Banners, Etsy Forums and a Contest

Its easy to spend too much time on the Etsy Forums. I am guilty of it myself. But I do often find out about useful services and links this way. I'd never spend enough time browsing the internet myself and frankly wouldn't even know that they exist. Like blog patrol, for example, its a service that gives you free blog stats. I can check it and find out how many people visit my site in a given day and if they used a search engine, I can see which search words they used.

This week while browsing threads about blogs and blogging, the topic of banners came up. This Etsy sellers blog, little brown bird was complimented for her great banner. I've been wanting to learn to make my own banners, so I asked what program she used. She told me about Art Explosion Publisher Pro . I looked it up on the internet, showed it to my husband (and told him I needed to buy it) and he tells me we already have it! He goes upstairs and brings it down. How is that for instant gratification? Turns out he bought Photo Explosion for me about 6 months ago and I made him take it back off the computer because I had trouble with how it took over my picture editing. Well this time I'm ready to learn about it and I've already been experimenting with banners in the new storefront I'm planning next year for selling all kinds of patterns.

Finally, in the forums again, I learned about a Project Runway Inspired Contest. The deadline for intent to participate is January 14th so I do need to make a decision soon. I would really like to try it. I could do some more denim refashioning, I know I'll enjoy it!