The political season is approaching with a lot of voters very interested in both candidates and issues. Strong opinions on all sides of many issues have started and will continue to boil over in the next 9 months until the elections in November. Everyone wants to get their 2 cents in on what they believe is the most important problem to solve.

A great way to express your beliefs, promote your cause and candidate, or just let people know where you stand is to crank up those inkjet printers. There are several ways you can use your little inkjet printer to produce t-shirts, bumper stickers, and signs to announce your candidate or cause. It's cheap, easy, and you can say what you think (obviously you want to stay within acceptable boundaries).

HP, Epson, Avery, and other ink and paper manufacturers have a great selection of items that you can use to voice your opinion. Here's a quick list of products that you can use with your inkjet printer to state your case. All are very reasonable in price and easy to use. Most can be found at your local business supply store or their online counterparts like Amazon.

You will also need some type of graphics or printer software that can create a mirror image. This is necessary due to printing on the transfer paper then applying to your object. Many printers have that capability and some paper manufacturers like HP, Epson, and Avery provide software free with their product or you can download it free from their websites.

Iron On or Image Transfer Kits

All three companies offer Inkjet T-shirt printing products that you can use to make your own image and transfer it to a t-shirt (you could use any cloth garment). Here's how it works, the image is printed in reverse on a special coated paper that has heat sensitive adhesive. Once you have the image printed, you place the image on the t-shirt and then iron over it to make it adhere to the t-shirt. You peel of the paper and bingo; you have a t-shirt with your message. These kits are available for both white and color t-shirts, usually have at least 5 transfer sheets, and cost around $9 to $12. A good plain white t-shirt will run you about $7-$9 each. Figure about $10-$12 total cost for custom each t-shirt. There are also no heat pressure transfer kits too.

Don't just limit yourself to t-shirts, there many different items that would work. People make quilt pieces, sweatshirts, or any cloth item that you can think off.

Bumper Stickers

You can find bumper sticker paper with an adhesive back in several sizes, the most popular being a 5 up design in an 8.5 X 11 inch sheet. The paper should be resistant to water, have adhesive, and you should use a special ink that is also resistant to water or moisture. Amazon has some vinyl adhesive paper for around $15 for a 100 sheets (which makes 500 bumper stickers). HP and Epson both offer special inks to last longer in outdoor conditions. But you can also check with your local or online art supply stores for a protective spray that protects anything from moisture (the manufacturer Krylon makes several).

Clear Stickers For Windshields or Any Glass Surface

Another material that you can print your message or image on is clear and works well on glass surfaces. Your back window in your car, house windows, where ever there is glass. If displaying outdoors, use a weatherproof material and ink or use the same protective spray recommend above. You might want to use more vibrant colors on the translucent or clear materials to get a little more contrast and visible image. Darker colors seem to work better too since they are less transparent.

The great thing about making your own t-shirts, bumper stickers, or other transfer images is that you can be as creative as you want and don't have to settle for someone else's slogans. And don't just limit yourself to political messages; there are a lot of different reasons to create some transfer images from sports team support to special events.