I confess that I have a weird brain

Ok, Ok…  friends who know me outside of this blog…  Hmmm..  Scratch that… whether you know me from reading this blog or if you know me from wherever…

You can stop laughing.

Now!  Stop!  I tell you!

Cease.  Desist!   *SIGH*  Fine…

I’ll wait.  Dum de dum dum..

Ok, there, got that out of your system?  *SIGH*

Yes, I’m fully aware that I have a strange brain.  It makes connections that most people don’t make.  I’m not saying that in a “bragging” way because most of the connections that it makes are not for public consumption and  I wisely keep them under wraps.

I have thought occasionally that maybe everybody’s brain works this way and that EVERYBODY keeps the weirdness under wraps so everybody thinks that nobody makes these weird connections.  Which is just weird.

Because if we’re all “weird” and making “weird connections” then wouldn’t that make “weird” well..  Uhmmm  “normal?”

I should move to Austin Texas.  Ya gotta love a city who’s unofficial motto is “Keep Austin Weird”

uh-oh… I’ve gone into Free Association Mode.  BEEP  Danger! Warning!  Danger Will Robinson!   Resetting Brain…

I Told you! that my brain makes weird connections!  I wish someone would make a “brain image recorder” because the movie of my brain would be well, weird.  Interesting, maybe, scary, probably, but definitely weird.

BUT!!!!!!!  WEIRD IS sometimes AWESOME!  Like when you’re a “creative personality” or you are a comedian then you get on stage and say just about anything that comes to mind.  And get paid for it!  Woot!  (I confess, money, or the impending lack of it is something that very near the surface of my thoughts almost 100% of the time lately… but  I digress…)

I do that you know.  😉 Back to the comedians:

In two separate interviews, two of my favorite comedians / actors: Robin Williams and Jim Carey answered essentially the same way when asked about “Where they get their ideas?”

Both of them said that they get ideas constantly, almost continuously.  The hard part is to not say them out loud because people would call 911 and nice guys with a really cool white jacket would show up.  Essentially they said they their brain is just wired that way; they can’t shut it off.

Hmmm… I guess that puts me in pretty good company.  LOL  I just wish I made as much as those guys.  🙂

Speaking of the weird, well unusual.. in a good way… when you visit my blog, check out the snowflakes.  COOL!  No, I didn’t do it.  It is something that Word Press does for the month of Dec.

Background on my latest design:

Bad Cowboy c2013 TxCowboyDancer Designs

Sometimes my ideas seem to just pop into my head but this idea is a little more concrete.

I was out at a club, Hmmmm, must have been a year ago at least… a friend of mine was looking at this really cute guy and said “I’ve been a bad cowboy.  You should send me to his room.”

Well I burst out laughing and promptly found one of those little cards they put at the bar to write phone numbers on, and wrote it down.

It has been in my “idea file” every since.  Uhmm.. not the card; the quip.   I have this text file on my computer where as strange and weird things occur to me that *might* end up on a t-shirt someday, well I jot them down.

And when I get stuck for an idea, I open it up and start skimming.  The first one that makes me laugh out loud.  Yes LOL for real, well, that is the one I start working on.

As I was finishing up this design I showed it to my room mate and he said.  “Oh I’ve seen that on a t-shirt before.”  After I said “Oh Crap!” I clarified with my roomie that my design, to the best he could recall, looked a lot different than the tee-shirt he had seen before.

So…  a quick internet search revealed that while I’m definitely not the first one to do a design along these lines, none of the designs I could find look like mine!  WHEW!  Want to see the search?  you’ll see that my design is WAY COOLER!  Jus’ Sayin’  😉

Mental note to Tony: before spending hours on a design, do an internet search to see if someone else has already done it and if they have, well do it different and better.  Whew!

My favorite TWO products with the new design…

Stretched Canvas Print – Available framed or unframed on skinny to thick canvases or on single, double, triple or quad panel configurations.

I’m going to do something new with this post, even though I realize it is already long.  See what happens when I let my “inner weird” break loose?  *sigh*

Anyway, I”m going to put two products up front and center: A dart Board and a Canvas Print.

You can see the rest of the products after the jump if you like.  But these two products are something that I always put new designs on but no one has ever bought.  Yet.

Probably because they are sorta expensive.  Eeek!  I know that I wouldn’t buy them.  Hey, truth in advertising!  But I’m an out-of-work librarian pretending to be a graphics designer!  LOL  Not some potentially wealthy customer with money to burn and friends to buy presents for…  *hint* *hint*

Dart Board featuring “I’ve been a bad cowboy” design. Available at TxCowboyDancer Designs

AN – KNEE – WAY…

These two featured products are ones that I think would be perfect for a MAN CAVE or a BAR or a NIGHTCLUB!

Hey!  Terri B.  Are you reading this?  Hmmmmm????

Roger?  How about you?  Show it to the owners!  Don’t you think one of these would look great at the RU?

Hey Debbie!  Don’t you want one of these for your new club?

OMG!  I know a lot of bar folks!  LOL  Not a word dear readers… not a word!

The REST of My favorite products…

…with the new design on stuff that is a lot cheaper and priced for mere mortals and not Guys looking to decorate their Man Cave or Bar Owners looking to sell beer…

jus sayin…  😉

As a reminder, since this design series is still new, I’ll share with you a few of the products from the first batch on which I think the new design looks awesome.   If you want to see all the products, then click on one of the many links scattered through this post and hop on over to the store…  Cheers!

Some Geek Stuff for my fellow Graphics Geeks…

On this design I used more layers than I’ve ever used on any design to date — NINE layers!

• Grunge background – Public Domain image which had a black border which had to be converted to a transparent border
• The Cowboy Silhouette – Public Domain image extracted from one of those “100 People Silhouette” packs that litter the internet like discarded burger wrappers
• The text is created using a Public Domain Font and is saved in five different layers.  I had to use that many layers because the main graphics program I use is not a drawing program.  By breaking the text into chunks it allowed me to move the chunks around to get the spacing right.
• The final two layers
  • The paint that scratches out the M in the word “MY”
  • and the “OUR” that is written in next to the “Y” in “MY” to change “MY” to “YOUR”

I’m purty darned tootin proud of my self I am!  Ow!  I think I just hurt my arm patting myself on my back.

Variation on Redbubble

Vertical Design tee shirt available only on RedBubble

You can see that the design up above is square. And the one to the right is, uhmm..  NOT Square.  😉

I  R a bloggR.  I R r-tick-u-lut.

I openned a store on RedBubble because, Well, because Zazzle is starting to tick me off with all the stupid changes to the design interface that it is currently experimenting with I wanted to try another design website just to test the waters.

I’m not going to close my Zazzle shop; even if I do switch to a different site as my “main site”,  I’ve got too much time invested on Zazzle to completely pull up stakes.  But I thought I should do what the financial adviser people suggest and spread out my options.

So I loaded this same design onto RedBubble, or rather I tried to.  I discovered that Redbubble uses a rectangle shape for their design area rather than the “square which works best on Zazzle.  So, over to the right is the design, modified to fit a rectangular area.  If you like that then hey, that’s awesome.  BUT  I only have the single t-shirt design on Redbubble.  There are no other products with the design, just the one shirt.

It’s a “TEST” remember?  *grin*

All Designs in my Store,
including the I’ve Been a Bad Cowboy Design, are available on:

• Mugs
• Buttons
• Magnets
• Stickers
• Clothes like:
  • T-shirts, Jackets, Hoodies, Scarves, Sweatshirts, Ties, and Polos
• Bags, from the very inexpensive Canvas variety up to executive Laptop Briefcases
• Gadget stuff like
  • Speakers, Skins, Cases, Covers and Sleeves for cell phones and computers
• Cards:
  • Greeting Cards, Note cards, Invitations, Postcards, Postage Stamps and other paper products
• Office stuff like:
  • 3 ring Binders, Planners, Post-its, Mousepads, Dry Erase Boards, & Notebooks
• Posters, Giant Wall Decals, and Wrapped Canvas Art for your walls
• Kitchen stuff like dishes, place mats, napkins, and towels
• Necklaces, Watches, Key chains, Wallets, Dart Boards, Playing Cards, Puzzles, Yard Signs, stuff for Babies and Dogs and Cats and…
  …
• And… well lots more.  🙂  All of these products can be customized by changing the colors, moving the images around, changing the text by adding a name or a creative caption of your own.

If you like the “I’ve Been a Bad Cowboy” design
or any design I have in my store
and want it on a product that I haven’t done yet,
just ask and I’ll fix it right up for you.

See ya on the dance floor…!

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• 100% Me — From Start to Finish featuring: Language of Dance Design
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