Providing Creative Alternatives

I have enjoyed designing tee-shirts from time to time, and now I have found a way to offer them for sale, or just to get ones for Kelly and me, without having to pre-purchase inventory. Some of my designs are at the bottom of this page; click here or just scroll down.

There's a business on the internet called Cafepress. They have come up with what we think is a brilliant business idea. You can go there and for free create what they call a store, which you name whatever you want so long as it's not in use by someone else.

The name gives you a distinct web address for your items, and you can have as many stores as you want.

You can also have a store with many different images in it, for a modest monthly fee. I signed up for this, and like it much better than having a lot of small stores to keep track of... click here to see all our tshirt, mug, etc., designs.

There are discussion boards and other tools to help you sell your designs.

Cafepress offers a 30-day guarantee, and any returns go to them. They fill orders within just a few days. They handle all the credit card details and so on, and mail you checks for your share after the return time has passed. That guarantee impressed us, since many special-order places will offer NO guarantee!

They have moved beyond just custom tee shirts and mugs -- they now offer a wide variety of clothing, tote bags, posters, and more. They are also offering Publishing on Demand for books, audio and data CDs, and more.

Not only is this fun for people like us , who want to make their art, photography, or music available in this way, but it can be a terrific fundraiser for non-profits, church groups, etc.

How is the quality?

The tee-shirts are much nicer than any iron-ons. The printing technique, called sublimation, is said to produce an image that doesn't fade or crack with time -- we found that by the time my husband had worn the shirt out, the picture had faded a little. The colors on the mugs came out more muted than on the shirt, but still very attractive.

Cafepress sets the base price of the items, at an amount that they can make a profit within. When you, the storeowner, buy your own stuff, that's what you pay. (So if you want some inventory on hand, this is how you get it -- and if you buy 15 or more of something, there is a price break.)

Clicking on the box below will take you to Cafepress.

Who isn't this for?

If you have something like a sports team, where you know what sizes you need and will be getting quite a few at once, you will most likely get better prices (and no shipping) by using a local company. Even then, you could also post your design to Cafepress so people could get more shirts later. If you want a brightly colored shirt, I don't think they can do it.

Some specific information

Once you set up a store, you can get to the pages where the size and file specifications for the different items are.

If you have ever done iron-on transfers, you know that you have to flip your graphics file before printing out the file. NOT so here; what you see is what you get.

We're using Photoshop Elements to create our designs. That program is easier to learn that Photoshop, but any graphics program should do it.

Some of my designs so far

Going to our Cafepress store gives you easy access to all these designs.

Our Basenji Sunbeam, with a friend. I love how sweet and innocent Sunbeam looks here... not entirely the case!	This is a sunrise over the magnificent Sangre de Cristo mountains.
This is the view of the southern side of the earthbag house we built. Available in a mug.	This young llama (Lally, one of my all-time favorite animals) graces the top of our website, llamas-information.com. She's also available to grace your tees and mugs.