Create Your Own Custom T-Shirt on Zazzle + Coupon Codes

MAKE YOUR OWN ZAZZLE SHIRT IN 10 STEPS

You can make any kind of t-shirt you want on Zazzle. You can show off your own brand, make a clever design for your favorite hobby or design family reunion shirts for your entire family, complete with name and year. As long as you don't use trademarked items like Mickey Mouse (although, Disney does have a shop there if you're looking for Mickey), the possibilities are endless. But how do you design your own shirt on Zazzle?

Here's how:

1. Follow this link, where you will find a Zazzle shirt with a template already made for you. You'll find the lowest-priced white shirt with a red square on it that says "Replace This with Your Own Design!"

2. Make your design using Photoshop or a free program like GIMP. You can make your design square for the sake of simplicity (2000 x 2000 pixels or 3000 x 3000 pixels, at somewhere between 200 and 300 ppi works well), but the available design space is actually a little more rectangular. A 2000 x 1720 pixel or 3000 x 2580 would fill the whole space. You can make it horizontal or vertical. I'll tell you how to adjust it on the shirt in step 5.

Design tip: If you want help with a GIMP issue, you can usually find a tutorial online.

Here is another design tip: If you're not very good at drawing, you can get a little help from free clip art. Try clickr or openclipart. Just be careful with free images; make sure they are public domain before you use them.

3. Once you have your design done, save it as a .PNG file in an easy-to-find location. On the Zazzle T-shirt page, click "Change" under the sample image in "Personalize It." Upload your design. It will replace the sample.

4. Now, click "Customize It" - a button that appears under the shirt.

5. You'll now have a new set of controls on the right. Find the button that says "Design Area" and select either horizontal or vertical.

6. Next, you need to make sure your design fits the printed space because anything outside of it won't print. You'll see some buttons in the top left. Click on the second one down, the one that says "Show/Hide Art View" when you hover over it. Now you'll see a close-up view of the design space.

7. Use the - and + buttons on the right to adjust your image size (hold down "ctrl" at the same time to make minor adjustments). Use the tools under "Edit" and "Arrange" to center your design and make more changes. Add text or another image. Leave Design View to see how it all looks on the shirt.

8. Do the same on the back of the shirt if you want an image there. Click on the back view of the shirt to add images to it.

9. Now select your shirt style. On the right side, farther down, you'll find the "See all styles" button. After that, select the color and size. Make sure your shirt color looks good with your image (what you see on screen is what you get).

10. Now your shirt is done! You might also find a coupon code here to make the deal even sweeter.

Have fun designing!

-MK
See my designs on Zazzle