Custom binders are a new item here at Winged Turtle, courtesy of Zazzle.  The binders are 3-ring Avery vinyl binders–hold 8.5×11 paper size–that come in 3 sizes, 1-inch, 1.5-inch, and 2-inch.   There are about 180 now available with my usual art and designs–sea turtle binders, animal art binders, floral binders, etc. Most are available with customizable text, but many are also available as blank art binders. With a few of my designs I’ve made general photo albums — with a framed area on front for your photos. I’m now doing some specific specialty books — baby album binders, with customizable photos and text, Christmas memory books, school memory books, and more. I am planning to work on some recipe binder designs soon.

I love these new binders, and I’m enjoying designing for them. I may buy a couple both for myself and for family gifts — making photo albums / memory books and a recipe book. They’re not cheap binders, but as a basis for making a nice personalized gift for a family member, they’re worth it to me…and hopefully to others as well.

Wall calendars are nice, but it’s also great to just have a little calendar that you can keep in your wallet, or use as a bookmark, or whatever…a calendar that’s close at hand.  Or a poster calendar that shows you the whole year at once, so you never forget to change the month.  I’ve been experimenting with using various items for 12-month 2010 calendars.

Wallet Calendar Cards First, I’ve been using Zazzle’s large “chubby” (2.5×3.5) business cards with 12-month calendars on one side.  For some, I just used art on both sides, with the back side art only.  For others, I used the front as a regular business cards, with customizable text for name/ contact/ business/ etc, with the calendar on the back.

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Calendar Cards I’ve been using the new square — I think they’re 5.25×5.25, around 5×5 inches anyway–invitation cards to make 12-month calendar cards with art or photography on one side and and a 2010 calendar on the back, with the same art / photography as a background.  Useful as small calendars just to keep on the fridge, or on your desk–just easy to keep around and nice-looking.

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Bookmark Calendars Rack cards make useful “tall” calendars, and I’ve done a few marketed as bookmarks –calendar on back, art with large “2010″ on front.  I’ve also added smaller calendars to some of my “customizable for your business” rack cards, marketed as “advertise your events” cards.

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Calendar Prints Finally, I’ve used Zazzle’s posters to make custom 12-month calendar posters.  They’re designed with the art on the whole poster, with top half art only and bottom half calendar.  Some are tall and skinny; others are more normal “poster size”.  I’ve done a few of these as “custom photo poster calendars”, with a framed area on top for your photos.

Plus, I’ve started to do a few traditional wall calendars.  So, lots of calendar options for 2010 here.

I love Halloween — it’s the holiday nearest my birthday, so it’s a bit odd that I’d never designed anything “Halloween centric” before now…although I don’t tend to do many “holiday specific” designs here (I do a lot more for my Jewish art site, particularly Chanukah).  So this year I added a few designs.

The majority of my Halloween designs are skulls, which are mostly “general skull” than really Halloween specific, but that’s OK.    Several skull and rainbow designs, some pirate-style skull-and-crossbones, and for some reason I just couldn’t resist making a few cute pink skulls, including a pink pirate skull with a heart bandana.  Some of the skulls are distressed, some are not.  The only really “Halloweeny” one is a distressed orange skull and crossbones, but it was fun making all the different skull designs.  I think I’ll do some more even after Halloween and improve my skull work, as I’d never done skulls before and these were very simple.

I also did a handful of other Halloween themed designs:  three jack-o-lanterns, one of which is just a standard creepy carved jackolantern, the second is the same creepy jackolantern licking up the remains of another pumpkin –cannibal pumpkins, anyone?–and the third is an alien pumpkin design with UFOs in the background being flown by more alien pumpkins.

I have a few cat designs as well–actually one main design with three variations–of a black cat that’s really too cute to be a “Halloween Black Cat”.  Big blue eyes, cute pink nose and tongue, etc.  My favorite has the cat flying with an orange cape–I call it Super Cat.  After Halloween I may move the cats into my Animal Art section. Lastly I did a handful of zombie designs. The first is a yellow warning sign with running stick figures with flaming heads that says “Warning: Flaming Zombies Are Still Dangerous”.  The second is just a text design that says “ZD: Zombie Defense“.  The third is a “blood spattered” design that says “Bite Me like a zombie“.

That’s my Halloween work for this year…I enjoyed doing a few Halloween designs and may do a few more although it’s a bit late for this year.  I like doing “traditional” stuff–I’ll try some more black cats –scarier ones, maybe — and maybe some ghosts and vampires.