zazzle – Page 3

Say howdy to fall in Texas

Posted on August 6, 2020 by ssdp0d

Ok – if you don’t live in Texas, you may not realize that the big joke here is that we basically just have four variations of summer rather than the normal seasons everyone else has.

And that’s true for much of the state. If you live in the panhandle, you basically get summer and winter since it will snow there. But the rest of us get full on summer and summer lite. You can see why we also get fairly obsessed with fall things like pumpkin spice. Gotta get it somewhere!!!

Still, there is occasionally something you might call fall as the trees turn to orange and gold, and we spend Friday nights on the football field. I have a couple of designs celebrating the autumn season just here in Texas.

One is the howdy fall shown above, with the state shape filling in for the “A” in fall. Rust, yellow, orange and green leaves and dots add color. The other is a dramatic orange plaid state with the words “Fall in love with Texas”. As if you need to be told to do that!!!

Fall Texas Designs

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Electoral college maps to track the 2020 election

Posted on August 4, 2020 by ssdp0d

I was in third grade in 1980 when Jimmy Carter (from my then-state of Georgia) was running against Ronald Reagan.

Third grade was when we did Georgia history and all things Georgia, which that year included the presidential election. And probably way earlier than most kids ever get – an education in the electoral college.

My teacher sent each of us home with our own map of the United States so we could watch the returns that night and color in the states to reflect the winner. (This probably worked out OK for us in that we really only needed to stay up long enough to color Georgia. There is no way I was up late enough to get any of the west coast states, especially since things moved much slower in the days before 24-hour news.)

I’ve had the idea of recreating the map, both for budding politicos like my niece as well as classroom use. I have the states listed with their current electoral college counts (they’ll change by 2024 with the census) and a place for tracking and totaling. I listed democrats as blue and republicans with red just for standardization. Should there ever be a state that actually was claimed by one of the minor parties, you’re on your own to pick a color. 🙂

I have three different set-ups of the map, again mostly with classrooms in mind. But if your kids aren’t going back to the classroom this fall, the poster option might work well for you at home as well. You can choose from small to really big sizes on the poster.

There are also two paper pads – again thinking in terms of a sheet for each kid in a class – one with 25 larger 12″x18″ pages and the other with 40 letter size sheets.

Electoral College Maps To Color

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Colorful paw print tattoos

Posted on August 3, 2020 by ssdp0d

This particular design is so very basic, but that’s also part of what makes it so perfect!

It’s a sheet of temporary tattoos of solid colored paw prints. They’re great for a pet event or if your school mascot is a cat (tiger, lion, wildcat, bobcat, panther, cougar) or canine (bulldog, wolf, greyhound, husky, terrier). You could probably be creative in interpreting other animals that the prints might work for.

I have each sheet set up with an assortment of tattoos. The six large paws are approximately 2″ in size, the eight medium 1.5″ and the 16 small 1″. They come in green, purple, burnt orange, red, blue, orange, black and maroon, as well as a black paw print version. And except for the last, you can go into the design tool at Zazzle to change the colors and even rescale the sizes if you like. (Note that I don’t have lighter colors like yellow, gold or silver because those won’t show up well as a tattoo. Gotta stick with the darker/bolder shades.)

The sheets are about letter size and the non-colored area will be clear so your skin shows through. You’ll have to cut apart each of the tattoos. They’re designed to stay on for a few days and wipe off with baby oil.

Paw Print Temporary Tattoos

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Yes! I do custom designs

Posted on August 2, 2020 by ssdp0d

I occasionally get the question over on Zazzle about whether I can change up a design or help a customer do it themselves.

Most of the time, this just involves the design being rendered in a different set of colors than I chose (although, a lot of my designs are easy to customize yourself as far as colors go) or some help rearranging the design elements to better fit the customer’s needs.

But occasionally, I do a completely custom item because … well, there just isn’t any thing out there to be found!

Such was the case with this coffee mug. You can get designs like this all over the place, but invariably, they only involve the 50 states. And in this case, the daughter had been accepted to attend college in Abu Dhabi, which is a heck of a distance from Texas!!

So we wanted to create a similar design but in their favorite colors and with Texas and the UAE as the locations. It was a rewarding item to work on and made a fabulous birthday present for mom!

As a general rule, most of my really custom work would involve something like this, where we’re adjusting an existing concept to fit your specific needs. I’m not an artist, so there are limits to how much I can do.

And yes – there is a charge involved. Simple color alterations at Zazzle are generally done without a charge, but anything that starts to involve time or back and forth will have a fee. Just ask!

Contact Me

Family Reunion Shirts for All

Posted on July 30, 2020 by ssdp0d

If you’re still getting together for a family reunion this year, don’t forget to mark the occasion with a shirt for everyone!

I recently started designing invitations for family reunions and to coordinate with those, I have a line of t-shirts for the whole family.

Shirts are a great way to show yourself as a group if you’re at a park or campground, as well as just to remember the occasion. And since my shirts allow for the front to be customized with the name, you also can forego those annoying nametags!

The family reunion designs

I have three basic designs at the moment. The two shown here at the top are big and bold and involve trees. They come in bright standard colors such as red, blue, green, orange and purple. You can personalize with your name and the year as well individual family member names.

The other design I have features a piece of line art of a camping site in two colors. The art itself can be custom colored if you’d like (just go into the customizer) or you can choose from the muted shades I have already picked out. This design is already on other items such as plates and banners to help make your event special.

Family Reunion Shirts

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Baylor Bears baby shower invitations

Posted on July 25, 2020 by ssdp0d

Sic ‘Em!! There’s a new baby Bear on the way!

So, of course, there has to be a baby shower and that shower has got to be Baylor themed, right?

Introducing the perfect invites for such a shower. They incorporate the official BU colors of green and yellow, along with a cute little bear. The little girl version has a yellow bow on the top of her head, while the little boy version sports a green bowtie.

I have a flat card version that goes in an envelope – great if you plan to include enclosure cards or wishes for the baby. Above is the front side of the postcard version, with the backside shown here.

Both types of invites have room for the party details, names of the shower hosts, RSVP information and registry details.

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TCU Horned Frog baby shower invitations

Posted on July 23, 2020 by ssdp0d

Well – Riff, Ram, Bah, Zoo! There’s a new baby Horned Frog on the way!

So, of course, there has to be a baby shower and that shower has got to be Texas Christian University themed, right?

Introducing the perfect invites for such a shower. They incorporate the official TCU colors of purple and gray, along with a cute little baby horned frog (which was really hard to draw, let me tell you!). The little girl version has a purple bow on the top of her head, while the baby boy version sports a purple bowtie.

I have a flat card version that goes in an envelope – great if you plan to include enclosure cards or wishes for the baby. Above is the front side of the postcard version, with the backside shown here.

Both types of baby shower invites have room for the party details, names of the shower hosts, RSVP information and registry details.

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Cute cartoon shark flip flops

Posted on July 22, 2020 by ssdp0d

Do, do, do, do – It’s Baby Shark swimming in across this design. Well, OK, not the actual Baby Shark. Just my rendition of a cute cartoon shark.

I came up with six different cute sharks in six different colors. And you can find them all on these adorable toddler flip flops. Just the thing this summer for your obsessed kid!

The sharks come in blue, orange and green as “boy” sharks and pink, purple and yellow for the “girl” sharks. Besides the color, the main difference is the girl sharks have lovely eyelashes. Keep that in mind as you’re picking for your child if you care about such things.

The shark is on a background of small blue fish, water and bubbles.

You can choose these same designs for the adult sizes so you can have a full family of sharks this summer!

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Texas puzzles

Posted on July 19, 2020 by ssdp0d

Puzzles have gotten huge this year. No wonder given the amount of time most people are having to kill at home since they aren’t going in to work.

Me? I love puzzles, but I’m still here working hard on designing things for you, so I haven’t had time to do any!

But I did have time to create some. Below you’ll find the Texas-related jigsaw puzzles I made over at Zazzle. All are photograph-based. I’ve got cowboy boots, yellow roses and even some Houston graffiti.

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School Colors Chevron Volleyball Fabric

Posted on July 14, 2020 by ssdp0d

I wouldn’t say I’m huge into surprises, but I definitely enjoy pleasant ones. Which is exactly where I am with the various fabrics I’ve designed. I never would have thought they would have taken off like they have.

Two things come to mind as to why. One is that I try to stick with things I don’t see often on fabric and the other being the surge of people making their own masks. (As a side note, I do have these patterns also on masks you can just buy, so you don’t have to be able to sew to enjoy a unique mask.)

One of the reasons I got into designing products again was that one of nieces was a volleyball player and it was next to impossible to find volleyball items that weren’t pink or ugly. Now, we know I’m not going to be doing ugly, so my additional focus was on making my designs in a wide range of school colors.

And given how many I have, my second surprise with fabric is how popular the purple is. Well, at least I was surprised until I thought about it and realized it’s probably not a school color you can easily find. Plus, it’s girly without being too girly, right?

Zazzle prints seven different fabric types – cotton, poplin, linen, etc. – and you can get them in swatch, fat quarter or by the yard (up to 10 continuous yards). They’re printed with colorfast pigment inks that won’t fade.

Below are the colors my chevron volleyball fabric comes in. Enjoy!

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