One of the most eagerly anticipated nights of the year is October 31, also known as Halloween. Ah, yes. Trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, haunted houses, jack-o-lanterns–Halloween is a day that brings out the kid in all of us.

While many of us have or will donned a costume in honor of All Hallows Eve, a majority of us work at jobs that frown on wearing them to the office. The naughty nurse outfit might not go over well with the parents of your preschool students. And if you’re a brain surgeon, pretty much every choice out there is impractical (unless, of course, you choose to dress up like a brain surgeon.) However, there’s no need to limit your devotion to Halloween with just a pair of skull earrings or a jack-o-lantern tie pin–why not create and wear your own custom T-shirt?

Designing a unique T-shirt isn’t hard at all. All you need to do is come up with a decent idea, make it eye-catching, have it screened onto the size, type and color of shirt of your choice, and you’re good to go.

Here are a few ideas to get your started:

Ghoul’s night out
Fright crew
Witchy woman
It’s all about the candy corn
Vampires suck
I don’t do costumes
Halloween bites (good one for dogs)
Trick or treat, smell my feet (with footprints)
Love a first fright
I want candy–or else!
Gone batty
I’ve put a spell on you
Angel in disguise

A myriad of fonts are available for you to use–it’s Halloween! Nothing is too tacky or over the top. You can make your text look like it’s dripping, like it’s smeared, or like it’s carved into stone. Click around to get ideas and inspiration.

Now that you know what you want to say, it’s time to find a picture or two to help you say it better. Stuck for ideas? Here are the basic Halloween icons to get draw inspiration from:

*Witches hats, brooms
*Ghosts
*Zombies
*Mummies
*Spiders, cobwebs
*Skeletons
*Jack-o-Lanterns
*Candy corn
*Vampires, stakes, bats
*Frankenstein, Wolfman
*Black cats

You should be able access all of these images somewhere online fairly easily. If you want to create something truly unique, however, it’s a good idea to have a conversation with the custom T-shirt manufacturer you plan on doing business with. Chances are they can help you, or can point you in the direction of someone who will.

Now that you have the text and design, it’s time to choose the shirt itself.

When it comes to the actual shirt, the obvious colors are black, white, or orange. Most online custom T-shirt dealers usually post a size chart on their websites–it’s important to read these–you don’t want to spend a lot of energy creating the perfect shirt, only to order the wrong size.

It’s a good idea to put your order in early–there’s probably plenty of people who are designing and ordering their custom T-shirt too, and you want to make sure your shirt is in hand before the first Halloween party of the season kicks off.