Cover Your iPad Mini with a Custom Cloth Covered Powis iCase Case From Zazzle

I'm WAY behind schedule in publishing this first post about custom cloth covered iPad cases from Zazzle, but I hope this overview of the Powis iCase case for your iPad Mini will be helpful to you.

There are all types of cool iPad cases out there that you can buy online; there's metal, hard plastic, leather and more. But what choices do you have if you want to buy a nice fabric covered book cover style case for your Apple iPad?

As I mentioned near the end of my 10 Eye Catching iPad Case Covers post, Zazzle offers a few cloth book cover styled cases for the iPad (2nd, 3rd and 4th gen models), iPad Air & iPad Mini/ iPad Mini with Retina display that you can customize and/or personalize. So in today's post, we're going to take a look at the Powis iCase brand premium cloth covered case for the iPad Mini. We're also going to look at some surprising advantages that Zazzle offers iCase case buyers over Powis itself and one of my own custom Powis iCase iPad Mini case designs.

Powis iCase for iPad Mini case

Do you remember those hard cover textbooks you carried around in high school? Powis iCase offers a durable, premium hard cover cloth iPad Mini case with a glossy laminate finish that will remind you of your old textbooks, only much nicer.

Check out this brief YouTube and you'll see what I mean ....





An overview of the Powis iCase case

Each Powis iCase iPad Mini case cover is made from 100% recycled hardboard, weighs less than a 1/2 lb., has non-slip edges that make it easier to use free standing in landscape mode, can be used in multiple positions, features grips that securely hold your Mini in place, gives you full access to your iPad's camera + ports without having to remove it and an elastic hand strap to securely hold it in your hand. It's 8.13 inches long, 5.75 inches wide, 0.75 inches thick and weighs 0.45 lbs. Prices start at $59.95 on the Powis website.

I sell my own custom Powis iCase iPad case cover designs on my Zazzle store and my opinion may be a bit biased. So I recommend that you check out this full review Lex Friedman wrote for Macworld earlier this year. Here's the link: Macworld iCase Mini review.

Why buy your Powis iCase iPad Mini case from Zazzle?

The Powis iCase website offers a variety of pre-made case covers that come in different styles, patterns and in leather too that you can personalize. But Zazzle has partnered up with Powis to offer custom iCase cases to their customers.

At this point you may be asking yourself why should I buy a Powis iCase iPad Mini case from Zazzle instead of buying one directly from Powis? To help you answer that question, here are 6 reasons why you should buy your Mini case from Zazzle:

1. Zazzle offers a greater variety of pre-made Powis iCase iPad Mini cases than Powis Parker offers on its own website (Zazzle has more than 90 thousand of these cases for sale in their marketplace).
2. Zazzle gives you the option to customize and/or personalize cases with your own photography, artwork or text to make your very own iPad case cover design.
3. With Zazzle you can easily change the form factor for the iPad model you have right from the product design detail page.
4. Zazzle's Powis iCase cases are designed to fit both the Mini or the Mini with Retina display.
5. Zazzle gives you the option to buy the case cover with or without a kickstand.
6. Zazzle offers better pricing! It might be hard to wrap your mind around how that's possible, but it's true. Zazzle markets cases created by individual storekeepers who set their own prices based on the perceived value of their respective designs. They can range from around $42.95 on the low end to well over $100 on the high end. As I mentioned earlier, prices on the Powis website starts at $59.95.

From what you've just read, it should be pretty clear that Zazzle offers you more options at a better price point, but don't take my word for it ... go check it out for yourself. In the meantime, if you would like to see a custom Powis iCase for the iPad Mini from Zazzle, check out this one:

Prowling Tiger Powis iCase iPad Mini Case

This Prowling Tiger Watching case design is the latest for the Powis iCase brand posted on my iCandy58Designs store on Zazzle. It's designed to fit both the iPad Mini and the iPad Mini with Retina display. Priced at $47.95, it doesn't come with a kickstand (however, you have the option to add one for an additional charge), but as I mentioned in No. 2. above, it can be customized and/or personalized to create a case cover that is uniquely your own, which means no one else will have the same Mini case you have unless you post it for sale.

Prowling Tiger Watching iPad Mini Case by iCandy58Designs
Check out more iCandy58Designs iPad Mini case designs at Zazzle

I love this tiger iPad Mini case design, because it's a real eye-catcher! It makes a perfect gift for anyone who loves tigers or big cats! What if you love this case too, but need one that fits an iPad Air? Don't sweat it! Just page up and change the form factor (to the right of the product image on the product detail page) by selecting iPad Air and you're good to go. The title and product details will change to reflect the new form factor.

So what do you think about the Powis iCase iPad Mini case? Does it fit your style or do you want to check out some other premium cloth covered iPad cases? If you want to see more fabric covered book cover style cases, be on the lookout for my follow up post on custom iPad Air DODOcase cases from Zazzle.

8 Funny St Patty's Day T-Shirt Designs to Keep You From Getting Pinched!

Updated, 3/8/2014: This post is updated to reflect a total rewrite of the original.

Whether you're planning on marching down 5th Avenue in NYC, marching up Columbus Drive in Chicago, raising the ruckus in Downpatrick in County Down, or doing a pub crawl with your very bestest friends in your hometown, no Laddy or Lassie wants to be caught on March 17th without wearing a bit o' the green. So if you're looking for funny St. Patty's Day t-shirts to wear while celebrating, check out the rest of today's post.

St. Patrick's Day 2014 is right around the corner and if you want to avoid getting pinched, this post showcases 8 very funny custom t-shirt designs, to give as a gift or buy for yourself, to celebrate the holiday in  style and reflect your unique sense of humor.

Funny St. Patty's Day t-shirts for smiling Irish eyes (and those who wish they were Irish) :)

Shenanigan Expert Tee Shirt by reflections06
See more St. Patrick's Day T-Shirts at Zazzle.com

Buy Me A Beer St. Patrick's Day American Apparel T T Shirt by koncepts
Get the best custom tshirts from Zazzle.com

Lets Get Ready To Stumble Tank by CyKosis
Design your own tee shirt online at Zazzle.

funny mustache St Patrick's Day T Shirt by holidaysboutique
Check out more I Mustache You a Question T-Shirts at Zazzle

Who All Seen Da Leprechaun Say Yeah Meme T Shirts by MemeRegime
Create unique printed t-shirts on Zazzle.

Beer & Craic St Patricks Day is Back Tees by Atomic_Cotton
Create cheap custom t-shirts at Zazzle

I'm Gonna Need Another Beer Tshirt by CyKosis
See other St Patty's Day T-Shirts at Zazzle

And since you don't want to get pinched ... here's one more funny St. Paddy's Day t-shirt design that's just perfect for you, lol!

Pinch Me Punch You Tshirt by carryon
Custom T-shirt printing online at Zazzle

Did you know that Zazzle's marketplace has more than 35,000 St. Patrick's Day t-shirt designs (yes ... there are plenty o' drunk drinking themed ones, too) that are funny, cute and racy, too? Click this link ==>> St. Patrick's Day T-Shirts to see them all now.

P.S. Are you a fan of funny cartoon t-shirts? Click here to check out the 5 cool, cute, funny and hip t-shirt designs showcased in this very popular post. 

I Guess You Wonder Where I've Been and Other iCandy58Designs News Updates

"I guess you wonder where I've been ... I came back to let you know" ~ Bobby Caldwell, What You Won't Do For Love

It's been 7 days since my last new post, so I wanted to write a short post on what I've been up to and to let you know that I haven't fallen off a cliff or forgotten about you :).

I haven't really focused on Zazzling much since my "how to" post on custom keepsake jewelry. Don't get me wrong, I have added some nice new custom throw pillows, some more wrist watch designs and even a few more custom keepsake necklaces to iCandy58Designs during the week. But for the most part, I've been running around taking care of family stuff and helping my girls get ready to go back to school for the start of their Spring semester (on is in high school & the other is in college). Those of you with kids in high school and/or in college know what I speak of :).

Now that things are back to normal in my home, I can once again turn my thoughts to creating some new eye candy product designs, adding new product categories to iC58D (I have one in the works that I'm VERY excited about), introducing you to other Zazzlers I've met that do amazing design work, building up my following and blogging about it ... here regularly of course!

That's it for today, but before I go I want to show you 2 of my latest product designs available for sale on my Zazzle store:

Vintage Purple Flowers Custom Polyester Throw Pillow, 20" x 20"

Diamond Lights White Custom Wrist Watch

Click on the links just below the images above or go to http://www.zazzle.com/icandy58designs to order these or any of my custom product designs.

I would love to know what you think of these designs, so take a hot minute to leave a comment (even if it's just to say "Hi, Ray!"), and if you really like them ... please post a link back to them on your favorite social networks. Thanks!

New Year, New Custom Zazzle Gift Designs and More

Updated, 1/8/2014

Happy New Year, I hope 2014 is off to great start for you! My mind is still in holiday mode just a little bit, BUT I wanted to write a short post today about what's new on my iCandy58Designs store on Zazzle.

Since blogging about my 200th custom gift design last month, I've created/posted 56 new designs on my Zazzle store. For some Zazzlers that's one days work, but not for me ... I take a slower approach, because I want to make sure the design and the product are a good match for each other. I have floral art/ nature designs that are perfect matches for some products and I have abstract art designs that are made for other products.

Anywho ... :) in today's post I'm presenting a few of the new product designs I've added to my store. I've added some new custom iPad cases like the one below ...

Vintage Fall Leaves iPad Air Case

more custom iPhone 5 cases, a few custom wrist watches ...

Alarmed Clock Custom Wrist Watch

and some new decorative dinner plates, but what I'm really excited about are my new custom throw pillow designs ...

Vintage Floral Art Custom Throw Pillow

and custom round locket design like this one ...

Sterling B & W Vintage Skating @ the Rink Locket

Both are the very first product designs in my new Custom Throw Pillows and Custom Keepsake Jewelry categories on my Zazzle store. I have 11 floral art & nature photography themed throw pillows in-progress that I plan on posting over the next few days. I have 1 square sterling necklace in-progress that will be posted today, but additional keepsake jewelry will be added more slowly. Even though I expect most of the people buying keepsakes will use their own photos, I still have to "marry" the best images I can photograph and/or create to the lockets/necklaces Zazzle makes available for my use.

I've posted all 11 of my in-progress custom throw pillow designs (as well as another May 28th custom wrist watch and a new square sterling necklace) to my store. A few of them are doing the Zazzle bounce, but you can see the entire category on this page => Custom Throw Pillow Gifts.

I won't go on and on about it, but I have some exciting plans for iCandy58Designs, as a store and as a brand in 2014. Stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting my blog and checking out this post! Please let me know what you think of the new custom design gifts showcased in this post by commenting below. If you're on Google + or on Facebook, please follow me so you can keep up with what's going on with my blog.

3 More Rockefeller Center Images Inspiring My Custom Zazzle Product Designs

Are you a fan of the world famous Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan? You should enjoy today's post if you are, because I'm showcasing 3 more images I'm using on Rockefeller Center themed product designs on my iCandy58Designs store on Zazzle.

The week before Thanksgiving I blogged about my Vintage Ice Skating at the Rink designs. I always intended to do a follow up post on the other 3 Rockefeller Center images I'm using to create custom product designs for my store, but for one reason or another I never got around to it :)

I took these photos with my Blackberry Torch at the same time I took Vintage Ice Skating at the Rink and edited them on my iPhone 4.

Black & White Vintage Skating at the Rink

This Black & White Vintage Skating at the Rink is very similar to Vintage Ice Skating at the Rink, but they are two (2) different photographs. I think Black & White focuses more on the skaters, while Vintage captures the entire buzz of people at Rockefeller Center - the skaters, the onlookers and shoppers. What do you think? I've posted Vintage Skating below so you can compare the two images.

Vintage Ice Skating at the Rink

I currently have only seven (7) Black & White Vintage Skating designs on my Zazzle store that can be customized and/or personalized. I think it's a beautiful winter design, so I will be adding it to a few more Zazzle products very shortly :) You can see the entire collection anytime by clicking this link.

Vintage Rock Center Christmas Tree

This Vintage Rock Center Christmas Tree photograph is probably my most favorite capture of the day. The Tree is so iconic and such a BIG deal, there was no way I was going to let that photo opp pass me by! It's funny, for eight (8) years I avoided Rockefeller Center like the plague when the Lighting of The Tree ceremony was taking place ... I would do my best to leave my office (which was less than 5 minutes away from there) afterward, because it was a real nightmare trying to get to Grand Central Terminal with all the people in midtown wanting to see the Tree.

As far as designs go, with only two (2) Vintage Rock Center Christmas Tree custom designs on my store, it's very much underrepresented. I don't believe in slapping my images on every product that I can, but I'm going to have to fix that fast. Click on this link => Rock Center Christmas Tree anytime to see the products this design is available for, and if there's a Zazzle product you would like to see it on, email me via the Contact the Seller link on my store .. just go to http://www.zazzle.com/icandy58designs/.

Vintage Rockefeller Center

As much as I love the Rockefeller Center Christmas holiday theme, I wanted to capture the real grit of midtown Manhattan and I think this Vintage Rockefeller Center image, with a little photo editing magic, accomplishes it very nicely. Every day I worked in midtown during those 8 years, I looked at tall office buildings like these, but I never saw them until I left New York and returned as a visitor (I prefer 'visitor' over 'tourist' 7 days a week). Isn't that something?

Right now I'm using this Vintage Rockefeller Center design on six (6) Zazzle products and I will be adding more to my store. Click Here to see the entire collection anytime you want.

I hope you enjoyed looking at more of the images that serve as inspiration for my product designs. Sometimes artwork and photographs can't be properly viewed on a product created for sale, so I thought it would be cool to share them here on my blog. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Can you believe it ... we will be in a brand new year, 2014, in 4 days? 

New Zazzle Product Design Category: Decorative Dinner Plates

Updated, 12/20/2013:

At the time of yesterday's post, the 25th custom dinner plate design wasn't showing yet in the category, so I've updated this post to include it. I hope you like it.

With today's short post I'm publicly announcing the launch of the new decorative dinner plates product design category on my iCandy58Designs store on Zazzle! I just posted my 25th custom dinner plates design to my store this morning. I'm really psyched about the prospects for this new category and in today's post I'm going to share 5 of the latest plates with you.

Vintage Soft Flowers Custom Dinner Plate

Spring Flower Art Custom Dinner Plate

Vintage Precious Little Flowers Dinner Plate

Vintage Floral Art Custom Dinner Plate

White Orange Tulips Purple Grass Dinner Plate

Would you like to see more? Just go to this page => Go to this page http://www.zazzle.com/icandy58designs/products/cg-196622254138339819 to see all of the designs in the decorative dinner plates gifts category.

These custom melamine plates are 10 inches in diameter, dishwasher safe, easy to clean, durable and at $27.95 per plate they are affordable. They can also be customized and/or personalized to your liking, which make them great for any special occasions or events you're having. 

I think my nature based iPhone photography and digital painting images are a perfect match for these decorative plate designs, but I would love to read your thoughts on them in the comments section below. 

With Christmas Day only 5 days away, I won't be making any new posts until Friday, 12/27. So, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas that's filled with joy, family, friends, fun and reflection. Christmas is always a big deal for my family, because we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord & Savior and my oldest daughter's birthday (yes, she was born on Christmas Day in the morning). 

See ya soon :) 

8 Cool iPhone Case Designs (Plus 4 More) for Your New Apple iPhone 5/5s

Updated, 1/3/2014:

When I originally published this post, it was hard to limit myself to just 8 great looking custom iPhone 5/5s case designs. So if you've recently scored a new iPhone and/or you want to see more cases, I've added 4 more cool designs for you to choose from to make it an even Zazzler's dozen.

Are you searching for cool phone cases for your iPhone 5 or 5s? If you just bought a new iPhone or are getting a new one soon (as a Christmas gift?), you don't want one of those run-of-the-mill ones you see at the local mall or on Amazon; no, you want one that's different, unique like you.

So to help you, here are 12 (twelve) cool iPhone 5 case designs that you can buy on Zazzle now. Two are from my iCandy58Designs store and the remaining 10 designs are from a few very talented, creative storekeepers whose design work I really admire: BluedarkArt the Chameleon, God's Blossom and Northwestphotos. As an artist I really admire them, so it was a no brainer to feature some of their eye candy product creations in this post. I've included one design from Cutestbabyanimals, because Getty Images has some great designs featuring cute baby animals.

All of the case designs showcased in this article can be customized and/or personalized to create a unique, one-of-a-kind iPhone 5/5s case for you. All you have to do is click on the blue 'Customize it!' button on the product detail page to get started.

Here are the 12 cool iPhone 5 case designs:

1. White Orange Tulips Purple Grass iPhone Case 

This vibrant case design, printed on a Case-Mate 'Vibe' case, is one of my first smart phone cases posted on iCandy58Designs. The image is an original mobile photograph of mine that I morphed into a digital work of art through the magic of photo editing. Priced at $49.95.


















2. Blue Hydrangea Blossoms iPhone Case Cover 

This beautiful photo based design from Northwestphotos is printed on a Case-Mate 'Barely There' case. The inspiration for this custom case is a close up of blue Hydrangea blossoms. Priced at $42.95.

3. Psychedelic Skull Art Design iPhone 5 Case

This Psychedelic Skull case design by BluedarkArt the Chameleon is printed on a Case-Mate 'Barely There' case. The detail and colors displayed against the black background in Blue's artwork makes this one very cool iPhone case for lovers of graphic artwork. Priced at $42.95.
















4. Stars and Stripes Girl's Portrait iPhone Case

This Stars and Stripes Girl's Portrait custom case design, printed on a Case-Mate 'Barely There' case, is another excellent example of BluedarkArt the Chameleon's creative talent. Priced at $42.95.


















5. Vintage Brillant Camera iPhone 5 Case

God's Blossom has some amazing product designs and this cool iPhone 5 case, printed on a Case Savvy glossy finish plastic case, is just another example of what you will find in her Zazzle store. Priced at $37.95.














                                               
                                               
                     
                          

6. Vintage Payphone iPhone Case

This funky, retro payphone iPhone 5 case, printed on a Case Savvy hard shell plastic case with a glossy finish, is another cool vintage design from God's Blossom on Zazzle. Priced at $37.95.




















7. Blue Peacock Case for iPhone 5

This Blue Peacock smart phone case from Northwestphotos, printed on a Graft Concepts 'Leverage' case, is simply stunning. It makes the perfect gift for any bird lover and it can be customized with 1 of 6 different colored frames. Priced at $48.95.
















8. Girly Pink Flower Art iPhone 5 Case

This custom case design, printed on a Case-Mate 'Vibe' case, is another one of my floral art designs inspired by one of my iPhone photos that I turned into an original (but as of yet unnamed) digital work of art through the magic of photo editing on my iPhone 4. Priced at $50.95.

9. Psychedelic Rainbow Snake iPhone 5 Case

This eye-catching custom iPhone 5 case design, printed on a Case-Mate 'Barely There' case, from BluedarkArt the Chameleon was designed for the Chinese Year of the Snake zodiac symbol. Against a black background, the colorful snake appears to have a 3-D effect. Priced at $42.95.

10. Howling Wolf on Carved Wood iPhone 5 Case

This beautiful rustic looking case design from the God's Blossom store, is printed on a Case-Mate 'Vibe' case. The design depicts a carved wooden image of a wolf howling at the moon. It's the perfect gift for anyone who loves animals, wolves or nature. Priced at $47.95.

11. Razzle Dazzle Dahlia iPhone Case

This custom case design from Northwestphotos, printed on a Case-Mate 'Vibe' case, captures the dazzling beauty of a Dahlia bloom in rub red, pink and white. Priced at $47.95.

12. Kitten in a Red Drawer iPhone 5/5s Case Cover

I've included this vibrant case design for the cat lovers in the house. Printed on a Case-Mate 'Barely There' case, it features the image of this cute little kitty cat in a red tool box drawer. Priced at $42.95.
















Do me a favor please, when you click through to the product page of these designs to buy one or more of them, it would really be great if you 'Like' the design and leave a positive comment about the case(s) you purchased.

So what do you think about the iPhone case designs featured in this post? I enjoyed sharing them with you and I hope they fit your definition of what a cool iPhone 5 case looks like. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

I Was Just About to Post About One Of My New Zazzle Product Designs ...

With winter and Christmastime right around the corner, I was getting ready to publish a post about my new Vintage Ice Skating at the Rink product designs that fit those themes to a 'T'. But a funny thing happened when I logged into Zazzle to grab the URL of my favorite product in that series.

What happened? I came across this unique Vintage Travel Postcards Sleeve For MacBooks design that I wanted to blog about. Don't get me wrong, I think I have some beautiful products available for sale on my store, but I wanted to showcase another designer's work instead.

This vintage travel themed design is an attractive, eye catching Rickshaw 15" laptop sleeve with a cool, retro look that makes it a great gift idea for any 15" MacBook Pro owner who travels/wants to travel, loves the vintage European travel postcard look or simply wants to buy a custom sleeve that really stands out.

This design by kicksdesign is just the type of fantastic eye candy product creations from other Zazzle storekeepers that I want to blog about here. I can publish posts about the designs in my iCandy58Designs store, like Vintage Ice Skating at the Rink, any time I want to BUT that would get old -n-boring pretty quickly for you. It wouldn't be much fun for me either, because I really do enjoy seeing the diverse display of great designs available for sale on Zazzle.

What do you think about this Vintage Travel Postcards design? Do you promote other storekeepers designs on your blog or across the social network platforms you belong to? Let me know what you think in the comments below.










 

Welcome to iCandy58Designs, the Blog!

Updated, 11/9/2013:

In the excitement of publishing my first post on this blog, I left out a few things that I wanted to share with you right out of the gate. So, I've updated this post to discuss the types of designs you will find on my store and how the store name iCandy58Designs came about.  

Welcome, I've set up this blog to showcase the product designs I've created for my iCandy58Designs store on Zazzle.com.

What will you find here? I plan to write posts about my favorite custom designs for iPhone cases, wrist watches, Galaxy phone cases, iPad cases and Rickshaw laptop sleeves among others. I also plan to blog about the fantastic eye candy product creations from other Zazzle storekeepers and post some of my photo images that serve as inspirations for my product designs.

My Zazzle product designs are photography based images that I've captured and edited using my trusty iPhone 4, which I always have with me. With the updated camera app in iOS 7, my eye can catch some beautiful pictures at almost any moment. Through the magic of post-photo processing using 4 - 5 photo editing apps, Pixlr and Paint.NET, I've been blessed to morph some of my images into digital works of art (which is really cool for an old pencil, watercolor & oil paint artist like me).

Most of the subjects for my designs come from nature, but lately I've been adding in more abstract shapes and a few architectural images.

How did the store name iCandy58Designs come about? I wanted to come up with a brand/store name that would play off of my desire to use my iPhone 4 to take pictures that catch my eye and my love of eye catching images. I liked 'iCandy', because it seemed perfect for what I had in mind. 58 represented the number of images I initially planned to use for the products in my store. Add in 'Designs' and the name has a catchy, memorable ring to it.        

Okay that's all for now. I truly hope you will come back & visit, leave a comment or two, subscribe to this blog, visit my store at http://www.zazzle.com/icandy58designs* and let me know if any of my designs strike your fancy. :)