Pediatric Brain Cancer Awareness Shirt

March is Brain Cancer or Brain Tumor Awareness Month. I wanted to come up with a shirt to bring awareness, but it was hard. Cancer is hard. It's ugly but it brings out the beauty in the people and their family who are fighting this horrid disease.

We never had to personally deal with brain cancer. We dealt with pediatric leukemia (our 11-year-old fought it three times and survived), so we have lots of friends who have had to deal with brain cancer over the years.

Gray is the color for brain cancer (makes sense with brain tissue doesn't it?) and gold or yellow is the color for pediatric cancers. Those two colors don't seem to go well together, but I think I've found a way.

Pediatric Brain Cancer Awareness T-Shirt

The tree and the heart at its roots are in gray. There is a woman (mom) on the side in gold/yellow with a grey ribbon around her neck. Anyone who has dealt with pediatric cancer knows that mom is right there, the entire time fighting, wishing she could take away the pain and sickness. I imagine this is the way with all cancers but more so with pediatric.

I took more color liberties on the top of the tree. The ribbons are gray and gold, but the hearts are different colors. I made them that way for hope, a tree blooming with rainbow colored hearts of hope and love. If you go on the pediatric cancer floor in the children's hospital, it's a strange mix of sadness and joy. Pediatric cancer patients know how to live. They may be sick, but they have learned how to enjoy the day, no matter what's coming. It's a humbling experience. You can't help but to be changed when you visit.

Tees for Mother's Day

So I know that Mother's Day is a week away, so I wanted to share a new line of shirts I created for moms and grandmothers. Plus it's on Amazon, so if you have Prime you can get them in two days after they print the shirts.

I had a lot of trouble coming up with designs for Mother's Day. Why? First of all, Mother's Day is one day a year. Who wants to have a shirt sitting in their dresser they can only wear one day a year? It takes up precious space. There isn't a Mother's Day season like Christmas or Halloween where you can get a month out of the shirt. Second, most of my shirt designs or sayings seemed very grandmother-y. They were dated. I needed something more modern and not so sentimental. I designed a few mock ups but I realized that I didn't want to wear them.

After many attempts, I decided on a text-only design. No pictures or graphics. It took a while but I found the correct fonts and saying. It's a shirt I would wear. Well the mom version. I also made versions for grandmas and different nicknames for moms and grandmothers. Like Mimi, Nana, Oma...you get the picture. Plus you or your mom or grandma can wear the tee all year.

Blessed to be Called Mom

This one also comes in White

 Blessed to be Called Nana

Blessed to be Called Mommy

Hopefully you like it as much as I do. They come in three different colors - Black, purple, and dark heather (a gray color). The print is turquoise. I chose it over white (although the basic mom version also comes in white) because it looked more trendy and less generic. To find all the different versions of the shirt, click on a listing and then click on the brand name "Blessed to be Called Mom" in blue at the top.

Since Mother's Day is coming up, I priced them a little cheaper than I normally would (helps with the budget). I'll keep them at the $14.99 price point at least until Mother's Day. Yeah a Sale!!  Happy Shopping!!

See You Later Alligator T-Shirt

Do young kids still say "See you later Alligator?" I know mine do. But then again, my kids are those homeschool "weirdos." We said it all the time when I was a kid, so when someone says "See you later allligator," I can't help but to respond with "After while Crocodile." It's ingrained in me. Like Pavlov's dog I just can't help myself.

Well, that response was the inspiration for my next few shirts. I designed these with Gimp, a free graphic design program comparable to Photoshop. Well others say it's comparable. I have never used Photoshop so I'm just repeating what others say. 

Nevertheless, I designed three shirts on that theme with an alligator, a crocodile, and a raccoon. I chose cute animals instead of realistic or scary ones. I wanted to embrace the lighthearted reverie so often associated with childhood memories. These tees are fun for adults and kids. What do you think?

See You Later Alligator T-Shirt

After While Crocodile T-Shirt

See You Soon Raccoon T-Shirt

These tees come in basic colors - black, navy, red, asphalt. I can make a listing with other colors like pink, purple, green, yellow if you would like. 

Why I'm Here and my first shirt.

Why do I have this blog? Perhaps the simplest answer would be to make money. I'm trying to find new ways to promote my products. I've been a t-shirt designer for less than year, and I'm trying to get my name out there. It's hard here on the internet to get noticed. Everybody's screaming. I tried to think of ways to covertly market my products. But that's not working because I feel so dishonest. So here I am, being honest with you. My name is Stephanie Craig, and I make t-shirts. I would love for you to buy them.

I only took art for two weeks in high school. It didn't work out in my schedule. My college prep load didn't leave me much wiggle room. I wanted to take the classes in college but it didn't go with my career track. So here I am, in my 30s and finally learning art and graphic design. Finally doing what I enjoy doing rather than what a smart gal like me should be doing with my life.

I  have probably made over 100 designs since last August, but some were bad. Really bad. They didn't sell, and I took them down to make room for newer, more attractive designs. It's hard to believe how much I've improved in that small amount of time. For now, I sell my products on Amazon, Teespring, and RedBubble. Amazon is my favorite since it  has a larger audience. It's hard to get noticed on that site, but very exciting when I do.

For my first post, I want so show you one of my first shirts, one which didn't sell. I took it down, redesigned it, tried to sell it again but didn't like it still, so I took it down again and redesigned it.

This design was one of my first. I was caught up in Olympic Fever last August and loved the Final Five. Who didn't love Simone, Aly, Gabby, Laurie, or Madison? They were amazing, awesome, Flipping Awesome!! So I decided to make my fandom into a gymnastics shirt. I was very proud of it at the time, but it didn't sell any.

Now I have a similar women's gymnastics Flippin Awesome shirt for sale. You can see they are similar but will probably like this one better.

There are now more colors available like pink and purple instead of the basic colors to choose from. I like the image of the girl doing a back handspring on the balance beam much better than a split handstand. I also like the font better and like  how the "N" in flippin extends to the girls leg. I haven't sold any yet, but I'm more hopeful with this new design.

So this is what you'll get from me. A design and a little bit of background information on the t-shirt. I will post more shirts and if you have something you want to see, please tell me. I would love to design new ideas. 

Leave a comment below if you have a shirt you would like for me to try. I'm still a newbie designer, but I love new challenges.