So, back in 2010 when I started creating stores for Cafe Press and Zazzle,  I spend quite a bit of time creating/designing/figuring out how to change things enough so there was no blatant copyright violations that would get me busted (that last part is where a lot of creativity came in). I had…what was it… at least 5 themed stores and one catch-all store*. If you’re not familiar with Cafe Press or Zazzle, by “store” I mean “line of designs with a specific theme and a catchy name”. Catnip Habit was the catch-all one, I think it may even be still up. I picked that title brainstorming, and it sounded kinda cool. Also, my ‘tag’ was going to be different categories, because at first I didn’t know you could have more than one store. The one I was really going to town on was a store for horror fans. I couldn’t come up with a decent title (all I had were Horror Fan Heaven, Horror Fan Paradise, and Zombies Etc., but now I happen to have a name for the store that isn’t a stretch to tie into this blog.

I have a ton of art for those shirts, and rather than have them la around collecting dust and reminding me I failed at the whole t-shirt design venture (at least for now), thought I might share at least a couple dozen. Until a Horror Boom store at Zazzle and Cafe Press exists,* here’s a gallery of what I created for Ju-Onrelated shirts. A few still need some tweaks, but I had fun making it. This gallery also include photos I took for inspiration.

Oh, and turns out the WordPress theme I picked doesn’t have an option for a traditional gallery, so I’ll put gallery #1 …uh …riiiiiight  …HERE!

To be continued.

*I have no clue as to where I got that misinformation; possibly because I completely immersed myself in my new venture. The insane, time-consuming list of activities included but was not limited to: creating designs, collecting cool fonts, creating templates, jotting down every single idea I had for a design in a series of notebooks I kept within reach close to 24/7 (no matter how obscure the pop-culture reference was or how vague my idea was), finding clip art that was public domain/royalty-free, buying the affordable clip-art I needed to use, reading everything I could on Cafe Press VS Zazzle: tips, hints, advice, and pointers that probably could have comprised a “Cafe Press For Dummies” full-length book), taking a ton of photos I could use for inspiration and making original designs, and learning how to use layers and create transparencies in Photoshop Elements so my designs didn’t look like very amateurish shit on a plain white shirt.  The ‘Catnip’  also was a good catch-all to creative categories for; an early promo bragged that Catnip Habit had it all. Find Your Catnip Here! Catnip for Stand-up Comedy Fans, Catnip for English Majors and Writers, Catnip for Movie Geeks (which quickly branched out of control fast into about seven different themes), Catnip for R-A-M-O-N-E-S fans, Catnip for Horror Fans …you get the idea.

**whenever THAT is. I’ve learned that the quote from Deadwood –“You want to make God laugh, the best way is to announce your plans for the future” is a useful and helpful quote to remind yourself of on a regular basis  …Thanks, Al Sweragen!