We often struggle when we think about what in the world to make for someone, what to give, or what to buy for Christmas, birthdays, etcetera. If you’re in this situation I thought I’d share something that a number of people don’t know is possible. I didn’t know about it until not many years ago.
You can place any image you choose on nearly any product you want. If you want to take a photo of an Ace of Spades and put it on a dart board, you can. if you want your parrot’s face on your tie, you can have that too. You could even give a pillow to someone with images of their departed pet to hold onto!
🎄
Some things like these can be found on Amazon, but these are specific items, often from a foreign country (some people try to help their own compatriots when able). Artists and independent designers, such as myself, like the thought of their hard work bringing smiles to faces, and the financial support that goes along with it, of course. A neat option in the marketplace I’m on, that isn’t available on Amazon, is that you can transfer artist’s designs onto products that they never placed the designs on! For example, if you see a canvas print that you like, but want it on a coaster, this can be done!
My store is The Dizzy Butterfly Emporium.
If you’re curious about the name, you’ll learn why it is what it is in the “About” section there. I don’t think butterflies get dizzy, but there’s a story there.
💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔
It’s been excruciatingly more than just a rough year. From December 30, 2024 – October 16, 2025, there has been FOUR great losses. If someone were to tell me last year, “You’re about to lose 4 animal companions in the span of less than 10 months,” I don’t know that I would have believed it. Barring a natural catastrophe or other terrible event, what are the odds? And right there in the middle, I lost my best friend, our very own Lil’ Murph, and my fuzzy-wuzzy daughter just 68 days apart. To top it off, the cremains of one precious dog never arrived, there was a paperwork error. Instead, her body was sent to educate to-be veterinarians. Well, just maybe that sweetheart’s tests and dissection may help another animal one day. I certainly hope so.
All this has led me to feeling compelled to design bereavement keepsakes. Loss stings. Just maybe something I’ve designed will bring something good to suffering hearts and minds.
I want to show some things I’ve designed and placed onto products (and created mockups (cover images) for. Even if you’re not doing designing, know that you can do this too for a gift for yourself or another.
Ornaments, totes, clothing, puzzles, keychains, blankets… Zazzle has around 1,500 product types that designs can be placed onto.
Many items containing a photo can be swapped out with your own, and text is personalized by you:
Here is Murph watching me place his face on a magnet:
This season, whether you get something designed by yours truly, or another, you can create a personal gift with a family or animal companion’s photo on something that can be worn, hung, or used. Check the expected delivery dates & options, and you can help individual shop owners at the same time.
Designers (definitely me) can spend hours on a single design from the time spent in Canva, Photoshop, or other designing tools making the design, to placing it on various products, creating the mockups in various sizes (1480×1480 px. in Zazzle, 1080×1080 px. in IG, 1,000×1500 px. in Pinterest, etc) for their selling platforms and social media, and adding titles, descriptions, and tags (keywords) for all!! And then there’s filing them away in the computer or elsewhere, which takes up space & a bit more time!
🦎🦝🐕🐦🐢😻🐸🐟
You may shop for a specific item in a tiny search bar on my store that reads “Search this Store,” if you want to see only the pillows, for example.
•You’ll first see categories.
•The “Collections” tab will show a number of items grouped together that share the exact or similar design or theme.
•The “Products” tab will show you exactly that, in newest to oldest format.
If you don’t find a perfect thing in The Dizzy Butterfly Emporium, you can go to Zazzle.com & possibly find something more suited to you or another. And, to support some other artists, don’t forget about the people on Etsy. In recent years, I’ve purchased gifts for others there, including a miniature Iron Maiden guitar, Mother-of-Pearl cuff links, and a mortar and pestle made of a specific stone. People on Etsy have to pay a bit to sell their items, and store owners on places like Zazzle and Redbubble get a royalty. On Zazzle, the lowest is 5% of the selling price. People can set royalties as they wish, but in some cases, if they choose more than say 20%, they’re pricing themselves out.
The reason people get into print-on-demand platforms is because there’s no inventory to stow, and the platforms are responsible for customer satisfaction and shipping. Some people make excellent money, despite receiving only a small amount of $ from each sale, and others don’t do well at all. Either their designs aren’t great, or lacking knowledge in trends, and especially SEO (proper keywords, titles, and tags) will prevent their items from popping up as options when people search for things in search engines. Personally, I’m taking an SEO course on Udemy, and I’m discouraged at how many ways to get on-going optimum keyword knowledge ultimately costs money. So, people rely on Youtube videos & more to accumulate some knowledge & growing a following & self-promotion to get their products seen.
I’ve known some people who shop mostly at small “Mom & Pop” shops and dine at family-owned restaurants, rather than chain places to support small businesses. If you’re similar, these are ways that you can support small online store owners (and Etsy & the other marketplaces too, but it is what it is) and get unique pieces at the same time.
If you don’t know, Canva has a free version that you can do quite a bit with to alter your photos, if desired, before uploading into Zazzle. Zazzle also has a design tool where you can remove backgrounds and more.
If anyone needs designing/personalization assistance on a gift anywhere on Zazzle, I’ll be happy to help if I can. We all have different styles, and that’s just how it is, so I am not offended if the product you need help on is not my own. Just leave a comment or visit the contact page.
I hope you found this insightful and that it is inspiring you to think of some gift ideas if you needed it.
For:
Click HERE to read what “The Rainbow Bridge” is.
“Give me Lizardry or give me Death!” ❤️Murph & Dawn
LizardPlanet.com 
Leave a comment