (the deer) can be a Reindeer, El Pino (the pine tree) can be a Christmas tree, and El Arpa (the harp) can be played by an angel.

You don’t have to remain stuck using all of the cards, as I hope you can see.  Staying with the Christmas theme, you might not want to have La Muerte (death) or La Calavera (the skull) – unless you are doing The Nightmare Before Christmas…  You can replace those images with ones that are not included in the traditional Loteria, such as Santa’s cap instead of El Gorrito (the bonnet), and a sleigh instead of La Chalupa (the canoe).

Your use of images is up to you.  I save images that I think I might want to use in the future.  One of my favorite decks that I did a few years ago was based on a multitude of mola images I had accumulated.  I also have my quilt loteria that I made using line drawings and fabric samples, available at my CafePress Shop.  And there’s the original Loteria Celeste and my Vintage Loteria.  See, I told you!

Using Loteria in the classroom lends itself to many applications.  My students created cards for a House of the Scorpion Loteria deck that we did after reading Nancy Farmer’s book.  At the same time, I also started looking for relevant images to use as loteria/flash cards in my teaching of the book.  I would pass them out to students and ask them what significance the card had in the story.  It is challenging and brings up the use of analogies, since students have to make connections and comparisons between topics and themes in books and lessons to see the connection to the card I chose.

Use of analogies, which have been scrapped from formal testing, is important in being creative with your own loteria deck.  If you are doing a deck based on New Orleans, for example, you would want to see the connection between La Sirena (the mermaid, usually bare-chested) and the “show me your boobs” girls on the parade route…

These are just some beginning guidelines.  The reason I like to start with the original deck and make analogous entries is so that the art form can be recognized as a variation on a Loteria deck.  If you were making your own Tarot deck, you would want to start with the original deck as a guideline, wouldn’t you?

In future posts, I would like to seek out original loteria decks and feature them in my blog.  Tonight, however, I thought that an introduction to the creative process of creating a deck would be relevant to some.  If you would like to start looking at decks, go to Elsewhere.com to look at the scanned collection there.

Shame on you, CafePress!

I have been meaning to write a blog post about this for a week or so, but thinking about it bums me out.

In case you don’t know what CafePress is, it is a site that sells t-shirts and other items printed on demand.  Thousands of designers have bought into the concept, opening up shops and uploading their own original designs to sell to the public.  I was soooo happy when I discovered their service.  I have been a member since 6/25/2004, or so it says on my account.  I started out with the free option, opening up a separate shop for each design.  Then I decided to upgrade to a Premium Shop for about $60 a year, and have consolidated my designs into one shop (Maison Celeste).

Now, I will be the first to tell you that I am not making a living off of my earnings at CafePress.  I make from $30 to $120 per month.  But I have really appreciated having my shop up.  It’s great exposure, and I have sold my work not only in the United States, but also abroad.  Just recently, I have had triple the orders that I had last year, which was encouraging.  I plan on highlighting more of my products on my blog, explaining the creative process behind my digital work.  I have also planned some other promotional ideas…

But a couple of weeks ago, I noticed a problem with my commissions.  The way CafePress used to work, I would set the markup for my items in the shop.  I could either choose to set an exact markup price for all items, or choose an algorithm that produced a sliding (relative) profit scale.  There’s also a place where you can choose what they call tiered markup: low,  medium, high or premium.  I usually choose high, which gives me from $1.00 on small items to $6 or $7 on larger items.  Every time I sell something, the markup is shown on my report.  I got the same profit, no matter if the customer clicked straight on my shop or if the product was found through the CafePress Marketplace search engine.

When I last checked my sales report, I noticed two things. First of all,  the items purchased by customers through the CafePress Marketplace were more expensive to the buyer.  For example, my La Paloma Tote Bag is priced in my shop at $15.99.  The original cost is $12.99 without the design.  Therefore, I make $3.00 on that purchase.  On June 14th, however, someone purchased that same tote bag through the Marketplace.  The cost to the customer was $17.00 and my profit was $1.70 (a flat 10% of the newly elevated price).  I was aghast.

So, the other night, I started to do some internet research to see if anyone else had learned more about this strange change then I did.  I came across a very detailed report written by Jim at Irregular Times.com.  He not only commented on the change in policy, but detailed what happened when he removed his products from the Marketplace (yes, one can opt out of the Marketplace).  Even though some of his products were purchased from his shop, he still received the Marketplace 10% markup.  The post is very enlightening, and more information has been added through reader comments.  The basic idea seems to be that CafePress is, in essence, competing with its own designers.

I have since been looking into alternatives to CafePress, although the thought of re-doing everything bums me out.  I found a very informative comparative article on Squidoo.com called “CafePress Alternatives and Competitors” .  I have gone to Printfection, but they definitely don’t have the merchandise range offered by CafePress.  I don’t think that I will miss all of the items, like the coffee mugs and notebooks, but I definitely need someone that prints posters, cards, and magnets.  On the upside, Printfection has a massive range of t-shirt styles and colors.  I don’t get the appeal of the cutting boards, though…

I am already a little familiar with Zazzle – I just didn’t see any advantage to their program.  In fact, last time I checked, there seemed to be no option to have a shop.  Looking at the site now, it does look a bit different, and it has a really large merchandise selection.   The article in Squidoo basically says what I had heard about Zazzle, that the markups are limited and no stores.  But when I just clicked on “Sell” at Zazzle, it looked like they had made some policy changes, perhaps to lure people from CafePress.  I will look into it more later.

Finally, there is Spreadshirt, which is a German company.  At the moment I am unable to access their site, because of maintenance.  But the range of products is impressive – as are the prices.  I think I looked at one wacky halter-like t-shirt that was going to sell for 75 Euros – not Dollars, but Euros!!!!!  I will go back later.

In the meantime, please go to my CafePress Shop and check it out.  I am planning on removing myself from the Marketplace, which means that I will need to do more promotion myself!

Honk If You’ve Seen La Llorona…

I have been cleaning up my studio and office and re-arranging my wall decoration.  I have all sorts of posters and things up there.  One of the things I came across was this bumper sticker.

I know it’s not big, but I cannot currently use my scanner, so I had to go out on the web to get an image.  I have not put the bumper sticker on my car (yet), but I bought it because it is so different.  I bought mine on a visit to Houston, Texas at Casa Ramirez in the Heights.

At the time, I had done a lot of research on La Llorona for one of my lesson plans (here is the blog post) and recognized the illustration from Joe Hayes’ book.  I bought it a while ago on Amazon.com, but the book and the bumper sticker can be found at Cinco Puntos Press, Mr. Hayes’ publisher.  Here is the cover from the book:

I believe his story is set in New Mexico.  I thought that it was interesting that the story is available on VHS and DVD.  I wonder if it is narrated by Joe Hayes, showing the pages from the book, or if it is a live performance that has been videotaped.  Oh, the illustrator is Vicki Trego Hill.

I may have to do a La Llorona themed poster for my CafePress Shop.

La Vibora

I am waiting for us to go and see Jonathan Coulton at the Variety Playhouse.  I have gotten some things done today, despite my exhaustion from packing up my room and doing ESOL record keeping for the past 4 days.  Tomorrow, I am going to the John C. Campbell Folk School for a week-long workshop on printmaking.

Later:  The Jonathan Coulton show rocked!  Paul and Storm, formerly of DaVinci’s Notebook, opened the show.  They are hysterical, but my husband pointed out that their act is 7o percent patter and 3o percent music.  I thought they would NEVER end their act – they have this pirate song, and all of the audience was saying “AAARRRR(G)!  without end.  They do have a fun bit about fighting nuns – I have to find that on YouTube.  Yep, the link is above.  Here are the lyrics – you don’t have to be Catholic to find this hysterical.

Jonathan Coulton went on a little late, but he still played a long set – we left before the encores.  After the Zombie Song, of course!  His stuff is great.  It’s not just joke music, like Ray Stevens.  It’s soulful!

The image to the right is one of my newer Vintage Loteria designs.  I love how I made that old viper look pretty!  Check it out at my CafePress Shop!

Lover’s Eye Art

I had a little time on my hands today, so I thought that I would play around with Adobe Photoshop.  My inspiration was an 18th century art form known as the Lover’s Eye.  I found a few in a decorating magazine and used them in a collage a couple of years ago.  I don’t know what brought them up again – oh, I was doing a search for heart ex-votos, and this shop had some up for sale.  they run about $3000 to $6000!

Generally, they were miniature portraits of a person’s eye, set in a frame, box, or locket.  Usually, the story was that they were the eye of a secret lover, but they were also popular mourning pieces for the dead.  They were often made into brooches, surrounded by stones.  Pearls, in particular, are supposed to represent tears.

I started surfing the Internet, “collecting” eyes – well, entire faces, of course, but in order to use the eyes.  This one is – can you guess? – Edward Cullen.  Many of the girls in my class were able to recognize it, but my husband was not.  I found a photo of Robert Pattinson and tweaked it (a lot) in Photoshop, making his eye golden, then giving the piece a painted effect.

I used a fabric sample picture for the “gold” frame and settings.  I decided to use black pearls, just to be unusual.  I am sure Edward would prefer black pearls over white.  I found some garnet earrings set in diamonds and added them.  I really like the effect.  I don’t know what I will do with it next – it was just a fun exercise.

Yet Another Loteria Project…

I know- it seems like I will never run out of things to do with loteria.  After working with my students’ cards for House of the Scorpion, I decided to take a break and make some of my own.  I had this idea of using these vintage loteria cards I found in Mexico.  I am assuming that they are copyright-less, but I could be wrong.  I really like the look of them, and they have quite a few images that are different from the more well-known Don Clemente deck.

I got this idea sort of out of the blue.  I like working with scanned fabric samples, and have used them in my Quilt Loteria and my Milagros collections.  Suddenly I had this image of the Diablito (devil) card framed by a pretty flowered pattern.  I have worked in Photoshop to alter the scans of the vintage cards a little bit, and then I chose coordinating fabrics.

The first one I did was El Leon.  I decided to make him number one because I am a Leo – and we all know what happens when we use the “G” word.  I found a pretty gingham print and altered the colors to fit the lion card I chose.  Then I framed it again in a simple checkered plaid in yellow and blue.  That was my basic design.

I think it has been a little while since I worked in my CafePress shop, so I first went in and deleted some images on the server that I am no longer using.  Then, I reorganized some of my image files and closed some shops that were either for my one-time use or were no longer relevant.  Then I added the new “Vintage Loteria” section.  I have done just about one design and one shop per day for the past 3 days.  My latest is the one to the left – isn’t it HOT?

Today, after setting up the Vintage Jarabe Tapatio shop, I did a little studying up on image sizes in CafePress.  Usually I work with one image and alter it to fit two different shapes:  One is a rectangle – which I make really big and use for everything from posters to refrigerator magnets.  The other is a square, which I use for square things, like tiles, or round things, like buttons or clock faces – I just don’t worry that they are not a circle within a circle.

The problem with this is that no one proportion of rectangle fits for every poster and frame size and all of the other rectangular things, like postcards, greeting cards, notecards and journals.  So, this time I made three sizes:  one 8 1/2 by 11 inch, one 11 by 17 inch, and one 11 by 11 inch square.  I also am keeping all of the elements of the design in a folder on my laptop, so I can alter a design or make another size.  I may have to store more of these things on my computer at home, because my laptop is getting pretty full.

So, go check out my Vintage Loteria Shop!