Vistaprint business cards - and how to save money

Are you one of the army of small business users that want to get cheaper business cards but using loads of images which means vistaprint gets expensive? Aha, we have a cunning plan!

This is a copy of my business card:

But, how many images or text boxes can you see?

Hippo logo, Hippo background, 4 text boxes at least? All of which vistaprint charge for ...

nope, there is only one!

How to get round their pricing:

open publisher or photoshop, drop all the images and text boxes you want and play around till you're happy with the finished result and then save it as a SINGLE IMAGE which you upload to their site.  You are then charged for only 1 upload because it only recognises 1 graphic and saves you loads!!

Happy playing :)

Trust - are you in or out of the sandpit?

Trust is one of those words that we use constantly, and usually from a negative perspective 'I don't trust them, do you remember when ....'

It's tricky isn't it?  Do you really want to be the one that assumes everyone is out to get you, or using you for their own ends or do you want to be the one that is secure enough in themselves that others letting you down is their loss not yours?

This is written because since we have taken the Hippos to a new level of working, ie actually running it as a business, we have come across some lovely and some err not so lovely people! There are those crafters who embody the spirit of crafting - like our Hippo-ettes who were chosen on a highly scientific basis of 'ooh, we like working with them' no fancy CVs no artists' statements twaddle just a gut instinct of them being lovely.  Then there are those that I call the fast buck crafters - the ones that think they can make a load of money quickly by taking ideas off everyone else and never crediting other crafters or artists. 

Time will show the real crafters but sadly the casualities along the way are building from what we can see.  Also the fast buck crew are usually the ones doing nothing but complaining that everyone else has stolen their ideas. They bore me, and they also annoy me because the genuinely creative are the least likely to shout 'look what I made' which is partly why we opened the shop so that we can do it for them.  I am not perfect, made many mistakes along the way but would never deliberately create gain off the back of someone else.  As Pooh Bear says 'it's much nicer with two' or three, or four or in fact loads of you.  The Hippos welcome all that want to play but closes the door to those not wanting to play nicely.  We banish you from our sandpit so nyah! And on that highly adult response, I am off to the making shed :)