Tis the season for family reunions. Today I’m sharing a little reunion t-shirt inspiration in case some of you are thinking along those lines. Having your own t-shirts made can be really easy! I’ll come back to that in a minute. First, here’s a look at our reunion shirts from 2007.

My youngest brother Andrew (my super creative brother who makes it possible for you to be reading this right now because he is the technical force behind my website) … came up with this design. There are 6 siblings, and therefore 6 families. Each line represents the size of each of our respective families. Going left to right, my oldest brother has 4 kids, the next brother has 2, then 5, then 5, then 2 (that’s us), then 4. Those were the number of children/cousins at the time. The “graph” would look a little different now.

Andrew made brown shirts for the men, tan for the boys, and pink for all the women and girls. A very photogenic color combo. This was a 12×12 page I did for our family scrapbook in 2007 (using only Photoshop).

Here’s another idea. Backing up a decade to 2001 … this may go down in history as my all-time favorite reunion t-shirt. The concept is by my oldest (and also incredibly creative) brother Jonathan. He had his son (the oldest of all the cousins) draw stick figures of everyone in our big family, oldest to youngest, left to right. Tyler was 7 years old at the time.

On the far left is my sweet Grandma Allgaier, who was the family’s only living grandparent at the time, and she joined us for this reunion. She is using a walker in Tyler’s little illustration. How cute is that!? Then you see each of the little families, including itty bitty toddlers and babies who are in carriers. The next-to-last little family is me and David. We didn’t have children at the time but Tyler drew a tree next to David. He used to call him Uncle Tree because David would throw him really high in the air — as high as the trees.  : )

The back of the shirt would be the coding for the illustration. It’s everyone’s first initial of their names. Clever.

The ? in KLET? represents the baby Kevin & Lauren were expecting at the time. By the way, pardon the wrinkles (I wasn’t in an ironing mood the day I photographed the shirts) and the faded fabric (true sign of a well-loved t-shirt). Another page for another reunion in another scrapbook –

Looking for more inspiration? I saw some cool t-shirt designs on Design Mom’s blog. I’m sure with some google time, you could find oodles of other ideas. These t-shirts from our own family reunions just might get your wheels spinning with some ideas on creating personalized designs.

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Now. What about actually getting the t-shirts made?? Great question. Check out OneColorInk.com. Our friends print custom t-shirts for individuals, families, and businesses and they offer this as a more affordable option for those who want to have t-shirts made for less. Hence the one color ink. Be sure to check out the video (“In Action”) so you can see how the shirts are made. It’s a fun process! Plus, Ricky’s just too cool for school. He has been in this business since he was a kid. He knows custom t-shirts. If you’re interested in more options than one color, their main business is TamboInk.com.

Guess what? We are so doing a giveaway! Yes we are. Anyone in the U.S. is welcome to enter for a chance to win $50 credit toward your custom t-shirt order from One Color Ink. Just leave your name, city, state, and tell us what t-shirt project (reunion or not) you have in the works! A randomly selected winner will be announced Monday.