Creative Internet Toys

1.06.2011


A mosaic of bird illustration and photography by Chickory

1. Vera and the Dread Beet, 2. chickadee, 3. Woman with a Red Hen, 4. silverwynadotte, 5. bird jungle, 6. Little Dovey, 7. Bluebird Block, 8. swan, 9. spring-sparrow, 10. wren-walkin, 11. crazy-mix-of-birds, 12. french-hen-plywood-painting, 13. Gull, 14. birds, 15. old-english-game-hen, 16. Flight, 17. 2-hounds-an-a-cardinal, 18. cardinal, 19. hamburg, 20. The Hunter, 21. Cranes in a Landscape, 22. mock and girl, 23. Ladybird of Sorrows, 24. anahinga, 25. blueshamo

Isn't this fun?

I've decided that one of my goals for 2011 is to become a lean mean art making and marketing machine. When my website comes up for renewal this March, I am not going to renew. Its too expensive and too hard to update it. My website is stale because it is a huge pain to work on it. There are so many free or inexpensive tools available now that it makes no sense to have an expensive professional site anymore.
I made this bird mosaic with Flickr. My first tasks for 2011 are getting my Flickr collections together, my Big Cartel shop designed and built and possibly redirecting my domain URL to a blogger page. Have you seen the new tabs widget for Blogger? It allows for clickable links to static pages across the top. In essence, the same as what a website has with the contact, news, client list, etc pages. Only its much easier to keep a blogger page current.

I've been trolling around looking for free creative tools and I am overwhelmed by all the cool toys there are out there.

Here's an Official Badge generator gizmo:





All these creative tools remind me of Januarys of long ago, when I was still enthralled by the newness of the delightful toys Santa brought. I also stumbled across another great toy last night -its not a creative tool, but an amazing site that takes the Apollo moon landing and brings it back to life with interactive flash animations and the real audio recordings from the launch.  It's called "We Choose the Moon". I highly recommend it. Enjoy!


19 comments:

  1. Very cool. Is there a photo collage program that allows a 5-7-5 format?

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  2. I love the bird mosaic, good luck with your new artistic business venture!

    xoxoxoxo ♡

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  3. Love the mosaic. Enjoyed the comparison to Januarys of long ago. Very appropriate. One of my goals is to become more blog literate. Am envious of almost everyone's layout. I have the ideas, just need to learn how to execute. Looking forward to your new additions.

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  4. Hey, these are great links. I loved we Choose the Moon. Thanks!

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  5. I hear ya, MRM, on the learning how to execute thing.

    New design looks great, Chickie! Would that I had more time to do stuff with my own blog. Thanks for leads here - hoping to find/make time to look into them when my day job isn't kickin' my a$$ so much. (What a difference a year makes . . .)

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  6. I haven't figured out how to do those static pages yet, let me know if you have any tips! Totally agree that there is tons of cool stuff out there for creativity, including free web pages ( you just have to put up with the company name in the title) ... love the collages. One of the artists I work with some says the illustration market has dried up for him. Hope that isn't true everywhere.

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  7. Love the Moon link. Wow.

    I think I love the Press badge the most. What did we do before the internet brought us so many cool tools and things to play with? er, I probably read more and did more work AT work, but STILL I know I'm more creative because of it all.

    I agree about your website. Unless you want an actual "I'd like to add that to my basket" you can do a lot with Blogger and other free websites. I just did a website for a customer using godaddy and it doens't suck but the cost didn't make me happy.

    oh jeez, I just clicked on the collage maker! weeeeee. That's going to be a wonderful time suck.

    All great stuff! Thank you. xoxox

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  8. That mosaic maker is a big favourite of mine. And flickr ... yes, with a pro account a person can have an endless number of sets, collections, etc.

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  9. So many new toys, so little time! :) I have a million things I need to do marketing-wise. You've given me a nice little kick in the rearend! lol! xox

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  10. The moon links is spectacular!

    Love how they flash what books/ songs/movies were a big hit that year--gives cameo of life in USA in early 60s. Mega cool, Pup.

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  11. The look on Koby's face!

    "Tremble before my power, you lowly human lifeforms, for I am KOBY, Creator of Chaos, Destroyer of Households, and Slobber Ruinator of Corinthian Leather Interiors."

    Urp.

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  12. That Moon thingy is great.

    I personally consider the manned Moon landing project the high water mark of civilization.

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  13. The new blog layout looks really good...this must be the year for artist getting their art out in the world...but I have a questions, maybe a bit odd and off the wall, what type of printer do you use? I'm investing printers and I've long admired your work and professionalism, and I was curious...anyways, congrats on the new look and good luck!

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  14. Well now it is clear you, Boxer, Karl and maybe Heff need to host an online blog tutorial.

    Seriously.

    I want to play and I can not. :-(

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  15. Excellent idea, Chickory, for a new, cheaper website. I agree with Boxer about Go Daddy plus they have loads of things you can add on like shopping cart, videos, etc. I built my web on apple, super easy and I can add my own pages at will, etc. but the SEO is horrible so I use my blog/Facebook fan page to direct traffic to it. Wordpress sites are supposed to have great searchability but not too easy to update without knowing html. I started to look into Squarespace but think the next step is Go Daddy.

    Another great way to get your website/business found is to put your biz on Google places (for free) Now my business comes up on page one for google when people are searching for miami cooking classes, personal chef, etc. It's been a boon to my business. I'll take a look at all the links later....heading out of town shortly! All that free software is out there is so helpful as marketing tools. Good luck, honey!

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  16. I could spend a lot of time playing with those gizmos.

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  17. How fun, I love everything in this post! I agree about the hassles of managing a separate site. I'm setting up my new business' website on blogger now, and you've given me some new tools to play with, Thank you so much! I might like the badge gizzmo the best. Now my dogs want badges too.

    Thanks for the wonderful color, imagination, and inspiration!

    ♥ Light Keeper

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  18. me too !!! Hey 2011 ! watch out !!
    merci pour les linkage xo Miss D & S

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  19. I am so glad I found you over at MyFrenchCountryHome. I love your blog (and artwork)and have spent waaay too much time this morning cruising your posts!
    I agree with you, there are so many new toys and tools for the internet now, even compared to just a few years ago. My stuff is all set on on the Wordpress blog platform, it's so easy to update. Gotta love technology- it moves so fast it's hard to keep up!

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