Shortly after I retired, I discovered zazzle.com, one of several places where you can create custom designs on a variety of items. Though I’ve made t-shirt, a Louie the ginger cat calendar, postage stamp, poster, Christmas card, and business card designs, many just for my use, my favorites are coffee mugs.
Without a doubt, my cat coffee mug designs are my favorites since, well, my cats are great subjects, starting with the late Louie the ginger cat. My favorite Louie mug features this image, a combination of my photo and New Zealand friend Peter Studt’s droll super hero outfit painted on it.
That image made a great poster, too, which hangs over the settee:
Thanks to Andy, Louie the Ginger Cat as Captain Me-Ow is tilted in his frame! To live with cats is to accept a certain level of chaos and destruction!
There were others; there will be more.
Today, I added these two to my mug designs:
I guess it is obvious why I might like these two designs for mugs! Of course, since today is the last day of a 40% off sale on mugs, I decided I needed two of each design. I have the design in 15 ounce mugs, but that is a lot more coffee than I want to drink at one sitting! I’ll use them for water or pencils, and the new, smaller mugs for coffee.
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I had a feeling it might appeal to you! Your blog looked, to me, like something that would translate well into just the sorts of items you mention above! Good luck with sales! I feel the quality of your photos and inspirational texts will be a hit on cards and other items! (Plus, it IS fun to create things on this site, isn’t it!?)
I just checked the store, and I think I need to make some room in my cabinets for something besides mugs with my cats’ photos on them! Well done! I’m glad you are doing posters as well because the quality of zazzle’s work is excellent plus you can get them framed or unframed. They are more like photo enlargements than posters printed on thin paper.
Very cool and I am going for an Ali Mug and maybe MollySue and Annabelle also. (my two old guinea pigs)
Yeah! I love those little sounds guinea pigs make! I can’t imagine how anyone actually eats such a sweet little creature, unless figuratively, as in “you are so blinking cute, I could just eat you up”!
Though the prices are a bit steep, the fun of having something with bearing an image of a favorite animal companion makes that unimportant.
Zazzle.com is great! Mom and Jamie got shirts there that say, “Don’t judge my Pitbull and I won’t judge your children” (howls of laughter)
Woo hoo! That’s a great line! Have they put your pretty face on a shirt or mug yet? You are such a pretty dog, I’d hope so! Or on a postage stamp.
Oh, thank you! I am on a mug, actually! But I’ll mention to Mom to make up some shirts 🙂
As pretty as you are, I suspect there are many photos of you in different activities. Maybe she’ll even make a calendar featuring you! The let you start at any month and year you want, as I recall, and it’s like having twelve (or fourteen- countin front and back covers) framable, well-printed photos in one package. I made one featuring my late cat Louie, a handsome ginger cat, and it is a wonderful souvenir of a beloved pet. Of course, you don’t have to die to be beloved…! 😉
What a great website and idea! I’ll have to check it out and get me a Cooper Mug! 😀
I LOVE your Louie, Andy, and Dougy mugs! 🙂 Ha, Louie as Captain Me-Ow the Super Hero, Dougy in his box, and Andy all relaxed and feeling free! 😀 Love the sunglasses! 😀
Ha! “Mugging”!!! 🙂
HUGS!!! 🙂
You’ll really appreciate having it, I guarantee! I’ve used them as gifts, ways to memorialize my late cat Louie, and as the best use of favorite photos of the boys. I thought I rememered Cooper, but returning to your blog, I am thinking of someone’s dog. Anyway, I look forward to finding out if Cooper’s a cat, dog, or something else. We both know Cooper will be perfect on a mug, and you’ll enjoy it for a long time!
Cooper is a dog. 🙂 He adopted me four years ago. He is not much bigger than Dougy and Andy. He is sweet and friendly and such a joy in my life! 🙂
Then Cooper should be just right for a nice mug or (these are fun to make…) a calendar if you have 12 digital photos of him! (That’s a great doggy name, incidentally. I’m a big advocate of giving animal companions dignified names, though I’m not dogmatic – sic! – about it
One can never have enough coffee mugs!
That’s for sure!
What a great website, had not heard of it yet. Thanks. Lovely creations too!
I can vouch for the quality of products and reproduction of digital photos. I can see how your posts would lend themselves to several of the products they offer.
Though I haven’t set up a website store for things I’ve made, it is possible. The best part: They take care of the manufacture and distribution, and you don’t have to maintain an inventory.
You can set profits from 10% to whatever you think your design on a product is worth, which is nice for non-profit organizations or small business people.
They collect the money and distribute the profits to their customers monthly if they are over a certain amount or you can apply the profits to your own orders, which I often do.
If you decide to make designs, I hope you offer them for sale through zazzle. Your posts suggest you are capable of coming up with great ones!
I already signed up and have started on some things. It is amazing as I had this on my to do list for a long time but just could not find a good way to do this! Will let you know how it goes via Anarette.com.
I’m looking forward to what you come up with! It’s actually kind of fun since there are so many options available and it requires minimal effort to get reasonably good at using it.
Indeed, it is fun. Thanks for showing it!
For all of the positive comments the mugs generated, I’m glad I mentioned it, too!