I finally decided to tackle it head-on. You know what I'm talking about. Photoshop.
Except, I still can't afford Photoshop. So, I guess you could say I decided to tackle it sideways-on. Sort of snuck up beside it and gave it a little nudge. Rang the Photoshop doorbell and ran around the corner to hide and laugh when it opened the door and I wasn't there ready to fork over my gajillions of dollars.
There's lots of stuff I want to do with Photoshop, but for a while now I've been admiring myself and my tag-line writing skills and wanted to make a coffee mug at cafepress.com using my tag-line "Relish the Velveteen. Revel in the Threadbare." Except I didn't have any programs that could do either PNG files or transparent backgrounds. So it wasn't happening for me.
Then I started getting comments on my Plain Jane Mom guest post, saying (jokingly) that I should make shirts using the post's title "My Label Maker Is Broken This Week" and my Photoshop-itch started bugging me again. And then I started getting actual real bona fide requests for the shirts. Wow! How much fun would that be... if. I. had. Photoshop.
Which I don't. Did I mention that? Did I mention it costs a million dollars?
So I started complaining to everyone. Anyone that would listen. And as it turns out, I was complaining to all the right people. First of all, the Queen of Shake-Shake offered to do the designs for me. Her Highness Herself, deigning to command her computer to spit out designs for me! Yea! I just hope she doesn't mind control freaks who obsess over the details...
Then Domestic Chicky offered to help. She of the magic fingers that are currently wielding the sewing needle on the much-anticipated apron project for my totally empty eBay store I've been mentioning since February or March. Somewhere in there, she became a whiz at computer graphics. Damn. I can't sew a button or CGI a button, so, well, damn.
Unfortunately, I need her to stop talking aprons and start mailing aprons, so she pointed me in the direction of a non-Photoshop program that could do what I wanted. One that doesn't cost a spajillion dollars. One that comes with a free trial and everything. One that has video tutorials aimed at kindergartners, apparently. Because I don't have time for this crap.
And it worked. It totally worked. I downloaded the program yesterday afternoon, and a few hours later, I had my shirt designs! Fortunately for me, cafepress gives you the exact DPI and resolution (is that the same thing?) and all that other mysterious stuff, so all I had to do was set up my "work space" and plug in my text. Viola! I'm a pseudo-Photoshop-ish wiz!!!
Soooooo, without further ado, I introduce to you my newest online store:
Okay, I only have two or three designs right now, but I have lots of options for those designs, and who doesn't like choices?
And you know what? If the only people that buy anything are me and the Queen... I'll still be damn happy with myself for finally tackling this computer graphics-ish thing. Now I can make a coffee mug for every occasion! Shirts with every bit o' blather I spew! Woo hoo!
By the way, while you are in the shopping mood, here are a couple of other blogging fashion designers for the blogging set:
By the way, if you are in more of a thinkin' mood than a shopping mood, do check out Heather's post on the pros and cons of breaking your label maker when it comes to your children. I wanted to talk about that more, but have blogged fifteen ways to Sunday away from the real work I'm supposed to be doing today. Break your label maker, indeed.
Writer. Mother.
