One of the best things about families and family histories is that each family is unique and each family's story is unique. At the same time, families have common bonds that they share like a common surname, DNA, residence, community, and ethnicity. Genealogists uncover a lot of information in the course of their research, so they become keenly aware of both the uniqueness and commonness on family trees. That puts them in a unique position to create some wonderful one-of-a-kind items for all their family members. But how can something be one-of-a-kind and available to all family members at the same time?Welcome to the world of CafePress.com!
CP is a wonderful resource for the creative genealogist. It's so easy to create a simple but unique piece of artwork and have it printed on a wide variety of items. T-shirts and sweatshirts, baseball caps and tote bags, calendars, ornaments, and much more are made to order with your unique artwork on them. You can create one design unique to your family and at the same time share the design with other family members!
Summer is here and it's a popular time for family reunions. Why not make up something special just for your family members to wear to the reunion? All you have to do is create one design. Then if you open a CafePress shop (for free) your family members can go online and order whatever style and color of t-shirt they like with your design on it. It will be mailed directly to them and you don't have be bothered guessing how many of which sizes to order. You don't have to be bothered with packing and mailing either. CafePress does it all for you! You can even use it as a family fund raising opportunity to raise money to cover some of the reunion expenses, make a family donation to a charity, or put the money towards the publication of a family history. The possibilities are endless.
Stuck for some design ideas? Here's some:
- Use a flag representing your ethnic heritage and write the family surname below it.
- If you have a funny or charming old family photograph, use that with short quip like "Can you believe we're related?" or "Beauty runs in our family" and put the surname below that.
- Make up a genealogy definition for your family (like a dictionary definition): Killian (kill-ee-ann) 1. A family with roots in Bukowina, Poland. 2. Descendants of Michael Killian (1803-1871). 3. One heck of a great family!
2 comments:
The custom Tshirt is a great idea! My mother's family had a reunion this year (on a cruise ship!) We were all given tshirts with the family name (Pizante - Abouaf) and a map of Rhodes were the family was from. The tshirt continues to be a nice momento.
As a writer and publisher of FolkHeart Press, I'd also like to suggest that family can create family folktales (family stories based upon folktale motifs) that can be initiated at the reunion or be assembled prior to the reunion and collated into a book.
It's both easy and rewarding to do!
Karen Pierce Gonzalez (www.folkheartpress.com)
Sounds interesting, Karen. Thanks for leaving a comment!
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