How cool is this? With the new Inspiron R Series laptops from Dell, you can quickly and easily customize your laptop to match your style… or your mood… or even your outfit!

With its new line, called Switch by Dell Design Studio, Dell is giving customers the ability to change the look of their laptop by choosing a custom switchable lid. From solid colors to polka dots to plaid patterns, Dell is providing something for everyone.

Although there are just 20 colors/designs to choose from directly from Dell, a partnership with Threadless is providing even more options. As a crowdsourcing community for t-shirt designs, Threadless allows independent designers to offer their art for sale on clothing. This partnership with Dell will allow several popular community designs to appear on Dell Switch lids. This way you can buy a shirt for yourself and matching laptop lid for your Inspiron R. And if that’s not enough, several of the Threadless designs are also available on custom laptop sleeves, so your laptop can be protected in the same style as well!

Many of Dell’s switchable lids range in cost from $29.99 up to $85, depending on the design.

For those of you who don’t have the cash to ante up for the new Dell Inspiron R line with switchable lids, you can still achieve a custom look for your existing laptop. How, you say?

Example of a sticviews laptop decal

Sticviews provides ultimate flexibility in creating laptop skins (or any other kind of decal or sticker). Choose the exact size you need for your laptop and upload ANY image using our online designer. We’ll allow you to add your own text and arrange each graphic element exactly as you desire for a truly unique product. Your custom-designed laptop skin is then produced at our state-of-the-art printing facility using materials that allow for easy installation, removal, and re-use.

Best of all, custom laptop skins from Sticviews can be ordered for a fraction of the cost of switchable lids. For most laptops (with 14-17 inch screens) the cost of a sticviews laptop skin is less than $20!

Want a custom laptop? If cost isn’t a factor, try the new Dell Inspiron R Series with switchable lids, starting at $499.

If you’d rather save some cash and customize your existing laptop, go for a custom laptop skin from sticviews!

We have discovered that college students may know what they want, but do not necessarily have access to a high-quality school logo to create college-themed laptop skins, car decals and room décor.

To help you out, we have compiled a short tutorial on where you can access a logo for your school (or university) and how you can get that image into the sticviews designer to create your own custom skins and decals. First try checking your school’s website to see if high-resolution logos are available.

(Disclaimer: This tutorial involves using school logos which are subject to copyright protection. Please check with your booster club or school officials to ensure that you have permission to use your school’s logo. Always respect all copyright laws, and be aware that by uploading images to sticviews, you are verifying that you have permission to use any images that are subject to copyright laws.)

Part I: Getting Started

To get started, visit Chris Creamer’s sportslogos.net website. Here you will find various logos for all types of professional sports teams, but our focus today is on the College and NCAA logos.

1)      Click on the NCAA logo on the homepage or on  the ‘College’ link under the ‘Sports Logos’ heading in the left-side menu.

2)      Schools are divided up alphabetically into categories, so click on the letter range that includes the first letter of your school name (Ex: Florida State students click on ‘NCAA Division I (D-H)’)

3)      Now you will see a page filled with school logos, in alphabetical order by school name.
Browse through to find your school and click on the logo image.

4)      You are now taken to that school’s page with various past and present logos.
Click on the logo that you desire to use for your skin or decal (Although several schools have older logos available, newer logos seem to have higher resolution for better print results in most cases).

5)      Now you should be viewing a larger version of the logo image, but notice how you cannot just right-click and select ‘Save Image as’ in your browser.
To get around this dilemma, you will have to use one of two methods (assuming your are running Windows), both of which are described below.

Part II: Saving the Logo

Method 1: Using the Windows Snipping Tool (Windows Vista, Windows 7)

If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, you have access to a neat tool called the Snipping tool. You can access this program through the start menu or quick launch bar in Vista, or directly on your Start bar in Windows 7 (Look for the icon below).

This tool enables you to quickly take a screenshot of a portion of your screen, to be saved as an image on your PC.

1)      Make sure your web browser (with the logo open) is visible and run the Snippin g tool.
Your entire screen should fade out and you will see a box appear in the upper-right corner of your screen (your arrow mouse cursor will also turn into a cross-hair cursor).

2)      Position your cursor at the top-left corner of the logo, click and hold down the left button, and drag the cursor down to the bottom-right corner of the logo. Now let go of the left mouse button (this may take more than one try to make sure you capture the entire logo).

3)      Your selection (the logo) will now open in a new window. Click ‘File > Save As…’ (or the purple floppy disk icon) to save the logo image somewhere on your PC. Be sure the save as a .JPG file or .GIF file, as these are the only file types allowed for upload on sticviews.

4)      You are now ready to move on to Part III: Uploading to Sticviews

Method 2: Using the ‘Print Screen’ keyboard button

Although the Windows Snipping tool is the simplest way to save a logo image from sportslogos.net, the ‘Print Screen’ button on your keyboard (sometimes PrtScn) will work as well, with a few extra steps. This key is usually right next to the Scroll Lock button, on the top right half of your keyboard.

1)      Make sure your browser window (with the logo) is visible and click the Print Screen button on your keyboard.

2)      Open any image editor of your choice (Paint,Photoshop, etc.) and press CTRL + V to paste the image (or right-click and select ‘Paste’). You will notice that not only is the logo there, but also everything that was displayed on your screen.

3)      Crop the image down to just the logo (process varies depending on image editor used).

4)      Save the image somewhere on your PC (Be sure the save as a .JPG file or .GIF file, as these are the only file types allowed for upload on sticviews), and move on to Part III: Uploading to Sticviews

Part III: Uploading to Sticviews

Once you have the logo saved on your PC, the rest of the process is fairly straightforward to upload onto sticviews.

1)      Go to the sticviews image upload page (http://app.sticviews.com/startuploadimage.aspx)

2)      Click ‘Choose File’ and find the logo image that you just saved on your computer. Click ‘Open’ to load the image.

3)      Agree to the conditions by checking the box, and click ‘Upload’.
Once the image details and screen shot appear, click ‘Continue’.

4)      You will now be taken into the Sticviews designer with your image. Here, you can add any text you desire (or add other images), finalize your design, and complete the checkout process.

Congratulations! You have now created your very own custom College skin or decal. Be creative and design one for anything!

Upload your own Warhammer River Elf Mouse Art!

If you’re an MMO fan, use the game’s photo tool or “Prnt Scrn” button on your keyboard to snap a shot of your favorite moment or achievement and turn that into a skin!  Just upload the image to our website via sticviews creation webpage and you’re complete!   You can also add text to the image of the skin, possibly creating dialogue for any characters that may be in your shot.   The skins also protect the surface from any scratches.  You could even create your own vintage style shirt, with an image of Mario, asteroids, Zelda, or Pacman!

Our products are heat resistant so they can withstand any of your devices.  The stickers don’t produce any residue or surface damage.  They are created with a low-tact adhesive, so they can be safely removed whenever you want to change the skin!

Place the stickers right on your Xbox 360, Play Station 3, or even your iPad to personalize your gaming device. Other customers have placed stickers of Master Chief from the Microsoft Halo series of games on doors, walls, and tiles with sizes varying from a few inches to six feet! Your imagination is the only limit to what gamer art skins and stickers you can create at sticviews!

Author: Damon Cramer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-A-RPrxE-U

Let’s face it… Everyone could use some extra money, why not make some using custom decals and laptop skins? Whether you own a business that is seeking a new revenue stream or you’re a freelancer working at home looking for a little residual income, earning more money is always a welcome idea.

If you have previously tried to sell art online without success, then you are now in luck because sticviews has recently announced a new way for any business, creative professional, or freelancer to provide digital content on customized products to sell from an existing website.

While traditional wall art may not be flying off the shelves, the personalization market is experiencing immense growth. Just look at the success of Zazzle and SkinIt for proof. Many people do not just want to buy a standard case for their cell phone, but rather a custom skin with their own words and photos. Everyone wants something unique, and sticviews products offer just that. Now, you can make more money online, providing popular custom products to your customers or clients, as well.

Perfect for those with a busy lifestyle and little extra time, sticviews takes care of all aspects of producing and shipping product orders that come in from our partner companies. Once your website is set up to take orders and communicate with our printing platform API (or Application Programming Interface), the process requires no constant monitoring or further action on your end. This truly is a turn-key solution where sticviews takes care of all aspects of the production process.

For instance, let’s say a photographer decides to utilize the sticviews platform to offer her customers a way to order photos (from their recent photo shoot) on custom skins and decals. After integrating her website with our API, customer orders start rolling in. The customer chooses their desired product (possibly a laptop skin or wall decal), desired image, and desired size. The order is then sent straight to sticviews (through the API), where it will be printed, packaged, and shipped to the customer under the photographer’s brand. The photographer never has to perform any additional work, and the customer never has to know that sticviews was involved.

Talk about a simple way to sell art online.

Even better, our platform is not just beneficial to photographers, but to nearly any type of business that may have digital content. Other ideal business uses include (but are not limited to):

·         t-shirt companies to sell decals and skins and stickers

·         décor companies to make custom furniture skins

·         video game developers to sell in-game snap shots as products

·         high volume printers that want to offer personalized skins to their customers

Could you benefit from such a simple printing platform? If so, signing up is as simple as requesting more information.

Questions about how you can sell your art online? Feel free to contact us at contactus@sticviews.com

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdpm4KtSdqk

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdpm4KtSdqk

Sticviews custom laptop skins offer a great way to showcase your brand while:

• speaking at conferences
• attending tradeshow events
• presenting at corporate meetings
• presenting to current and potential clients

How could your business use sticviews?  We’d love to hear your ideas.

Custom Laptop Skins and Laptop Stickers for Your Business

Laptop skins are a great way to brand your company computers at an affordable price.  Nowadays, everyone has a laptop and it’s safer to make sure your company computers are branded with your name or logo so you know what laptops are supposed to be in your office.  Using laptop skins for your company computers offers great support for IT security, and it’s an easy way to monitor the flow of computers in your office.

Brighton District Library uses Sticviews laptop skins to keep track of which laptops they have checked out to patrons and to be able to quickly distinguish which laptops are theirs throughout the library.

The great thing about sticviews laptop skins is that you get to pick the size and shape of your laptop skin.  Most printing companies provide templates for you to choose from, but sticviews allows you to be in control of how large or small your laptop skin is going to be to fit on your personal laptop.  Whether you have a Macbook Pro or a Dell, sticviews laptop skins will work great! Cathe, from Just Something I Made, promoted her blog at the Blissdom conference with a custom laptop skin decal for her Macbook.

Sticviews offers discounts on bulk orders, so the more laptop skins you buy the better deal you get.  The great thing about sticviews is whether you buy one laptop skin or a hundred laptop skins you will get them at an affordable price.  Head over to our request a quote page to get a quote for your company’s laptop skins.

How would you use sticviews to promote your business?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdpm4KtSdqk

So, you’ve started a blog or a business and you’re building a following -- now what?  Now is the time to start really learning from the experts.  Tradeshows and conferences are a great way to meet other entrepreneurs in your business area and learn from the best in the industry.  For example, conferences such as Blissdom and BlogHer are for the women bloggers, SxSW for music, film and interactive, Blog World Expo for all bloggers, and many more tradeshows are great opportunities to learn from others.  Sticviews is sponsoring Amy Locurto and Angie Arthur of I Heart Faces for the Blissdom conference this February, and we wanted to pass along some useful hints for being prepared to attend your conference.

1. Business Cards – We just got some really awesome business cards from moo.com and we’re really excited to get them shipped in. Hopefully we’ll have them in time for the next Social Media Club Dallas event with Chris Brogan on the 21^st!  Business cards are a great way to give your contact information to people you meet and helps you follow up with people after the conference is over.  You can always go with innovative creative designs like the ones on Web Designer Depot.  TIP: Make sure to put your social network contact information on your cards (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) -- many people forget! And you could always be creative. Amy Locurto handed out her business cards with a little Valentine’s Day sticker gift -- no one threw those away!
   
   

   

2. Create a list before you go of questions you’d like answered or specific people you want to seek out. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to talk to someone who has more experience in particular areas that could really be of benefit to you and your website.  TIP: You can tweet about your questions too!  If you don’t have a smart phone or a laptop for the weekend I recommend you borrowing one for the weekend.
3. Laptop skins – If you are a known blogger, or a beginner, getting a laptop skin with your blog name or banner on it really helps people put a face to the name of your blog. What a great way to promote your blog through technology.  Angie and Amy from I Heart Faces received their laptop skins from sticviews. Remember…it’s hard to recognize faces, but it helps when people can recognize your blog banner or twitter profile photo.  Amy Locurto recommends putting your blog banner and your Twitter photo on the laptop skin works great.
4. iPhone skins – Do you have an iPhone or another smart phone? You can get custom decals to fit on the back of your phone (see below) to also promote your blog.
   
5. T-shirts – This is always a fun thing to have around. Another great way to make your brand known while walking around a conference. Nomee handed out free t-shirts at the Twestival event last year -- great way to build awareness and recognition of your brand.
   
6. Camera – You never know who you are going to meet at the conference, and it’s a great way to showcase things you saw when you blog about your experience.
7. Do some research on the presenters of the conference. It’s good to come in well prepared to soak up the knowledge they have to offer without having to figure out who the people are before hand.
8. Mints or gum – you are going to be doing a lot of talking, and you should pay the favor to your neighbor!

There are always lists on the conference sites of extra things to bring, but this list is pretty comprehensive of things you need to bring!  Is there something you won’t go to a conference without?  Let us know.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX5WS5JpODk

Sonya here giving an update and ideas for sticviews! I’ve been busy managing the print production here at sticviews, but I wanted to give a quick update on some adorable laptop skin orders we’ve been getting. On sticviews.com, you can upload any photo and create your own custom sticky print -- whether it’s a custom laptop skin, car decal, wall decal, or a window decal. What better way to personalize your home than with photos of your cute pet?

Our custom laptop skins are our most popular product because they’re the most affordable custom skins on the market. Most are about $10. All of the images below are orders by real sticviews customers, except the kitten laptop (I guess we have a lot of dog lovers!).

Add your dogs' names with the sticviews text editor

Make a collage of your favorite photos for your custom laptop skin

Kitten photo by Flickr user mathias-erhart

Sad puppy dog eyes! Upload any photo for your personalized laptop skin

Hamsters are pets, too! Create your own custom iPhone sticker for $1

Create your own custom wall art with your pet photos. The wall decals shown here are circles on white stic.

I hope these give you some ideas to start creating your own custom decals!

Happy stic’in,
Sonya

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS_PQ4jt3vY

Here’s a quick overview of what we do to process orders.  After we prepare the image files for print, we send them to our printer to print on white vinyl, clear vinyl, and cloth stic.

Christmas Custom Decals Printing Galore with Car Decals and Laptop Skins!

Next is the cutting stage.  We have several options for the shapes of decals (rectangle, rounded rectangle, circle, and semi-circle).  Our cutter is really fast and cuts the images very precise!  (I really like the Corvette laptop skin below.) People have been utilizing some awesome designs that are featured in the sticviews gallery, and some have even uploaded their own unique designs.

The last stage is packaging.  Everyone gets a few free samples (a stained glass sticker, a holiday decal, and a cloth stic shirt sticker) and installation tips.  I love the zebra laptop skin, doesn’t it look great?  I’m thinking about sticking my desk with zebra tomorrow!!

So there you a have it -- the custom decal orders are on their way via UPS to the Santa’s across the US!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Keep sticin!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX5WS5JpODk

As always, sticviews custom decals and skins are easy to apply and come off clean. They don’t leave any gummy residue, so they’re great if you want a mess free project or craft, and they’re perfect for temporary decorating (i.e. for Halloween or Christmas).

sticviews was recently featured on some awesome blogs like LivingLocurto.com and HookedOnHouses.net. These blogs are great for all kinds of creative inspiration. I’ve discovered some great ideas for seasonal decor, personalized gifts, interior decorating, and party planning. One of my favorite resources is Amy Locurto’s Free Downloads page, where she links to different websites where you can download free graphics and printables. I wanted to share some of my favorites from her site and others because all of these could be used to print your own custom sticker labels and posters if you simply upload them to sticviews.com!

Convert these free PDF’s to JPEG files, crop the image to the label(s) you want, and upload it to sticviews.com -- add in your own custom text using our text editor in Step 3.

1. 8 Free Halloween Craft Printables

Amy Locurto created these free Halloween graphics for download on ReadersDigest.com, and they would make perfect sticker labels for your Halloween party. In fact, we printed a table cover with Amy’s spider design for her Halloween party:

>

These coffee cup sleeves are such a clever idea! Stick them on coffee cups when you serve hot apple cider, hot chocolate, or coffee at your party. Download here.

2. Christmas Tags from LivingLocurto.com

Amy Locurto also created some free Christmas Tags for you to label your Christmas gifts and ornaments. Personalize your gifts by printing these adorable Christmas tags on sticviews and sticin’em wherever you want!

3. Wraparound Mailing Labels

iDiY has fantastic links to free downloads. I loved these beautiful envelope wraparounds from A Very Cholocate Wedding. There several different designs to choose from:

4. Free Vintage Frame Organizing Labels

These organizing sticker labels from JustSomethingImade.blogspot.com could be used for so many things -- personalized gift labels, mini photo frames, place cards for seating at wedding, etc.

5. Canning Label Template from Merriment Design

I loved the colors and textures of these canning sticker labels from MerrimentDesign.com -- they would be great printed on our cloth stic material because that material has a fabric texture.

6. Sweet Treat Favor Tin Sticker Labels

InspiredBride.net provides this great do-it-yourself tutorial for making your own custom candy tins as party favors:

These are all great resources for free images to upload and print to sticviews.com, but of course, you can always design your own custom stickers with our free graphics and patterns in our Step 2 gallery and our text editor in Step 3. I hope you’re inspired to start a fun new project with these free downloads for custom sticker printing!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX5WS5JpODk