But sometimes a color change just won’t work. A good example of this is when something must remain a certain color regardless of the color apparel that would be used, for example keeping the baseball white.  So, if you are printing both white shirts and red shirts, you won’t be able to use the same art becuase on the white shirt you want us to print the outline of the baseball, and on the red shirt you want us to print the fill of the baseball.

Navy and Red design	Red replaced with Navy/ Navy replaced with White

If your customer is on a budget, show them that a color change will work but the ball won’t be white. If they are ok with that go ahead and order a color change. But if your customer does not find that acceptable, a multi-color design is often less expensive than two orders. So in this case, we would order a red, navy and white print that could go on any color and look correct. 

A 3 color design works on all colors with ball in white

Decorating a cinch sack is easy using custom transfers. Because the bags do gather at the top when closed, we recommend using a little smaller print so that it is visible when being carried. The size shown on the samples is about a 5” x 5” size print.

Cinch sacks are easy to decorate with custom transfers and are a popular item for teens.

If the bag is nylon, the CAD-PRINTZ® Opaque is the perfect decorating option. These full color prints are inexpensive at the size needed for these bags. You can send us your own art, or use one of our layouts to create your print. CAD-PRINTZ are not priced by the number of colors so this can be a great selling point.

Occasionally, the bags are polyester so any of our decorating options can be used. The best choice would be based on quantity needed, the number of colors and the size. Our dealer service team will help you choose the best product at the best price.

When doing the application, because of the strings, you will want to raise the print area with a polyester foam mouse pad or print perfect pad. Just place your bag on your heat press and slip the pad under the bag. This will allow even pressure to reach your bag. Put the transfer in place, and press according to the directions provided with your transfer. Your bag is ready to carry!

This can be a challenge for small shops that have limited budgets and only so much time to be spent on getting their name out there. Megan Boos, owner of Stitch Witch, Fortuna, Calif., came up with a great solution that has resulted in four local radio stations talking about her company every single week.

As part of the trade-out deal, Boos creates a logoed cap for each station. Everyone is familiar with the many contests radios hold during the day to give away free merchandise. Typically, the DJ poses a question and a caller with the right answer wins the prize. Usually the call is recorded so everyone hears the answer and the interchange between the DJ and the listener.

When the cap is awarded, the DJ gives Stitch Witch approximately 30 seconds of free air time talking about the company and what it does as well as additional mentions throughout the week. So Boos gets weekly exposure to four different demographic audiences in her area for the price of four caps.

The DJs supply Boos with the name and address of the winners for her to mail out the caps, which also gives her new names to add to her marketing list when she sends out mailers or fliers.

Boos always includes a Stitch Witch flier that describes what the company does and contact information. “This provides the winner with an opportunity to call, ask questions, and hopefully place an order,” she says.

“Traditional advertising is expensive,” she notes. “The advantage of the barter system is that it allows me to get great exposure with very little money out of pocket.”

“I’ve been doing this for two years now. People come in and tell me they heard our spots on their radio station. I’ve found it’s been a great way to get my name out there and increase my recognition. Caps are inexpensive and easy to decorate so I’m getting good value for my time and material expenses.”

On the left, production assistant Dawn Allardice handles most of the transfer and lettering orders while Stitch Witch owner Megan Boos concentrates on the embroidery. Boos has negotiated tradeouts with four local radio stations, which give her shop great exposure at a basement bargain price.

The first is an index of our entire collection of clip art. When online, the search tool can quickly find the art needed, but if you are sitting with a customer with the book, we know an index can help. The clip art is listed alphabetically with the corresponding page number the art can be found in the full color binder Idea Book.

The second item is the complete alphabet for every letter style. Sometimes you want to see what the D looks like in a particular style which is again easy to do online, but this will also give you a reference. These are pdf files so you can zoom in to see the details of each letter.

The typestyle pages show every character for each of the Easy Prints® typestyles available.

The third printable bonus page is a gang sheet chart, a grid that given your print image size, you will know how many of that custom transfer/print will fit on each sheet.

The fourth is a type arrangement page which shows the terminology needed to describe different formats to be done to the text. For example, a visual is given to show the difference between an arc and an arch.

Show customers all the different type arrangements available with this Idea Book Bonus Page.

The final two pages show the patterns such as zebra, tiger, leopard, and polka dots as well as the distress effects that can be added to any layout to make your apparel stand out or look vintage.

Enter your heat printing and embroidery designs to increase your company's exposure!

Have you ever combined a heat transfer with embroidery? If so, you may want to consider entering Stitches 2012 Golden Needle Competition™. This year there is a category for Embroidery & Heat-Printing Decoration. The winners will be featured in the November issue.

Now before you discount doing this because you may feel that you have not done anything exciting or creative enough to have any chance of winning, here’s a few things to consider.

Even if you don’t win, entering a contest creates an opportunity for you to increase your company’s exposure. Be sure and take several photos of every entry you submit. These photos should be posted to your website and your Facebook page with the announcement that you have entered them in a national decorating contest.

If you choose a garment you have done for a customer, you will want to obtain permission to submit the design. If the client grants permission, when you post the photo of the client’s shirt to your Facebook page, be sure and tag your client’s Facebook page so it also shows up there. You might also include a thank you for the use of the shirt as an entry. Your post will then show up on your client’s page, which brings your business to the attention of potential new customers.

While you may think that the competition is stiff in these competitions, in some cases this really is not the case. If you have ever viewed entries from other decorated apparel contests such as the Impressions Awards, you might notice that some categories attract only 10-20 entries. So you really have a much better chance than you think of winning.

If you do win, not only are you featured in Stitches Magazine, but you now have a reason to post again to your Facebook page, Twitter, Linked In, and submit a press release to your local media about winning this award. And of course, this should be on the home page of your website.

Ideally, you also create a nice framed piece of your published winning entry in Stitches magazine that you put up on the wall of your showroom or area where customers walk in and can see it.

Stitches is accepting entries until Monday, May 21. You can view the categories here:
http://cdn.asicentral.com/idesign/stitchesAwards/index0311.htm

You can download an entry form here: https://www.asisafe.com/asiinternet/htmlemails/stitchesAwards/form.htm

If you enter and would like to be featured in this blog (whether or not you win), please contact Deborah Sexton at dsexton@sbcglobal.net.

A winner from 2011 with a vibrant design.

Always make it easy for customers to contact you. Instead of linking information from another page, consider giving contact info a prominent location on your homepage. Many companies feature this in the top right corner of the home page. It should include a phone number, email address, hours of operation, street address and any integrated contact mechanisms such as click-and-chat functionality.

Also, consumers are becoming trained to use home page footers to navigate websites. These are located at the bottom of the home page. Many companies have developed super footers, which are essentially a site map listings of all the links within sites. Often, visitors who don’t perform a keyword search will navigate your site through your super footer. www.apple.com/mac is a great example of super footers.

Keeping the content and layout simple is an important aspect when developing your home page too. The home page is not the place to sell customers on your company. People want to buy a product, not your company. It’s not about your company’s history—it’s about your products and what’s in it for customers at that moment. Some companies use feature sections on their home page to showcase new products or weekly promotions that change frequently.

For example, for a team with 18 players ordering a home and away uniform, you get the price break of 36.

An inexpensive way to print home and away jerseys is to use a color change.

To place your order by phone, just let the customer service rep know how many of each color is needed, and what color is to be changed. If you are ordering online, place your first color version as normal, then in notes add how many of the different color is needed.

Don't forget to include a color change on the backs!

One easy and quick way is to add a distress pattern on top of a screen printed design. This type of pattern causes the print to look worn and tattered. Instead of actually distressing the ink and shirt, which can reduce the life of the garment, this pattern will simply be a show-through area in the design during printing. We have five different distress patterns to choose from which can be added to any of our layouts and range from a light to heavy distress.

Layout QCO-69 using a medium distress clip art X19A-996.

After you have your distressed looking print, you now have several options for garments. A distressed print is still popular on a regular t-shirt. However, there are many garments to choose from that also have a distressed look to them so you don’t have to try to do them all yourself, which can be a long and laborious process for each garment. A few of the different styles available are burn-out, acid-washed, and stone-washed tee’s, each giving a different appearance. Our screen printed and digital transfers can be heat applied to any of these types of apparel.

In the end, you are left with an inexpensive way of creating fashionable, vintage style looking apparel.

Layout QRT-30 using a different medium distress clip art X19A-999.

This is a great last add-on sale. Some ideas to put on the team banner are the team name with team logo, the team photo, a team roster, and a thank you to the sponsors with their names/and or logos.

A banner listed with the team roster and sponsors.

You can create the art and send it to us, or use one of our banner layouts. A good size for these banners is 3 feet x 5 feet which will cost you about $30 and can easily be sold for $50. While doing research, we found them promoted for as much as $80!

The banners are printed in full color, so photographs are perfect to put on the banner. They are printed on durable 13 oz vinyl, and UV protected so they won’t fade in sunlight. Each banner includes 4 easy to use banner tabs to position on the banner based on where you will be hanging it. The banner is shipped in a durable tube that is perfect for your team’s storage to take it from game to game.

A banner featuring the team photo.

All-Star teams are perfect for roster shirts to list numbers, player names and positions. Layout QTY-55 shown in photo.

Here is how to create a custom roster shirt: 

1.   Choose a layout –we have many different roster layout choices
2.   Give us the team and player information:
Player names and information can be entered online or uploaded in a .txt file in a single column online.
3.   Order the quantity, color and size you need. Unless it is a t-ball team, a standard size print of approximately
11” x 11” will be perfect
4.   Submit your order.
Tip: Order by 11 am EST and if it is a one color print, it ships the same day!