If you have children – or have children on your shopping list, hint, hint –

then make a bee-line for My KIdentity. It’s a fun CafePress shop specializing in kid-themed designs (although there are also plenty of products, according to shopkeeper Alisha Joseph, for adults who never quite grew up).

Alisha gets much of the inspiration for her designs right from the source – yes, her children. As a mother of two adorable kids, oftentimes she simply watches what they do, and how they act, to come up with fresh ideas. “Right out of my kids’ mouths,” Alisha explains. They’re often her muse for topics from camping and kid humor to siblings and school.

Truth be told, though, it’s not easy being creative around the children, she’s quick to point out. You try drawing on a tablet, working on the laptop or create “kid-looking” text on the couch, while children climb on you.

Ah, the sacrifices we make as artists… But the rewards are many. Perhaps just as important as the money Alisha earns from selling designs in her shop, she also enjoys the praise. Her proudest moment? “The very first time a stranger noticed one of my kids’ shirts and shared a compliment with me,” she explains. “They hadn’t known it was my design.”

Well, consider this another compliment. You’re doing a great job and bringing a lot of joy (and smiles) to parents, grandparents and everyone who loves the joy of childhood.

Great designs hook you instantly. Especially cute ones about babies (aww!), kids and motherhood. That’s why we love this CafePress shop so much.

Flaunt It Baby is a fun CafePress shop specializing in adorable designs for the young ones in your life (as well as designs for the expectant mother). The “brainchild” of designer Brindi Atkins, Flaunt It Baby was born when she was searching for special T-shirts for her daughters. It suddenly dawned on Brindi that she could make her own designs and find something that fit her wee one’s personalities perfectly. Plus, she could make some extra money, which never hurts with a young family.

While Brindi loves snowboarding, camping, hitting the beach, scrapbooking and other activities, with young children she realistically spends most of her day in their playful world. And that’s where fun ideas come to the surface on a regular basis. Brindi gets a lot of the inspiration for her ideas from just hanging around with the girls. In her own words, “I’ve always had a knack for design, but my daughters and their outgoing personalities help too!”

It’s also fun for Brinidi’s daughters to wear clothes with the designs they’ve created together. What keeps her motivated? “My daughters,” Brindi says. “They’ll always need clothes, and they can’t go walking around in lame designs – ha ha.”

If ever there was a CafePress shop that grew out of a deep passion, it would be Clare Wilders and her DiveBunnie world. Long a scuba diving aficionado and now living in Egypt, Claire longed to express her love for the water sport. Plus she hoped to encourage more women to get their feet wet in the male-dominated world of scuba.

Hence her female-friendly underwater world of the DiveBunnie surfaced – as well as her fun DiveBunnie shop. Clare specializes in fresh & funky designs, with candy-shaded colors leaning towards pink & turquoise. The ultimate example of her style is Clare’s signature mascot – the adorable DiveBunnie herself.

A former professional dancer who occasionally dabbled in art, Clare now devotes her full time to scuba instruction and running the DiveBunnie empire. It gives her the freedom to have a successful career while enjoying the fantastic ocean views (including, yes, views from the bottom of the ocean). The scenery includes the awe-inspiring turquoise ocean and peachy-pink mountains, which inspire her palate and bring awesome colors to her many t-shirt buying customers around the globe.

Elias Skourletos and Beth Ponticello may be separated by an ocean (the Atlantic), but their minds are one. Together they’re the dynamic duo that makes up the popular CafePress shop, E2 T-shirts.

With Elias (the “idea man”) living in London and Beth (the “design queen”) hailing from Florida, you would think it would be a challenge running a successful business together. Not so. Not with CafePress anyway (not to mention Skype, webcams and other high-tech touches). Although they’ve met only once in person – when Beth flew across the pond recently – they’re constantly online bouncing ideas off each other for the next great T-shirt design.

Drawing inspiration from the news, current affairs, TV shows and simply walking the busy streets of London and Florida, the pair find more than enough topics for brilliant T-shirts (today they have more than 400 designs available in their shop). E2 T-shirts’ goal is to create designs that make people laugh, and ultimately brighten the day of people everywhere. With their multi-national background, it’s no wonder they’re also excited each time they rack-up sales in a new country. Because with designs this brilliant, two continents of customers simply isn’t enough.

We like to push the boundaries of personalization.

The figurative and literal boundaries, because after all, we’re all about printing here at CafePress.

We have some new capabilities to take personalizing products to the next level. When shopping at CafePress, take “personal” to the next level with our personalizable designs on everything from business cards to t-shirts. On select products you’ll see the option to modify the text, image or photo. The “I Heart Joey” t-shirt can now say “I Heart Danny” if Danny is who you love! Products eligible will be marked with a Personalize icon so be on the lookout. For those of us (like myself) who were not graced with the graphic design gene, this is a perfect option for choosing a great design and adding a unique element to it at the same time. The best of both worlds in one shebang!

If you’re using CafePress to shop for anything from stationery and business cards to funny t-shirts, and you come across a design you really love, but want that extra pizzazz that screams your name (without hurting your vocal chords) – add your own personal touch. Here’s something to chirp about:

In this example, you can add your own text, and voila! Use this tool to put on your creative cap and make imaginative and professional business cards, birth announcements for your bun in the oven, or save the dates for that special day coming up. Meanwhile, we’ll keep pushing the limits of personalized printing!

While most 9-year old boys are consumed by the latest video games and animated movies, Miles Gould has a more meaningful passion: Raising money for the 100,000+ children displaced by the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

After first learning of the devastation, Miles knew in his heart-of-hearts that he had to help these kindred spirits. A whiz at origami (the ancient Japanese art of paper folding), Miles had a brilliant fundraising idea and enlisted the help of his family & teacher. He organized his friends and classmates to make colorful origami airplanes (Miles instructed them in the plane construction, of course). These artwork planes were then auctioned off – with 100% of the net proceeds going to the Japan relief effort.

The fundraiser was so successful (and heart-warming), it was spotlighted on both his local TV station and newspaper. Miles’ mother also helped set up a CafePress shop, The Big Paper Plane Tsunami Save, where people are able to purchase products featuring a specially-created design commemorating the fundraiser.

You can read about Miles’ wonderful endeavor on their Facebook page, or you can visit their shop. This shop is living proof that whether you’re big or small, you can make a huge difference in our world. Thank you Miles, from everyone at CafePress.

For those of you with a knack for creativity and strong passions – April is a prime example of showing how CafePress shopkeepers use their designs not only as a form of self-expression, but as a way to acknowledge, educate and support these passions. April is Autism Awareness month, and CafePress has partnered with nonprofit organization Autism Speaks and some of our talented shopkeepers to support this cause.

During the entire month of April, CafePress will be donating a portion of all autism-related sales* to Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest science and advocacy organization for autism. Additionally, four of our shopkeepers shared their autism stories with us, exploring how autism goes deeper than just a cause to support for some, but also a way of life.

It’s rewarding to see how passionate our community of shopkeepers is about what they believe in and how their designs bring another level of awareness to their causes. Be sure to explore their stories and their shops, as well as CafePress’s autism awareness designs to learn more about autism and how you can help spread the word and give those with a voice an audience to be heard.

* An amount equal to 10% of the final purchase price for all products tagged with “autism” and sold through CafePress.com Marketplace during April 1, 2011 through April 30, 2011 will be donated to Autism Speaks (http://www.autismspeaks.org/).

When Adam Diaz opened his official CafePress shop in 2008, he set his design dreams on Japan and beyond. With inspiration coming from his two idols, video game directors and designers Tetsuya Nomura and Shigeru Miyamoto, Adam designs in the style of the likes of comics, Anime and Manga to name a few.

“I eventually want to share ideas with video game companies, advertisers and comic book artists,” Adam said of his future plans.

For World of Warcraft and ritual geeks out there, Adam’s shop, iLuvDesign also features a plethora of cool elements, dragon and ninja designs, all bursting with vibrant colors and geometric shapes that will make your eyes perk up. And when Adam isn’t hard at work on his shop, you can find him designing, drawing, and video gaming.

With a background in art (who can’t live without a 0.5mm mechanical pencil), Adam now enjoys wearing clothes from his CafePress shop, and marks his proudest moment as a CafePress shopkeeper as the first time he wore a t-shirt of his own design.

Kudos to you Adam, and keep up the great work!

Terrie Marcoe and Living on the Edge

Just because you live in a log cabin in the woods, with no plumbing or electricity, eight miles from town doesn’t mean you can’t run a successful CafePress shop for a niche market. Terrie’s shop, which focuses on rock climbing, makes full use of the many features that a CafePress shop offers!

“My customers get a confirmation on their order and have the goods shipped in just a few days, as well as a 100% customer satisfaction policy. These benefits are very valuable to me as a shopkeeper. I would never be able to offer these things were I handling every aspect of the business.”

Terrie loves the wide variety of products offered especially the SIGG bottles and the new yoga mats. “Many climbers are also yoga enthusiasts!” she shares.  As a caretaker on the Shawangunk mountains nature preserve in Ulster County, NY, she loves making designs with “insider climbing lingo” to appeal to the true fans of rock climbing.

One of our favorites includes this Top Ten List of Things People Say to Climbers iPhone 3GS case!

And for the future? Besides more rock climbing (of course), Terrie’s got plans to add more fun products to her shop – and we can’t wait to see what’s next. We don’t want her to leave us hanging.

Cool Designs for the Nature Lover in You

Take it from Tim Phelps. His artwork­ – which is medical and scientific in nature – on his CafePress shop showcases his vibrant and anatomical designs. Phelps is an award-winning medical illustrator (think anatomy) who teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a hot hobby for miniature die-cast car flame painting for more than 15 years. Whew, that’s a mouthful. But Phelps’s designs say it all.

“I’m combining my love of nature with a great love for hot rods and flame painting, resulting in everything from hot rod moths and bugs to flame-painted sea life including fish, turtles and jellyfish.”

One reason Phelps loves CafePress? The variety of products on which he can feature his designs. And next on the design agenda – variations on hot rod 1932 Fords.

He’s made some designs for his family too – notably this flaming ladybug design for his daughter. He describes it as a “lava-licked ladybug.” The lava looks cool, no pun intended. His shop features many variations of beautiful, flaming moths – some which have cooler flames and others that, ahem, sizzzzle. Check them out!