Back to School marks end of summer

Image via Wikipedia

Ah, it’s finally here. The day the school kids return to school. Summer break is over. There will be many tears today as some mark their first trip to kindergarten … and as many teachers look forward to May. For youth pastors, it breaks open the last quarter of the year. Maybe one more event around Labor Day weekend … and then Back to School programming. Some guys that I have been reading are making their lunch schedules to attend those environmental hazards called the school cafeteria.

Most parents are seeing their back accounts take a dip … as the analysts tell us that most households will spend an average of $600 for school supplies, clothes, phones, and the such. Ouch. Plus, the stress of tax-free weekend and finding all the stuff that teachers had on their lists. Do you think teachers mess with you when they ask for an 10 pack of something … when they only sell it in an 8 pack. It’s almost like the whole hot dog and buns thing … you know … Hot Dogs come in packages of 10 and the buns come in a package of 8. Shouldn’t there be some kind of law against that?

Well, as I ponder the stress of getting the kids off to school this morning … it is just a memory for me. Being a grandparent is grand. Ah, I will have another cup of coffee please.

Related Articles

• A playbook for parents (timesunion.com)
• Back to School Bliss: A parent’s survival guide (chicagonow.com)
• Simple Things You Can Do to Help Teachers (blogher.com)

Increase your traffic with autosurfpro

Designing with Vector Graphics

Image via Wikipedia

We get this puzzlement everyday. Vector art? What is it? “I did this in Photoshop and it really looks neat.” Yes, it may look neat as a web graphic … but that does not mean it will make the trip as a tshirt graphic. Take a look at the example and you can see the difference between the raster and vector graphic … the raster image is really fuzzy when it is blown up. The vector graphic well not get fuzzy … no mater how much we want to enlarge it.

And don’t try and fool us. Some graphic artists will sometimes just paste a raster image in an .eps file. Come on. That does not make it a vector image … just like parking a wheel barrow in a garage make it a BMW. Do your work … learn what makes a great vector image. Practice using your Adobe Illustrator in your CS package. Tshirt guys will love you.

Related Articles

• Tyler Mammone: 25 New Illustrator Tutorials That Will Make You A Master Of Vector Art – SloDive (slodive.com)
• How To Really Create Vector Graphics of Zombie Monkeys in SolidWorks (solidsmack.com)

Vector Grungy Summer Background

Here is a cool looking tropical, grungy background that would make a great poster or flyer background … or for that matter a banner background. It is in an eps format. It is a free sample from vectorious.net … honestly I have never seen any of their stuff and it looks great. You should go and check out their site. The download is available at vector4free.com. Here is the link.

Vectors of Old Factory Buildings

Here are some of the coolest old factory or urban city scenes in a vector format. It is offered by keepdesigning.com. I think there is also a layered psd file included to give you some kind of idea of how to use it. You could definitely use this for a poster background. Here is the download link.

Five dollar Christian tshirts for your group

template 37

Originally uploaded by redroofventures

We always get calls that question what kind of tshirts we print on when they see that we sell some of our printed tshirts for $5. They always think it will be some irregular tshirt or something that will not last. Wrong. We print our stuff on the stuff everyone else does … first run Gildan or Anvil shirts … usually a 5.3 oz shirt. Then on top of that … we sometimes use discharge inks, like on this shirt, to give it a super soft feel and it pops.

Why? Because youth ministry is my passion. Being a youth minister for a bunch of years and then a senior pastor … I have a heart for ministry. Sure our profit margin is small on a $5 shirt … especially if we have a super low minimum of 18. But … it’s what I want to do.

Yes, you can find other places on the web where they will sell you a shirt for $5 … but it’s usually WHITE and the minimums are higher … and usually there is NO flexibility in your options.

We do all that. And more.

Here is the link for this particular template shirt … for $5

http://youthgrouptshirts.com/y37design.html

college ministry practices servant evangelism

collegelife eagle

Originally uploaded by redroofventures

We love to do the shirts for collegelife ministry. Each year one of their major efforts is to help incoming freshman move in. They are present on the day that freshman from UNT descent upon the campus in Denton, Texas for a true labor of love. I mean, moving into your dorm room is traumatic enough for students and parents … but to do it in August … in Texas … it’s like 112 in the shade.

The movers get a shirt … like this one … that, I am certain gets baptized in sweat in about 3 seconds. We have a large number of template designs that we print for groups … but we still do custom work as well. It’s always good when someone calls and they know exactly what they want … and have the vector art to prove. Yah!!

Christian tshirts that don’t take a bite out of your budget

Christian tshirts that don’t take a bite out of your budget

Originally uploaded by redroofventures

Popular Christian tshirt template. Folks like our templates because they can edit a lot of things. Text, color of imprint, color of shirt … etc. Yes, we charge a little more for the ink and tshirt color changes … but, even with the customization it still is below market pricing for the web.

Plus, the turn around will make your head spin. DNOW ‘s are coming for the fall and we are ready to give the last part of 2010 a run for it.

Here is the link for the order page of this exact template. Fill in the form with your sizes and changes and wham-o. The shirts will be on the way.

http://youthgrouptshirts.com/y29design.html

high seas expedition vbs tshirt

highseas vbs 2010

Originally uploaded by redroofventures

It’s that time of year. We usually roll out our VBS designs about now for those early birds who want to get a jump on ordering for this summer. For our 4th year we will continue to offer our VBS shirts at a huge discount. $5 … to be exact for a minimum of 18 shirts. You can mix and match the colors of those offered. Free name drop. 2X and above are a little more … but this price is for youth and adult pricing. If you want additional location printing we can do that as well.

The High Seas Expedition design is a two color design printed on a quality Gildan 5000 tshirt. This is our go to shirt and has been for many years. We like offering our VBS shirts at a discount and giving smaller churches as well as the larger ones to have shirts for their kids.

Check this link for additional colors offered.

saddle ridge vbs 2010

saddleridge vbs 2010

Originally uploaded by redroofventures

Yee Haw … it’s VBS time again. Yes, we are offering the famous $5 VBS shirts this year … as this is our 4th year to do so. We are blessed to be able to offer this to all size churches. The Saddle Ridge Ranch shirt is a 3 color and is available on a total of 5 different colors for your school this year. You can mix and match with no price difference with the colors listed. 2X and above shirts is a little additional.

Here is the link for additional colors and pricing matrix.

Free Vector Glossy Buttons

Great set of Vector Glossy Buttons. Arrow and rectangular. This set of free buttons is in an .eps format and can be found at Vectorportal.com These have been downloaded about 2,700 time to date. Here is the link for the download here.