Enter Our Polyvore Contest!


CONTEST RULES
  1. If you don’t already have one, register for an account on Polyvore.
  2. Create a set using one or more designs from Customized Girl in your set. Check out this example set created by Polyvore user mychanel.
    You have two options for this step: 

    • Recommended option: use a design from our public gallery. Navigate this gallery via the search field in the upper right corner of CustomizedGirl.com, or via the Start With a Design menu on the left side of the site.
    • Or you can create your own design and save it. This option is a bit trickier. If you choose this route, please see the notes below.**
  3. Add that set to our group.
The contest will run from Tuesday, October 30, 2012 until Friday, November 26, 2012.

 

PRIZE

The winners will be determined by the number of likes. Likes are obtained when another Polyvore user clicks on the little heart icon next to your set.

  • First place wins a $100 gift card to Customized Girl.
  • Second place wins a $50 gift card to Customized Girl.
  • Third place wins a $25 gift card to Customized Girl.
We will need your email address to send you the electronic gift card. (It is a special code that you can enter into the payment method section of the checkout process.)

 

TERMS

Only new sets created between Oct 30 and Nov 26, 2012 are qualified for entry. This is because we are judging based on number of likes, and it wouldn’t be fair to everyone if older sets with many likes could be submitted.

There is no limit to the number of entries per user, but we will only award one gift card per Polyvore user. If one user has the first and third most likes, then we will award the $100 gift card to that user, and award the $25 gift card to the fourth place user.

By submitting a set with a design from Customized Girl, entrant grants Customized Girl the right to publish submitted sets, designs, and captions on our website, social media or any other marketing materials. Slight set alterations may be made by our staff in order to fit properly on our website or marketing materials.

Designs deemed to be inappropriate or offensive by Customized Girl will not be eligible for voting.

Designs that contain material copyrighted or trademarked by a third party (such as a brand, tv show, etc) will not be eligible for voting.

eRetailing Associates, LLC employees and their immediate families are not eligible to win.

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Polyvore. By participating in this promotion you agree to a complete release of Polyvore from any claims. We promise never to sell your information or use it in a harmful way.

**If you want to to save your own design and use it in your Polyvore set, please do. However, your design will not show up in the public gallery on Customized Girl. If you save a really cool design, you deserve to be recognized and have it displayed in the gallery, right? The only way to make it public would be for our admin Customized Girl account to re-save your design in our own account, and we reserve the right to do this. But if this happens, we will give you credit and link to your account on Polyvore in the Design Details. Again, if you create your own design, please avoid potential copyright infringement. (For example, no One Direction designs. Sorry.)

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Adopt a Shelter Dog!

October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month! You still have time to get out to your local shelter and find a furry friend to take home. Whether this month has inspired you to adopt a shelter dog or if you’re a seasoned owner, we have some great shelter dog shirts for you! We also have custom dog dishes and custom dog name tags for when you bring your new pet home. Plus, we have custom dog clothes and bandanas that you can dress Fido up in, if that’s your thing!

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How to Use Photoshop to Add Your Own Images to Pictures of Tees and Tanks

TeesAndTanks is a popular tumblr blog that photoshops cool images onto trendy t-shirts, tank tops, and even hot shorts.  Their “About” page says it best:

We think “photoshopping images onto tank tops” is the new “painting oil colors onto stretched canvases”. This is our art form and we love it.

We at CustomizedGirl are happy to announce that we are partnering with TeesAndTanks to produce some of the original designs that appear on their Tumblr blog. Actually, we have two announcements. Here’s the second: we are opening submissions to everyone! Before now, the fine folks at TeesAndTanks were the only ones submitting to the blog. They have now added a “Submit” link.

Here’s how it works:

We are providing two files for each item, a jpg and psd (aka photoshop file).  The items so far are two tees, two tanks, and one pair of hot shorts. Scroll to the bottom to find these images. To download a single jpg, simply right click the image and choose “Save image as”. To download the psd file, click the “Download the psd file” link above each image.

We encourage you to use the psd files, because each file contains at least one masking layer. This should make everything super easy for all the cool people who want to submit their own image!

If you are new to Photoshop, here are two examples to show you the way.

First, let’s add a graphic with a white background to our flowy tank top. We’ll use this image of a polaroid photo.

Example One:

  1. Open your file in Photoshop
  2. Copy and paste your image on top of the tank layer.
  3. With your image layer selected, click the layer properties dropdown menu in the layers tab.
  4. Choose “Multiply”.
  5. Resize your image so that it fits on the tank top. (Just click the corner of the image and drag it while holding shift).
  6. Done!

 

Next, let’s add this beautiful old-school map to the same tank top. Because this map is going to cover the entire tank, we want to use a masking effect.

Example Two:

  1. Download the psd file for the tank top.
  2. Open it in photoshop.
  3. Copy and paste the map image on top of the tank layer.
  4. With your image layer selected, click the layer properties dropdown menu in the layers tab.
  5. Choose “Multiply”.
  6. Resize your image however you want. (Just click the corner of the image and drag it while holding shift).
  7. Click the eye icon next to the “Mask – Entire Tank” layer, making it visible.
  8. Right click the “Mask – Entire Tank” layer and choose “Make Clipping Mask”.
  9. Done!

 

Files for download:

Click here to download the Flowy Tank psd (photoshop file).

 

Click here to download the Crop Tank psd (photoshop file).

 

Click here to download the Flowy Tee psd (photoshop file).

 

Click here to download the Crop Tee psd (photoshop file).

 

Click here to download the Hot Shorts psd (photoshop file).

 

Once you’ve made your image and saved it (I like to use the Save for Web feature, and choose jpg or png), feel free to submit it as an image to teesandtanks.tumblr.com!

If you’re curious, Customized Girl does sell these flowy t-shirts and tank tops. In fact, you can customize them by adding your own text, art, and images. Right now, there is a design boundary that prevents you from adding a design all over the item (curse these printing limitations!), but we’re working on a process that should allow all-over-printing some day.

Update: We’ve noticed that a lot of folks are using these images for their own Tumblr blogs or Etsy stores. If you want to use any of these images, please contact us at customizedgirl@eretailing.com first. Use “Tees and Tanks Images” as the subject line. There is probably a way we can make it work out, possibly by asking to you to link back to CustomizedGirl.com. We’d like to know why you are using it.

We also noticed some people using these images in their Etsy stores. If you are using Customized Girl as your fulfillment system (which is to say, if you are placing your order with Customized Girl and sending it to your customer), then that’s totally fine. But if you’re using it to compete directly with Customized Girl, then obviously that gives us a sad face.

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Skeleton Cutout Shirt Tutorials

Halloween is approaching, so we figured what better time to make some spooky (and trendy) skeleton cutout shirts. We’re going to show you how to make two different types of skeleton shirts: a skull cutout and a ribcage cutout. We also thought it would be cool to print some designs on the fronts of our shirts for some extra customization. Check out our big selection of skull shirts for many other options in addition to the ones we used. You can be as creative with these as you want!

Skull Cutout Shirt

Here are all of the items you will need:

1. Cut out the eyes, nose and teeth. We cut around everything and then saved the scraps to be used as a “shell” which comes in handy later. You can do this too if you’d like.

2. Lay your shirt flat with the back facing up. Make sure that the wrinkles are smoothed out and that the seams are straight.

3. Now, arrange your cut out pieces on the back. This is where the scraps come in handy. We used them to help measure and fit the cut out pieces where. Use the ruler to make sure that everything is centered and lined up.

4. Then, trace around each piece. It doesn’t have to be perfect because you’ll be cutting them out later.

5. When that’s done, it’s time to cut out the pieces! You’ll have to fold the fabric in half to get inside of each piece. Just be careful not to cut through the other side!

6. With all of the pieces cut out, you can go back and clean up some of the edges with your scissors.

7. Now all you have to do is wear your new Skull Cutout Shirt and enjoy!

 

Skeleton Ribs Cutout Shirt

Here are all of the items you will need:

  • A shirt. We went with our Misses Bella Flowy Draped Sleeve Dolman.
  • Scissors.
  • A pencil or chalk. You’ll want something that washes out easily as all marks made are not going to be cut out.
  • A ruler.

1. Lay your shirt flat with the back facing up. Make sure that the wrinkles are smoothed out and that the seams are straight.

2. Find the center of the shirt and put a mark on the top and bottom of the section you would like the ribs to be.

3. Put marks 1″ on each side of the center marks, making a 2″ section for the spine. Then, using your ruler connect these marks.

4. Draw the outlines of the rib area on the shirt.

3. Next, mark where you want the ribs to be. The distance apart is personal taste, but we did 3/4″.

4. Make horizontal lines on these marks across both sides.

5. Cut on each horizontal line. the cuts should go from the spine to the outer edge of where you drew the ribs.

6. Roll the strips left in your fingers so that they “curl” and become skinnier.

7. You might want to wash the shirt before wearing to get off the extra marks and help the strips curl more.

 

We hope you enjoyed these tutorials! If you used either one, let us know how your shirt turned out!

Also, check be sure to check out our full selection of Halloween t-shirts and other apparel!

 

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