Zazzle Blog

It’s Foto Friday! This week, in honor of the 4th of July, we’re featuring customer photos that have a patriotic twist to them. See below for some happy and patriotic customers wearing with their Zazzle products! Also, don’t forget, today is the start of the Zazzle 4th of July Weekend Shirt Sale! Get 17.76% off all shirts by using this code at checkout: ZAZZLEUSAUSA!

http://www.zazzle.com/navy_seal_kid_tshirt-235103384906450007

http://www.zazzle.com/pax_flag_1_tshirt-235939879784366917

http://www.zazzle.com/gadsden_flag_embroidered_fleece_embroidered_shirt-231537647163714259

Want to join in? It’s easy and fun! For every photo you send us we’ll give you $5 to use on your next Zazzle order. So get started taking those pictures and join in on the Foto Friday fun!
Rules:

1. You must be in the photo holding, wearing, hugging, or otherwise enjoying your Zazzle product
2. If the product is available in the public Zazzle Marketplace, include the product link
3. Be creative and have fun!

You can tweet your photos to @zazzle or do it the old fashioned way by emailing them to community@zazzle.com.

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America’s birthday is this weekend and that means it’s time to show your patriotic pride (unless you’re shopping on Zazzle.co.uk) with some great patriotic gifts from Zazzle! We’ve got everything to show your red, white and blue from 4th of July hats to patriotic t-shirts. And if you’re going to be up for the fireworks, take a patriotic embroidered jacket to keep you warm on a chilly night. Also, be sure to check back tomorrow for an exclusive 4th of July sale…

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If you haven’t noticed, Zazzle has recently launched a bunch of stellar new music storefronts, so for all those heading out to MJ tribute parties, be sure to go in style.  Lil Wayne was the most recent artist to sell over 1 million records in a single week with his newest album, the first artist to do so since 50 Cent back in 2005. 

Classic Georgian band The B52’s have a some really cool designs, including my personal fav “The Rock Lobster”.

Woodstock is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year, so all you old hippies now turned yuppies, be sure to outfit yourself with some new stuff featuring classic imagery. 

For the classic rock and 80’s hair band lovers, there is no shortage of options in Motley Crue, Yes, Dream Theater, Cinderella, and Gene Simmons. 

Rod Stewart is in a very select category of men able to rock leopard skin pants and make the ladies swoon, and his store features a lot of great imagery throughout his career. 

Artistic Hub recently launched a design contest for UK-based up-and-comer Iglu & Hartly.  The platform allows for fans to submit designs and then purchase all submissions directly through I&H’s Zazzle store.  Look out for more contests via Artistic Hub coming soon.

Folk Festival celebrates it’s 50^th year with a stellar line-up and some great designs.

If you are a fan of Rock Star or Guitar Hero, or were destined to be a rock star, back-up dancer or groupie but never realized your dream, then you know all about US Air Guitar.

Other artist with summer tours and new releases:
Britney Spears 
The Black Eyed Peas
Fergie
Kiss
Jason Mraz

Jam out to any and all artists via AOL Radio, and you can even begin your own online broadcast via Shoutcast Radio.

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EA Skate is the newest title from EA to join the Zazzle family with the new EA Skate store. Now there are real life products with all your favorite logos and designs from the game. Check out all the EA Skate t-shirts, EA Skate skateboards, EA Skate hats and more at the Zazzle EA Skate store. An EA Skate fan was quoted as saying “sick!” when he saw the store (that’s a good thing).

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Today is the official (drum roll please) launch of Foto Friday! What’s Foto Friday? It’s the one day each week we post all the customer photos that have been sent to us with people enjoying their Zazzle products! See below for the photos!

Want to join in? It’s easy and fun, and for every photo you send us we’ll give you $5 to use on your next Zazzle order! So get started taking those pictures and join in on the Foto Friday Fun!

Rules:

1. You must be in the photo holding, wearing, hugging, or otherwise enjoying your Zazzle product
2. If the product is available in the public Zazzle Marketplace, include the product link
3. Be creative and have fun!

You can tweet your photos to @zazzle or do it the old fashioned way by emailing them to community@zazzle.com.

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It’s Bring Your Dog to Work Day at Zazzle and our office has turned into a regular doggie park. It’s a lot of fun to have dogs here, although someone took my lucky tennis ball so I am hoping to get that back soon… We hope that you’re playing with lots of dogs at work and having a good doggie work Friday too. In honor of Dog to Work Day we’re having a pet clothing sale; all pet clothing is $5 off! So find some clothes for your favorite four legged friend today because this sale ends tonight!

Use code: DOGTOWORKDAY

See below for some of my favorite formal attire pet clothing (it’s bowwow casual)

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Farrah Fawcett, the legendary television and film actress, passed away today after a long battle with cancer. She was a dynamic actress with incredible talent, and she will be missed by all of us. See below for a special print from the Zazzle Hulton Archive that captures Farrah in a moment we can all remember fondly.

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Over the weekend I found this great article on Six Revisions about open source applications (think FREE) for creating digital art and editing photos. Take a look. I think these tools are great for Sellers who are just getting started and don’t have the cash to buy some of the more expensive digital art applications. One of my favorites is called Paint.NET, definitely a good one. What are your favorite photo and digital art applications? Have a good one that isn’t on the list? Share below.

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See the new JibJab video AND get the exclusive-to-Zazzle Limited Edition He’s Barack Obama T-shirt! The video is an awesome melding of Obama, music, super heroes and of course action. Everything you need to make it big on the internets. Check it out below.

The t-shirt is all of those video qualities in a shirt, sewn from the finest Tuscan milk-fed wolves’ hair created just for you by Zazzle and JibJab. Because this shirt is so hard to make (you try shaving a wolf) we can only sell these for 7 days. So get one or risk losing this powerful t-shirt opportunity forever.

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Today is the birthday of our favorite lasagna-lovin’ orange cat, Garfield! In celebration of this, we asked Garfield creator Jim Davis a few questions about Garfield, Garfield on Zazzle, and the universe in general. See below for the interview and be sure to check out the Zazzle Garfield store for all your Garfield t-shirts, Garfield mugs, Garfield keychains, Garfield mousepads, and more!

Garfield creator Jim Davis.

Zazzle: How did you get the idea for Garfield?

Jim Davis: My mom dropped me on my head when I was a baby, and that set the wheels in motion for me to become a cartoonist. Seriously, I knew I wanted to be a cartoonist from the time I was a kid, and I was lucky enough to serve as an assistant to Tumbleweeds creator Tom Ryan. While working with Tom, I developed several of my own strips, one about a bug named Gnorm Gnat. I thought Gnorm was strong enough to be syndicated so I started sending my work to syndicates across the country. Comic’s editors at the syndicates thought there was something there, but bugs? Who can relate to bugs? So I took a long look at the comics pages and noticed there were a lot of dogs doing quite well. There was Snoopy, Belvedere, and Marmaduke – but no cats! So I took my memories of all the cats I remembered from my childhood home – on a country farm it’s not unusual to have dozens of cats – and I combined those traits with those of my grandfather, James Garfield Davis, and Voila! Garfield was born.
 
 
Zazzle: What is your favorite thing about drawing Garfield?

Jim Davis: He still makes me laugh. In my mind’s eye, I conjure him up and see what he’s up to. I’ll create a situation and see how he reacts. That’s how I come up with most of the comic strip ideas. I guess that’s the best thing about drawing Garfield — he still surprises me.
 
 
Zazzle: Is Jon based on anyone you know and why is he so unlucky when he dates?

Jim Davis: Jon is me more than any other character in the strip. I was a dork in college; I had trouble dating; I’m wishy-washy; I’m basically just a simple guy.
 
 
Zazzle: What impact has technology and the internet had on the strip?

Jim Davis: I love technology and computers and of course, the Internet. Great tools. As far as the strip goes, we still draw and ink it by hand. The only change is that we color it in the computer, and send it electronically rather than by a freight service. In terms of the humor of the strip, Garfield is also a big fan of the Internet. It’s the essence of laziness in a way — everything comes to you and you don’t have to get out of your chair.
 
 
Zazzle: What does having a Zazzle store mean for fans of the strip?

Jim Davis: The Garfield Comics and More Store on Zazzle is the first time we’ve offered affordable products that can be customized and personalized using the comic strip and comic art as the theme. I think secretly we’d all be happy to see our names show up in a comic strip, so the Garfield Comics and more store offers something totally unique and special to the Garfield fan.
 
 
Zazzle: What is your favorite feature from Zazzle in the Garfield store?

Jim Davis: Putting someone’s name in the strip. I’ve been dropping names of my friend and family into the strip as an inside joke for years. People just go crazy when they see their name in the newspaper. I get a big kick out of it — now, thanks to Zazzle’s personalization services, anyone can add a name.

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