September, 2016 | Lou's Designs

Fun Christmas T-Shirts

Fun & Festive Christmas T-Shirts Do you enjoy a warm Christmas in a tropical area somewhere or in the Southern Hemisphere where Christmas occurs in the middle of summer? If so then you’ll be familiar with the idea of fun Christmas T-Shirts.

I was first introduced to the concept of a Christmas t-shirt when I was an adult and moved to the Southern Hemisphere. There are lots of different styles of Xmas shirts to choose from, but I do have a soft spot for the funny Christmas t-shirts myself.

Zazzle has a lot of these fun Christmas shirts to choose from, I have a collection of Christmas t-shirts that I’ve designed available here –

Christmas T-Shirts
by Louanne Cox

Here are my top 3 funny holiday shirts though –

Dreaming Of A Wine Christmas Funny T-Shirt ‘staching through the snow’ Funny Cchristmas T-Shirt Funny Retro Rum Man Christmas T-Shirt

Now those three aren’t my designs, but I think they’re perfect for the festive season.

If you live where Christmas is more likely to mean snow than a suntan then you’ll be happy to know that these funny festive designs are also available on sweatshirts and hoodies too!

Selection of fun Christmas t-shirts

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article – more information can be found on our disclosure page.

Beach Themed Coasters

If you love to use coasters for your drinks then I think you’ll fall in love with my selection of Beach Themed Coasters. These coasters are perfect for long, icy drinks in the summer especially outside enjoying the sun.

My beach themed coasters are all based on photographs that I took at – surprise, surprise – the beach! I have 3 available in my Beachcombing store –

Beach Theme Drink Coasters
by Louanne Cox

The first shell with the pinkish hue to it was photographed on Ohope Beach in New Zealand, the sand came out looking a lot darker in the photo than I remember it being, but I do love the pink hue in the sea shell.

The second coaster features a lifeguards hut on a beach at Mount Maunganui which is also in New Zealand. I love how in the photograph it looks like the waves are almost lapping at the feet of the hut, in reality just past the hut is a sharp drop and there’s more beach, although it was also high tide.

The shell in the third coaster has a sheen on it because it was still wet and was glistening under the sun. This photograph was taken at Wellington Point on the strip that leads out to King Island as the tide was going out. Wellington Point is in Australia.

I did have quite a few other beach theme drink coasters at one stage, but no one seemed interested in them so I’ve only kept the three that people seem to want to look at.

Although I haven’t designed any myself I do love the look of some of the vintage style beach themed drink coasters that you can get on Zazzle, here’s a few of my favorites –

Coasters Vintage Beach Flapper Purple suit Cloche Coasters Vintage Evening Beach Ball Flapper Cloche Baahamas Beach Vintage Stone Drinks Coaster Scenic Beach Stone Drinks Coaster

NOTE: If you purchase anything from one of these links I may receive a commission and perform a happy dance in my computer chair! Full details here.

Catherine Parr Greeting Card

When you’re creating a product using an image from the public domain how do you get it to stand out from the others? I usually upload the image to Photoshop and using the color dropper icon I simply pick a color from the image to use as a background or frame.

In my Images of History store I started off with Catherine of Aragon and one of her older sisters Juana. The next image I used was of Anne Boleyn and then I had to decide whether to stick with the rest of the ‘Spanish’ women or the other wives of Henry VIII. I decided to do Henry VIII’s six wives first.

When I found an image of Catherine Parr it was tall and not very wide so didn’t sit well on a greeting card. I picked a color from the skirt of her gown and put that as a background with the image over the top. That just made the image look flat and just ‘not right’.

I took a color from her kirtle and added that as a very thin frame around the image, but the background still didn’t seem right it needed texture.

I created an image of just the background color and used one of the filters on Photoshop to give the background some texture and then added the original image with it’s frame onto it.

This is the end result –

Catherine Parr Card by imagesofhistory

I think it turned out really good in the end, don’t you? If you know a fan of the Tudor image then you really should check out my store next time you want to send them a greeting card.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article – more information can be found on our disclosure page.

Funny Kiwi T-Shirts

I lived in New Zealand for 10 years and even ended up married to a Kiwi so we travel back regularly. I love some of the funny Kiwi sayings and so it came as no surprise to people who knew me when I decided I had to open up a Kiwi inspired shop on Zazzle – Kiwiana Shop.

I started this Zazzle store with Kiwi inspired t-shirts because Kiwis in general seem to love their t-shirts. No Worries Bro, Not Even Owl, Nek Minnit and other Kiwi sayings look great on tees.

The next ideas for t-shirts was place names and “add town” born style of t-shirts, but my personal favorite was yet to come.

I often find some of my most creative thoughts come to me in bed when I’m trying to sleep and the idea for this funny t-shirt was no exception. I was thinking of a Kiwi (bird) eating a Kiwi (fruit) and I thought to myself, “could you call that cannibalism” and started to giggle.

Here’s the result of that internal dialogue –

Kiwi Cannibalism Shirt

This funny t-shirt certainly isn’t my most popular Kiwi tee, but it’s my favorite and still brings a smile to my face when I see it.

Of course my Kiwiana Shop isn’t all about t-shirts as I’ve designed other products in it as well, but t-shirts is where this particular store started and it is the main product that I create for it. If there’s a Kiwi in your life you can find some cool gift ideas for them there.

Kiwi Cannibalism T-Shirts, just one funny Kiwi inspired tee.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article – more information can be found on our disclosure page.