Oak Creek Printworks

Greeting Cards Reign Supreme in 21st CenturyPosted by Nancy Haberman on June 15th, 2010

by Nancy Haberman

"Sunrise" by Jennifer Simpson

If you are reading this post, you are living in a world driven by technology. Paradoxically, there has been a trend in art and graphic design towards “things handmade,” or anti-technology. Where once a graphic designer strove to make designs and typography more perfect and mechanical, new designers rebelled by distressing type and creating designs that appeared constructed and hand crafted. If you are a reader of any of the Stampington publications, particularly Stamper’s Sampler and Take Ten, you’ll find examples of some of the finest rubber stamped and hand crafted greeting cards that I’ve seen by crafters in the western hemisphere. Complex designs using mixed media have found a home in the greeting card, even if they do use basic elements created by others.

Twenty-first century creative individuals have growing access to Read the rest of this entry »

Apply your artistic talent to home design with free softwarePosted by Stephanie Ferguson on May 6th, 2010

Let’s face it. Some of us are more able to “see” or envision things than others, especially when it comes to 3D environments. Picture this. You are trying to rearrange your living room in your head and you know just where you want everything, but…you can’t get your idea across to your partner. Can you relate?

Whether you want to build a house, set up an apartment, help the kid furnish a dorm room, or plan the layout of the new baby’s room, you can do it with the help of the Autodesk Homestyler, an interactive drag and drop program to help you create 2-D and 3-D versions of your business, home, or room. You can do a variety of things from adding entire rooms, walls, doors, and windows to selecting furniture, appliances, plants, and outdoor landscaping.

Want something a little less complex? Give PlanningWiz a try. This designer has built-in rulers, grids, and basic line and color tools that make it so easy that kids can use it. In fact, besides using it to create home/room designs, you could even use it in conjunction with school lessons to teach perspective, shapes, proportion, measuring on a large scale, and loads of other skills. Check both of these design tools out and see what you think.

13 Things to know about Small Business and the InternetPosted by Stephanie Ferguson on April 20th, 2010

The Internet is a level playing field
Whether your company is big or small you have equal opportunity on the Internet.

Internet is not cumbersome or bureaucratic
Small businesses without many layers of management actually have an advantage over larger competition by nimbly reacting to changing market conditions via the Internet.

Internet is not expensive
Unlike traditional advertising that can require tens of thousands of dollars to make an impact, you merely invest in good website development and keep it current to make an impact on the Internet.

Prominence on the Internet is based on trust
How your website competes on the Internet (its page rank) is based on history (length of time on the WWW), how many visitors are attracted to your content and how many other “trusted or popular” sites yours is linked with.

The Internet is a democracy.
Visitors vote by clicking on your site. Other sites vote for you by

<to read more click here>

Jeanne M. Brown is a writer, publicist, marketing professional, fundraiser and blogger. She develops programs that boost sales and increase product awareness. Visit her at http://www.jeannembrown.blogspot.com/.

Free software – limited time offersPosted by Stephanie Ferguson on January 26th, 2010

Whether you use a computer for business or personal use, we think you will be interested in these limited-time offers for free software:  QuickBooks, Data Recovery Wizard, GIMP Graphic Software, and EASEUS Partition Master Pro. Check out these sites, then write about it on your blog – your readers will thank you!

Read the rest of this entry »