Photo by Transguyjay
Families know that it is summer camp time. Children look forward to this time and even parents look forward to it as a time when their children will develop new skills and make some new friends and just have some fun.

Whether your child goes away to camp or to a local camp, the “camp experience” involves great organization on the part of the camper and the family. It is so important that you get organized for your child ahead of time. Try our camp organization tips so your child will have a great summer.

1. When you register your child for camp – ask for the materials list. Many camps will mail it out as camp date gets closer, but most will provide it at your request earlier – which means you can get your shopping done earlier.
2. Labels in clothing are very important, especially for children attending a sleep-away camp. Add labels early – and remember if your child has a popular name and surname like Susan Smith to add their middle name too to avoid confusion.
3. Sending treats to sleep-away camp and day camp is a popular occurrence. Label snacks so campers know whose snacks are whose. Remember that many children today have peanut allergies – so don’t select snacks with peanuts in them.
4. Your child for sleep-away camp will have a large trunk to put all of their items in. Remember to put labels the actual trunk, both inside and outside so everyone knows whose trunk it is.
5. Many children are tempted to bring valuable items like a charm bracelet, favorite teddy bear or electronic devices to camp. This is often unwise as these items can become lost or sometimes “borrowed” by overeager campers. Sometimes these items are also hard to label – like a teddy bear or a piece of jewelry.
6. Give your child pre stamped stationary or postcards to write friends and family home while at sleep-away camp. Most sleep-away campers do have access to email. But many campers look forward to daily “mail call” and the best way to get mail is to send some of your own.

MaverickLabel.com They specialize in custom label printing and have cheap stickers and custom window decals for summer needs.

Good organization not only keeps a playroom neat, it is an opportunity to teach your children about their letters and spelling words. Many schools now adapt the organization habit of labeling storage boxes in nursery school classrooms with a label that has a picture and the word for what is inside. So a container with crayons would have a picture of crayons and the word “Crayons.”

Adapting this labeling technique for your young child’s playroom at home not only gives you a very well organized playroom, it also encourages a child to stretch their word and lettering skills. The more exposed they are to words and letters, the more they will start to use them!

Labels are easy to make and to find. The very best labels for your nursery child’s playroom at home are ones that are both colorful and durable.

Use words that are simple and very commonly found. As your child sees the word over and over, they will begin to acclimate the word with the toy or other plaything.

St. Matthew’s Church likes to help out the community. This year they decided to hold a spaghetti fundraising dinner. The funds would help their nursery school and several community charities. A spaghetti dinner is a low cost event but appeals to many hungry appetites. So the spaghetti fundraising plans were underway.

Our tickets were reasonably priced. Adults were $5 and children were $3. You could eat as much spaghetti as you wished. We felt that was a good price. Sodas and drinks were an extra cost as those can get pricy. Dessert was included. A local restaurant stepped up to donate the spaghetti, dessert and even the soda pop!

After a few weeks, the ticket sales were low. Pastor Greg was concerned about the event and wondered what else could be done. The Church Secretary Betty suggested we get bumper stickers to promote the event. The Pastor budgeted for them and realized they were low-cost and an ideal choice for the fundraiser. Best of all they came in many colors and lots of font and graphic choices – so we really could create a top quality bumpersticker that would get lots of attention.

At church, the next Sunday bumper stickers were passed out during the coffee hour. It wasn’t long before then that the phone started to ring with people wanting to reserve spots for the spaghetti dinner. Best of all, lots of people who bought tickets also asked if they could have a bumpersticker – which promoted our event even more! We ran out of the first batch of bumperstickers and had to have a second batch printed up. But they came quickly and we could easily hand them out to new dinner ticket buyers.

Three weeks from then it was time for our spaghetti dinner. Pastor Greg smiled as the Parish Hall was filled to the brim with people. I don’t think we’ve ever cooked that much spaghetti before in our lives! We raised $6,000 and with half of it going to the nursery school we can afford to get a new computer and library of books for the children. The other half goes to community based charities.

Our favorite thing about the bumperstickers was that they were fun. They made fundraising easy. A flyer can also be easy and convenient but they blow away. Many people think a flyer can be a real nuisance to their business. With the bumpersticker people who took them and added them to their cars knew they were supporting a local community event by putting one on their car.

It was also very helpful that the bumperstickers offered very attractive fonts, graphics and many colors for us to choose from. We were able to create a good looking bumpersticker and one that looked quite professional.

I would recommend a bumpersticker to any community fundraiser. It just makes things easier. Bumperstickers help you get the word out. They help to get people excited about what you are doing. Choose bumperstickers and watch your ticket sales explode!

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Toys Noticed This Holiday Season with Product Labels

Let’s face it – there are a lot of toys on the shelf this holiday season. Every advantage you have to stand out could make the difference between making a sale – or being the Closeout item come this January. Custom Product Labels give your toys a polished and professional look every time.

Toys deserve labels with a highly original and especially playful look. You aren’t going to find that with just an “everyday” label. Labels are important on children’s toys. They can remind parents to buy batteries, of appropriate age levels for a child’s toy or if there are non-toxic or choking hazards in your toy(s). Best of all, a label gets special attention – a label often comes in a contrasting or complimentary color and really stands out. This makes parents pay close attention to whatever you have chosen to put on the label.

A custom product label is an ideal way to point out your USP (unique selling position) for your toy this holiday season. Perhaps your toy is an educational toy that has received outstanding reviews from well-respected publications. A custom product label permits you to highlight these reviews or commendations on your toy’s packaging in a show stopping way.

You can also introduce new features or characters using a custom product label. If your toy has been on the market for awhile but you’ve made some changes to this new version, custom product labels can introduce new and current customers to your changes. Many customers may not read every detail on the toy’s packaging before buying. That custom product label can help you entice buyers – and also avoid confusion or disappointment. If your toy has switched age ranges for example – the parent of a four-year old will want to know that your toy is now appropriate for ages six through eight, not four through eight.

A custom product label is also a unique opportunity to encourage customer (and child) interactivity. If your toy company has a website with interactive features – or free things for purchasers of that toy – a custom product label is an ideal opportunity to highlight this feature. Best of all, you’ll get both adults and children excited about the idea of visiting your website to check out coloring pages, puzzles, games or other fun things they might have otherwise missed out on.

The best custom product label is one that both compliments and also contrasts your toy’s packaging. So if your doll is packaged in a sweet little girl pink color box, consider not choosing another pink color for the customer product label color – but a contrasting color or a color that will compliment yet also stand out. Try another girl favorite color like purple. Or green or blue. Or a metallic custom product label for extra shine – making your label gold, silver or another metallic color.

Custom product labels can be a toy company’s best friend. Children love stickers and will happily look for stickers wherever they go. When they see a sticker on a toy they like, this alone will encourage them to stop and look longer as they view the sticker. Make your custom product labels appeal both to children as well as adults. Remember that you have two different customer bases when it comes to a toy purchase.

Photo by gorickjones

In case you’ve been too busy playing Wii Fit in an effort to look great in your tankini this summer – or have otherwise been engaged – let us share with you the hottest trend in vacations: staying home. Staycations are vacations where you actually stay home and do fun things. No, they don’t have to be endless days of vegging out in front of the tube – you can actually do some pretty cool stuff. We’ve got some unique tips to help you plan a great staycation that will have your family truly feel like they’ve had a summer break.

#1 Clean house before your staycation. This may sound like work – and yes, it is work. But remember that when we go on vacation, we stay in clean hotel, motel and bed and breakfasts. Taking your staycation in a house littered with toys and dust is going to make you feel more stressed out than ever.

#2 Sit down with your family to plan some fun activities. It helps if you have some fun ideas, but be sure to ask for your family’s input on exactly what they consider fun. If you plan a day at a local museum and your children don’t want to go – this isn’t a pleasurable activity. But if your children would rather go to the local aquarium and admission is a comparable price – then this gives you a great activity to do for your staycation.

#3 Visit your local tourism website. Most counties and every state has an official tourism website and office to provide information. While most do deal with out-of-state inquiries – your staycation can greatly improve when you get information on all of the local attractions. Sometimes we are so busy that we just don’t know about some of our local jewels to truly enjoy them.

MaverickLabel.Com, a company founded to meet the growing need for a label source utilizing the latest technologies blended with old fashioned quality and customer service. They specialize in custom label printing and have cheap stickers and custom roll labels for summer needs.