T-Shirts with Custom Ink

So in my last post about t-shirts I mentioned this awesome site that we created our t-shirts with...customink.com. I really adore this site, so I had to share it with you! It's so super easy to use and will definetly make your t-shirt buying experience soooo much easier. Plus the people at custom ink are amazing, super helpful and friendly. It seems like they really love their jobs and that definitely makes the t-shirt buying and designing process so much easier!

So I figured in this post I could walk you through the process of designing and buying your t-shirts with customink.com. Now...just so you know this isn't an advertisement .... this is simply a company I really like and wanted to share.

So the first thing you need to do is make sure you are on the right part of the website. If you are from the USA you can go to the regular site customink.com. If you are from Canada go to the Canadian section at http://www.customink.com/canada/. All other countries can go through customink.com.

So follow these steps to make beautiful, professional looking gear. You select the product and design it. Then the custom ink crew comes into the picture touches up anything, processes your order and sends it to you just the way you want it!

Click the orange 'get started' button and you will be taken to the product catalog. Here you can choose from a variety of products from t-shirts, to sweats, to hats, to other giveaway items. Click the product that you'd like to customize...for this sample I've chosen t-shirts.

Once you click on the product you'd like you will be directed to pick the type you'd like. In the t-shirt category you pick what kind of shirt you'd like. For camper shirts I'd go with Gildan because it's the cheapest but pick whichever kind you'd like. Once you click on the orange 'pick a colour' button you will be take to a place where you choose your colour.

Here, you will see all the colour options you can get in that t-shirt style. Notice that some of the colours are only available in orders of 6 or more shirts. Since you are creating a camp shirt this shouldn't be a problem. So go ahead pick your favourite colour - don't worry you can change this later if you change your mind.

After picking the colour you will be directed to the customink.com customizer section. Note: I'm not sure if it's actually called the customizer but I really like that word so I dub it that. Anywho, in the customizer you can add text, change the colour of the shirt, add images, add names, design the back, save, and get a quote. Honestly, it's super easy to use so don't get overwhelmed.

In the customizer (which I just realized is called the lab - but I still want to call it the customizer) you can do so many things. On the left hand side you will see the 'get started' section. I decided to start by adding some text.

Just enter the text you want on the shirt into the box and click 'update'. Now you can change the font, change the size, the text colour, shape and much more.

So once you find the font, colour, shape etc. that you'd like you can click the text and drag it to the perfect spot on the shirt. Yep, it's that's easy.

You can even rotate the text so it doesn't lie straight. This is a great effect to add some extra emphasis.

Now that you're done adding text you might want to add some images or pictures. Custom Ink has tons of pictures and images you can use. Search their huge inventory till you find something you like. Click the image you'd like and it will add it to your shirt. Then you can change the colour and size of it. Drag the image to where you want it on the shirt. Yep, it's that easy!

Now if you don't find any images on Custom Ink that you'd like or you have another image or camp logo that you'd like to add to your shirt you can always upload your own image. I love this function because then you can really make it your own. We did this with our shirts and they turned out great!

After uploading your image you're going to have to do colour selection. Try to pick the colours that are in your image. Don't worry if they aren't perfect...the custom ink crew will help you with that later. The reason you have to pick your colours is so that you can get a more accurate price quote later.

Upload as many pictures as you like, resize them, and drag them where you want them. Yep, it's that easy!

Then when you are done, in the bottom left click quote. Put in the number of shirts you'd like and what size and the customizer will generate a quote for you. Note: that it will provide the quote in a per shirt price and overall price. Also the more shirts you order the lower the price will be. Also note: this is just a quote...it might go up or down after the custom inkers look at it.

Custom Ink also has other cool functions. Like personalized names and numbers. What a cool idea for a baseball team or counsellor names or whatever else your heart desires.

You can also ask them to do half your design in a different colour t-shirt. we did this for our camp so that we could have the camper shirts in one colour and the counsellor shirts in another colour.

One of the other cool functions they have is design ideas. Yep! They have design ideas for a variety of different t-shirt reasons. Not so creative? Their design ideas are perfect for creating professional looking but super easy to make shirts. At the top of the screen just pick ideas and you will be taken to a design idea section where you can browse over a 100 something ideas (just made up that number...but there are a lot of ideas). Find the shirt you like...click on it...change the colour...change the camp name...change whatever your hear desires...or keep it the same...and you've got an awesome looking shirt in no time!

With such an easy website and customizer and design ideas, how can you go wrong? YOU CAN'T! So many of my friends and colleges have used this site and thought it was wonderful....try it out...it's free to fiddle around on...and when you find the shirt you love it's as easy as can be.

So my day camp directors...enjoy fiddling and let me know if you have any questions. I'll post pictures of our shirts as soon as they come. Ours are suppose to get here on Friday. Yay!

Toodle Do,

Ditzy Day Camp Director

Camp T-Shirts

So one thing I highly suggest you do for you day camp is to get t-shirts. Not only is it a good take away for the kids at the end of the week it's super helpful in other ways too!

T-Shirts are a great promotional tool. When kids wear them throughout the year (which they will - because they love camp so much) they'll tell their friends about camp and then their friends will want to come to camp and we all know word of mouth is the greatest promotional tool.

Camp shirts are also a protection thing. On off site trips shirts help you see all your campers easier and it helps them see you. You have no idea how crazy the zoo, the science center, the water park etc can be unless you've been there. And from one Ditzy Day Camp Director to another having shirts will make your life 100x easier.

Camp shirts also show the parents you care....it's a tangible way to see the money they pay for camp in action.

So how do you go about making these shirts? Well, I'm glad you asked! I've done camp shirts in three different ways. Although this post may be long, I hope it might be helpful in helping you get the best camp shirts ever!

1. So the cheapest and probably easiest way to have camp shirts if you have a small camp is iron ons. Go to Walmart or Staples or some office supply store and they probably have Iron On sheets. You create the design on your computer, print it off on the sheet, and then iron on the image to the shirt. Benefits: it's cheaper, easier, and completely in your control. Downfalls: it looks cheeper, it's a lot of work if you have a large camp (anything 20 plus), and the iron on's don't usually last as long.

2. So here is the second T-Shirt solution I've tried...find someone in your church or a friend who does graphic design and have them design the shirt, and then send it to one of the 1000 t-shirt companies out there to have them print them off. Now if you know someone who is a designer it will look amazing and they probably have photo shop and can do it in photo shop and save it like that - which is most likely the format the printers want it on. If you don't have experience and try to do it...it usually doesn't end up looking that professional and can take a lot of your time. Benefits: it looks better then iron ons, you have a designer who will hopefully do a good job, and you have a t-shirt company that makes them for you and they probably have more selection. Downfalls: If you don't have a designer this option is harder and you don't get to see what the shirt looks like until it's done.

3. And although both of the options above are great solutions this is by far the greatest solution I've found to the Camp T-Shirt dilemma.... customink.com. Custom ink is this great website/company where you design the t-shirts online on their custom designer, send it to them and they print it off. The outcome always looks great! Benefits: it looks great, it's super easy to use, they are dependable (myself and many of my friends have used it with great results), they are helpful and friendly, and you get to see the t-shirts before they come. Downfalls: I actually can't think of any. :)

So tomorrow I'll post a how to on customink.com/canada or customink.com.

Protection: Protect Your Kids

Whether you are a day camp, an overnight camp, a vbs, or you simply work with children it is incredibly important you protect your kids. Parents want to know they are sending their kids to a safe place where they know your volunteers and workers are screened individuals.

Doing police checks is important, but it's not enough! Your staff and volunteers need to be trained in reducing the risk of child abuse and how to adequately protect children.

The greatest resource I've found is Winning Kids. And yes I have an invested interest in them (because my mom is the President), but there really is nothing else out there that is as good as them.

Winning Kids does police checks and training in order to help you protect your kids, protect your workers, and bring peace of mind to the parents.

So on that note, I wanted to let you in on a promotion they have right now which could save you tons of money and help you protect your kids, your staff, your camp.

Right now they have a promotion for unlimited online abuse prevention training for $149 for one month and additional months for only $49. This is a huge savings! Usually these online trainings cost $25 per person. If you are planning on training more then 6 people you will be saving money for sure! Most camps, vbs, day camps, day cares have way more then 6 people ... I know we do. These online trainings are the perfect way to make sure your staff and volunteers are adequately trained to reduce the risk of child abuse. NOTE: This offer expires on June 3rd at 5pm...so hurry before it's too late!

Features:

- Unlimited access to on-line abuse training

-Addresses all key aspects of abuse prevention

- 30 days to complete the training

- In one sitting, the training takes approximately 2 hours

- Individual registration and long on for each volunteer or staff member

- Certificate issued upon successful completion of training *80% pass

- Notification sent to program leader upon successful completion

This is definitely a great resource to check into at www.winningkidsinc.ca or 1-877-455-35555.

Please note: This is not a paid advertisement. It is simply me trying to share a great resource with you!

Have a great day, I'm off to plan, plan, plan.

The Ditzy Day Camp Director