Sabrinamantle's Weblog

New Google Ad campaign for Art and more

sabrinamantle — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:44:41 +0000

Whew! Just finished my two weeks of work getting my Google ad campaign up, 5 minutes and counting into the launch. HURRAH! Google gave my $100 to spend and I wanted to make every dollar count, so I did a lot of research to how to do it right. There is a group of ads for my art website, elemental.artspan.com, and also my money saving blog, elementalcheapness.com. So hopefully I will sell some art or get traffic and subscribers, or both.

Now with this out of the way I can spend the rest of my week off from work doing other stuff, maybe finish some of those paintings that have been languishing in my studio….

New art coming at you!

sabrinamantle — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:29:10 +0000

Wow I have been so caught up in my ‘pro’ blog I haven’t posted anything on here in ages, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy creating cool stuff! After months of filling my head with learning how to make and use widgets, get links, statistics, Adwords, affiliates programs, traffic funnels, social networks, opt in pages, market research and more I finally felt my creative screaming. I have two new abstract paintings in the works, a new fun way of processing black and white prints for more moody interesting vibe, and a 3d project. The 3d project has be languishing in a corner for 2 yrs waiting for me to even start it, I had picked up a antique ‘shadow box’ kinda wooden thingy and thought it would be great to fill it with photos and objects. I got Lee involved and we spent an hour rummaging around the house and yard for intriguing items and weird ways to use them, I was really impressed with some of the things he came up with! Hope to have that and the paintings finished in time to enter in Red Tree’s holiday show, more on that later.

The new process I am trying out on my photos is a digital version of lith printing. Lith printing uses black and white photos and through various chemical processes happy accidents occur which tend to give glowing, grainy, high contrast prints with pinkish and/or chocolate tones. While you can’t really reproduce the random effects of chemicals in the dark room you can take digital prints add contrast, grain, and manipulate the color tones of the highlights and shadows to cool affect. As a side note to those of you out there who think digital is ‘fake’ and film is ‘real’, do you know just how much doctoring, manipulation, and fakery went into the last 100 plus years of film photography? There is no difference, just the tools change.

Any way I have taken the newest of these ‘lith’ prints and put together a new calendar for 2011 here’s the link

http://www.zazzle.com/black_and_white_photographs_by_sabri_calendar-158900200338006098

New ideas, new horizons

sabrinamantle — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 20:55:21 +0000

Wow my head is spinning, to many new ideas bashing about in there I am not sure what to do first. Now that I finally got free from the awful boss who I spent all my time stressing about I find my mind open to new growth and I am excited to think of new paths for me. I just bought online ‘Kaching’ by Joel Comm, which outlines relatively easy ways to make money online, so I am fired up about trying that. Simply put you take something you are passionate about, start a blog or website, fill it with good, interesting content which attracts readers and then hopefully those readers click on to the ads and links on your page, which you get paid for. If you do it right they will be products and information they are already interested in because they are reading your specific subject which compliments the ads.

So I am off and running with that idea, I am going to write about the one thing I know the most about, living cheaply with out living poorly. So today I did a bunch of research, cause I have no idea what I am doing, bought a domain, Elementalcheapness.com, signed up for web host, picked out a web platform, and drafted my introductory post! Whew I was tired and thought I deserved a break, so went on the Wii to watch a movie and decided to watch a documentary on the TED conference. Oh man now my head is really full!

I had a vague idea of TED as a cool bunch of idea makers, but after watching that I feel so inspired to do more. They were right when they said we hear so much about what sucks in the world but not what’s going on that’s great. So I am going to try for the next month to only post things that are positive. The funny thing is I already have a lot of ideas that I can share and people to link to that have great things to say and offer, I just haven’t been thinking of it. So look out I am gearing up for change, and I’ll let you know when the new blog is up and running.

Summer day trips

sabrinamantle — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:57:08 +0000

Sunday was a little cooler so Lee and I decided to go back out to Brookville Lake for another swim and look around the area. We ended up first in Metamora, which is just past Brookville, and got a quick look at the canal there. We took a few pics of the aqueduct (the canal runs through what looks like a covered bridge), mill wheel and locks, but decided we’d save a the town for another day(still to hot for me to be out in the sun taking pics). Brookville Lake was lovely, the crowds small, breezes balmy, and as the evening cooled things off we enjoyed the views from the damn and overlook. Another lovely, cheap, day trip which I recommend if you live near by. Here are a few pics.

To photoshop or to not photoshop, that is the question

sabrinamantle — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:06:52 +0000

We have a familiar conversation here in my house, I take a photo I am interested in playing with and apply various photoshop filters to it and then show it to my husband, who almost always thinks its too much and likes the original version better. Sometimes I am not sure, its not that I think one is better, there are just subtle shifts in mood and I can’t decide which I like more. For example we just went to Brookville Lake in Indiana and I was fascinated with the massive perfect green slope of the dam against the blue sky and fluffy clouds. It was stark, beautiful and surreal and I kinda liked that a little ‘paint’ filter put on it made it even more removed from realistic, but he thought it looked to strange and childish. What do you think, I’d love to hear comments, I’ve been trying for years to get a feel for what people thought of these kind of images. Here’s some plain and filtered versions, you can’t tell the difference in thumbnails, so click on them and check them out bigger….

We had a great time at Brookville, in addition to the cool pics the beach was nice and the scenery great, we will be going back later to try some of the hiking trails. I found Brookville when I met fellow photographer Kim Meadows online, she is opening a new gallery in Brookville called Studio 714. Along with her photography studio and business she will be showing area artist of various mediums, renting space for artist, giving classes, having contest and just generally providing a great hub for artistic activities and events. For more info check out her web site which I will post on the right of this page.

Prices dropped even further on my clearance items

sabrinamantle — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:59:27 +0000

Ok since I am about to run out of art funds and chez Mantle is having serious car repair issues I have lowered the prices further on my clearance sale page (see right column on this blog for link). I really need to move some things, not just for the money (ha!) but I have run out of space to put things! So please check out the sale, I’ve also added some new items.

Prints on demand ready and on sale!

sabrinamantle — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:24:06 +0000

I recently watched a show on Netflix and was amazed at how they can offer movies thru your computer and Wii for no extra charge. How do they make money? Then I realized they saved so much on not handling the disc they could offer the electronic downloads for cheap or nothing and still be profitable! Since I finally got prints on demand up and running on my website I decided to take their method and try it my self. Since I am not printing, handling, or mailing anything my self I have decided to offer my prints online at really low prices, 50-75% less than I would sell them for normally. The larger size are actually the best deals, I am offering 11×14 sizes for $25-30 and 17×25 for around $55! I love that you can buy such big sizes, I’ve ordered a couple my self because its cheaper than the local printer and I am excited to see how they’ll look really big! I plan to have two 16×20 prints in my next show at Kennedy Heights, opening June 12th 6pm. So if you know anyone needing art for their walls tell them to go to Artspan.com and look for me, Sabrina Mantle, and they’ll find great deals and custom framing.

Work is getting in the way of my real life!

sabrinamantle — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:46:54 +0000

Just realized its be ages since I posted, I have been so overwhelmed with the ugly drama going on at work I seem to have no mental room left for anything else. I’ll spare you the tedious details, my boss is insane and driving me over the edge, blah, blah, blah (done some research, think he has obsessive compulsive personality disorder, what fun!) I have to work really hard on my two days off to NOT think about it and try to get back to working on art or doing something fun. Weather has been gorgeous and we have got out to do some fun spring stuff, got some pics, gardens are taking off so that’s all great. Lee is rehearsing with his old band to play the Who’s Tommy, and there has been a lot of back and forth to Bloomington for this. Oh and we are going to see the Flaming Lips in two days, I am STOKED! We’ll stay over in Bloomington In and are thinking of going to McCormicks Creek to see all their beautiful dogwoods in bloom, hopefully more cool pics. In the mean time here are a couple from Rowe Woods Nature Center, Cincinnait. They have awesome amounts of daffodils!

Spring!

sabrinamantle — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:14:16 +0000

Yes spring is finally here, and my mood and desire to work have both improved. While the online revamping is taking WAY longer then I expected I have had time to do a little new stuff. Zazzle has a design a sneaker contest with a big cash prize, so I found time to whip up some sweet new designs for that. I used fractals for edgy colorful looks. You can go to my ‘merchandise page’ which is listed on the right under ‘Pages’ if you want to see them, also new t-shirts too. I really love how they look and want one for my self but can’t decide which one! We also made another trip to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton to see the rest of the museum, I loved the space flight section, the charry patinas on the capsules were fascinating to me!

Help MCI is holding my money hostage!

sabrinamantle — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:34:14 +0000

Ok time to see if my internet peeps have any advice.
Back in Sept. while paying bills online I accidentally sent my $300 insurance payment to TTI, a long distance phone company I haven’t used in over a year (still had entry for them on my bill pay page). MCI has owns this company and since sept I have spent HOURS on the phone with them, sometimes trying to find my account since MCI said they didn’t know TTI, other times being told different procedures to do to even ask for refund. They have given my 3 different address to send my request for refund to, one I know doesn’t exist. Now here I am 4 mnts later and while they do know who I am and see the money in my account, I have never be able to even get an answer if they even know I need a refund or if its being processed! I have been documenting dates, names and info on my calls in case I need it for legal action, but I don’t even know if I can take any legal action and who to talk to. Right now I am calling about once a week and even when I talk to managers all I get is ‘ we’ll look into it and I PROMISE we’ll call you back’. Most of the time they never call back, the two times someone did call they just said they still don’t know anything. The other great thing is they never let me talk to the same person, EVER!, and I am not allowed to talk to the refund department my self! I WANT THEM ALL TO BURN IN HELL!