How to Use the Background and Border Feature on Zazzle

I had just started on Zazzle by putting my photos and artwork directly onto the product. It doesn't look bad, but sometimes it just looked too plain. Then I discovered how to dress it up with a frame.

The Zazzle background and border function is not obvious at first glance. It’s hidden behind the edit tab. Not all products have the background function and even less have the border function, but for those that do, it's a great way to see your art with a colorful frame around it.

I chose the mugs to show how this works since it has both features. I'll show later how to use the background in another way.

I experiment until I find a background that I like. It fills the space designated for artwork so the picture is on top of the color filled box. Once I find the color for the background, I move on to adding the border.

Next I click on the border function. Again I have a choice of colors. I picked out a green that would go with the leaves in the picture. There is a wonderful addition to this feature that is the slider at the bottom of the panel. This allows you to set the thickness of the border.

Now I have my background color and border, but you can see that the picture is over too far to one side and there is just a purple box on the other side of the mug.

Now I switch to the design view. I moved the picture of the flowers over to make an even border on three sides. I tend to leave a wider border in the middle of the mug. I added another image of the flowers and aligned them on the other side of the background.

 Once I'm happy with the arrangement, I post the item for sale.

Using the border and background feature makes a much more finished looking design.

                              Morning Glory Mug

Another way to use the background feature is with products that will allow you to fill the entire  a solid cut out image. I happened to find this image of a crow. I could have made one by cutting out the background and filling in the image, but I already had this and it was ready to go.

This plate does not have the border feature. I simply filled in the color and added the image of the crow. It's a quick way to make a colorful image. You can also add text the same way.