Using Family Crests for Sublimated Products

Every Christmas I have to create gifts for my in-laws, my immediate family and my extended family, not to mention my work buddies. Throughout the twenty two years I have done this, a variety of options have become clear. I can either make a loong list and try to make or buy individual items or I can give everyone pretty much the same thing and distribute accordingly.

Back in the day, I started out painting on tee shirts with acrylic paint and "puff" paint, accented with rhinestones. I used stencils I created from mylar and ended up working way into the wee hours making every shirt a fabulous unique creation. Very often the recipients had no idea how much work went into these items and I never saw them worn nor did I feel that my efforts were appreciated.

Then I was overseas for seven years and used ebay to mail home various gifts for a select list of family and friends. Often some people did not even let me know they had received the gifts, much less how they enjoyed them. I will have to do a blog on poor manners, but my main point today is that I finally found a popular gift idea that not only seems to be easy to do, but is so well liked, apparently, that I have people who were not on my gift list calling me to offer to pay me to make them one too.

My secret: Family Crests (aka Coat of Arms)! Luckily, both my family (Coker) and my husband's (McMullen) both have these crests, and I have a great time using the same images on a variety of gift items. The first ones I made were tee shirts for my husband's family. Here's what I did:

First, I listed all the sizes I needed, then purchased Vapor shirts, which are all great polyester moisture wicking shirts. The Basic line is just as comfortable and mimics cotton very well. The link provided takes you to the company I found with the lowest pricing around.

Then I found the McMullen family crest online. I actually found several and had to consult other family members until I located the one that everyone agreed was the "correct" one. It's rather boring, just a shield with a bloody hand holding a sword and three red crescents. So, back to Google images where I found an elaborate one with two stags and a wolf (by the way, ask Images for the "Large" images, they reproduce better). I used my handy (and inexpensive) PhotoShop Elements to dub in the original shield. Then I added "McMullen Clan" across the bottom and on the lower right I added text that named the relatives who had passed away and on the left I personalized each shirt with the name of the intended recipient. The shirts were a real hit and I still get nice reactions when I wear mine.

Last year I took the smaller version of the shield and put it on small sterling silver charms and that is the one that everyone really wants, my husband has cousins he hardly ever hears from calling him up to see how he can get one.

Next year, I am planning to make plaques, as I found some shield shaped ones by Unisub that are fabulous. They come in three sizes, so I can make the best one for my mother-in-law and use the smallest ones for the kids and medium for the other adults.

I'm looking into selling them on ebay, offering to provide them with any family crest, so I will let you know how that works out, as well as post some pictures of my creations.