March Craft Calendar for Folksy

Hello March!

Spring has arrived and not a moment too soon for my liking!

I adore spring, it's all ahead of us - the beautiful blooms, the sound of birds returning to gardens, the promise of summer, the smell of freshly cut grass, blossom falling like confetti - it's all good!

Imagine my delight when I was asked by the lovely folk at Folksy to create the image to go on their March craft calendar, which is available as a free download from their blog!  All I can say is I 'sprung' into action that day and was in my element playing with pretty spring flowers and birds...

These craft calendars are mighty handy.  I downloaded last month's one, designed by Christ Hagan and found it an extremely useful and beautiful prompt to see me through the month...and all for free, what's not to love about that ?! thank you Folksy!

To download yours, here's a link to the Folksy blog:

http://blog.folksy.com/2016/02/29/march-2016-calendar-free-download

My Design for March is made up of a combination of designs -  mainly the two pictured here.  'Hello Mum' which is available as a card and illustration print, and also features as the image for March on my 2016 calendar (above).  'Little Jenny Wrens' (below) is available as an illustration print and also features in my 2016 desktop calendar.

The cards and prints can be found over at my Folksy shop here:

https://folksy.com/shops/artworkbyangie

With it being Mother's Day this weekend, I just want to mention that my cut off for mother's day orders is this Thursday 3rd March, any orders placed after Thursday I can not guarantee they will arrive in time for Mother's Day.

I hope you all have a lovely week and if you are a mum, that you are treated like a queen this weekend.

Best wishes

Tea & Tips: Advice from a PR Expert on Getting Your Press Release Noticed...

Hello,

Last Wednesday I introduced the first of my mini-series about sharing business and marketing tips from my PR expert friend, Rachel Burks.  Rachel is Managing Director of PorcupinePR, a local agency that I frequently work with and where I often end up having very informative, relaxed chats about business and marketing matters, swapping tips and advice which I felt would be great to share with you, my lovely blog readers.  If you missed the first in the series you can catch up by clicking the link here:

Tea and Tips - The Importance of Blogging

This week, Rachel shares a few important basic tips about getting your press release noticed:

Rachel: “Most journalists receive hundreds of press releases every single day so it’s important to make sure yours stands out from the crowd. Follow our top tips and you should be on the right track.

Make sure your story is about the latest news or trends – the most recent developments are what a journalist will be interested in so include this information at the start.

Be different – journalists get sent a constant stream of ‘non stories’ all day long. Be the first, the newest, the oldest, the biggest or the smallest.

Grab the reader’s attention – much like the blurb on the back cover of a book, the first paragraph of your release should be concise and make the reader want to carry on. Headers are important too, try to think of something different and witty where appropriate but don’t be cheesy.

Pay attention to the detail – this includes the basics like checking your spelling and grammar but also refers to including the small details, such as someone’s age or where they live. Read through your release as if you didn’t know anything about the story and see if you have any unanswered questions when you reach the end.

Include a relevant image – news is getting more and more visual and a release that is sent through with a relevant, good quality press photograph is more likely to be picked up than one that isn’t. Many magazines prefer product images on a pure white background to make it easier to layout on their pages.  Images need to be sharply in focus and at least 300dpi resolution.

Include your contact details – make sure your telephone number, brief location, website address and social media details appear on the release. It sounds obvious but you’d be surprised how many people forget to add these.”

Thank you for some more sound advice Rachel.  Next Wednesday, Rachel will be sharing some Tea and Tips with me about How to keep your friends and fans happy when it comes to social networking. I hope you can join us.

Best wishes

Angie