She was wearing one of her lucky shirt designs from The Spotted Olive™ when she entered the room. It looks like it has worked wonders! :)
Ok, now that I have your attention, feel welcome here, make yourself comfortable and let me know what I can get for you. The bar is stocked and the snack cart is overflowing with goodies. ::listens:: Alright! Here you go! Enjoy! Let me get some water and we'll be on our way.
The story of Debbie,
winner of mv's First Giveaway.
Photo of Debbie wearing her mv necklace.It was a cold winter day when mv found out about this great concept of having a giveaway (yes, yes, I am new to all this LOL). A giveaway, the BEST way to thank the wonderful people she had met in her online travels! But how would this work? With the help of a few friends and some very good pointers from them, the first giveaway was born.
February 12, 2010, afternoon... I was having the jitters... Will anyone see this? What if I mess up? How will it be received? I had written and rewritten, rehearsed the whole thing a hundred times. Well, here it goes! Share.
4 minutes later, the first answer! WHEEE! It had worked! ::happy dance:: I don't remember if it was sunny outside, but it sure felt like it. As this was a multiple entry giveaway, I started seeing familiar faces coming back. I was as happy as one feels when a lovely repeat customer enters their store :) I was busy reviewing the links, the tweeps, and all the good places I was discovering thanks to the giveaway.
Hmm, I see your glass is empty. Would you like another drink? I think I'll get a martini for myself. I have this sudden urge for a martini... I wonder why.
Hmm, a tweet from an account that reminds me of a martini. Ah, yes, the super cute shop that had really cool business card designs, funky paper goods, and other cute stuff. As I was clicking more and more links, I was discovering more and more gorgeous designs. Business cards, note cards, invitations, stationery, postcards, stickers... Oh WOW! Cool T-shirts! Even shoes, and hats, and bags, and... WOW. Who is this talented person?! Look at all those GORGEOUS designs! OMG! So funky! So cute! So COOL!
LOL Check out this shirt! OMG! She is so FUNNY!
Fast forward to February 21st, the day of the drawing. Enter list at random.org, randomize, get random number, pick that number from the list.... Debbie! The martini lady! I mean, The Spotted Olive™ owner :)
Confetti! Flowers!
Music!
Party!
Congratulations Debbie!
Her answer was so nice she melted my heart: "Happy to help promote other fellow small business owners. Was my pleasure to do and as an added bonus I won a prize. Thanks so much!!!"
That's Debbie for you. She is a kind hearted soul who strives to help others as much as she can. In January, she joined Hearts For Haiti a group of artists, designers and illustrators on Zazzle trying to raise awareness and funds to help the Haiti earthquake victims. She celebrates Earth Day every day. Helping the planet helps the people living on it. Use LESS! Help the environment!We've had a few chats since, and what strikes me is how supportive she is of all businesses. She loves running The Spotted Olive™ because she knows it can help other businesses succeed.
Professionally, she's an award winning graphic designer who's been in the industry for 15 years now. She's joined the POD world January 2008, discovered Zazzle a few months later, and hasn't looked back since. Zazzle is her POD of choice and she has countless Zazzle stores, each a creative outlet for her boundless talent, each with its own Debbie style and designs.
In Debbie's own words: "The primary focus of my shops is paper goods, business cards, etc. I actually sell quite a bit of my business card designs to small businesses that are on Etsy and Artfire. I've had a few jewelry designers ask me to alter some of my business card designs so they can use them for their jewelry. It's kind of a cool connection from what I do to the handmade crafters, and how we can work together."
Isn't she AWESOME?
I wanted to show you a favorite business card from her store, but I couldn't stop at one, it was hard enough to stop at two! :)
Doesn't this design look perfect for a Craft Business?
And this one for a vintage seller?
She has also been recently interviewed by Zazzle, and you can read more about her design philosophy and inspirations at: http://blog.zazzle.com/2010/02/10/zazzle-featured-seller-interview-with-thespottedolive. It's a fun read!
Thank you so much for listening! I had fun sharing Debbie's story. She is such a talented designer! I will send her your compliments, so please do gush about her in the comments section below :)
You can visit Debbie at:
http://www.facebook.com/TheSpottedOlive
http://www.thespottedolive.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/thespottedolive
http://www.thespottedolive.com
http://www.zazzle.com/thespottedolivekicks
http://www.zazzle.com/twoheartsshoppe
http://www.zazzle.com/minkideluxe
http://www.zazzle.com/thespunkypuppy
http://www.dpgraphicdesign.net
The Spotted Olive™ Ultra Techie Fancy Panel Thingie is cool. Click :)
Wonderful, Congrats Debbie! :)
ReplyDeleteTalents abound! My spare time is now time to explore all of her shops! Thanks mv...
ReplyDeleteThank you Marianne, London, and Dolly :) Debbie is such a talented designer and such a wonderful person too! I am so happy you've dropped by and shared your kind words.
ReplyDeleteLondon, I SO know what you mean! I spent three days looking through all her shops, and I still feel I haven't seen all her talent! And between you and me, I think she hasn't yet told us about all her shops LOL She really is something!