Stuff Parents Need

Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

Super Cute Kids Invitations for the Rest of Us: SanLori (GIVEAWAY!!!)

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Sponsored by Tomoson.com

There is no shortage of super cute invitations on the market today. I’d venture to say it’s a pretty saturated market, actually. With enough advanced notice you can get party invitations for your children that rival what you might have seen on an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. If you don’t want to spend quite that much, you can still get something that is professional, personalized and just as good of quality as a wedding invitation.

But here’s the problem: you need to PLAN, and usually at least 2 months in advance to account for printing time and then getting the invites in the mail so that your guests have reasonable notice (unless, of course, you want to pay those rush fees). I’m all for planning (three cheers for “to do” lists!). But I’m also aware the life happens, and you get busy, distracted or things just come up so that you need to make adjustments to exactly how your planned celebrations might need to be executed. Maybe you have to change themes because you didn’t consider the fact that beach party decor might be tough to find in November. Or maybe you have to change the location because your guest list suddenly doubles when you remember to invite all the kids in Sunday school. Or maybe you have to cancel the venue you had reserved due to some unexpected house repairs that come up and move the party to your house. All of these things can very easily happen. And of course, you could just wait until the last minute to make any of the plans as some people are inclined to do (honestly, how do you sleep at night?!) 😉

Whatever the situation, Fiddle-de-de Kids Invites and Thank Your Cards by SanLori have got you covered. They come in a wide variety of themes and are all fill-in-the-blank, which makes planning so much easier for you!

I chose the You Who! invites and matching thank you cards. They are totally precious and while you could have a theme with these (owls, forest animals, animals in general), you can also NOT have a theme, which is a big plus for me, the totally non-crafty and not-at-all creative mama. Whatever happened to just having some cake and ice cream and playing some games and laughing and playing? That’s the kind of kid’s birthday party I throw. No theme required (although I do enjoy reading about all those cute theme ideas, so crafty mamas, keep blogging away about them!).

I want to encourage you to check out SanLori for every occasion you have that requires party invitations. From baby showers to birthdays, they’ve got you covered!


Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will snag 3 packages of Invitations and Thank You Cards (for a total of 24 each) to help you plan your next party! The contest will run until May 22nd at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

IN ORDER TO WIN A GIVEAWAY ON THIS SITE, YOU MUST PUBLICLY FOLLOW VIA GOOGLE FRIEND CONNECT. IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY FOLLOWING, YOU CAN SIGN UP VIA THE GFC BUTTON ON THE SIDEBAR.

Mandatory entry: SanLori wants to be friends on Facebook, so please like them and come back here to tell me you did for your mandatory entry.

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Follow SanLori on Twitter
2. Blogger love: Subscribe to Stuff Parents Need via RSS or email

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com created by WebBizIdeas a Minneapolis SEO and Web Design firm. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Tomoson Product review & giveaway Disclosure.

Custom Ink Stamps: PJ Greetings

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Thanks to Darah’s involvement in play gym, where the children get their hands stamped at the end of the session, we have been introduced to the world of stamps and just how much fun they can be. I think that Darah may find a few stamps in her Easter basket this year, and those will be great to use any time we are drawing and coloring.

Custom Ink Stamps

custom ink stamps from PJ Greetings Darah also has a new stamp that is a bit more special. It is from PJ Greetings, and it is a stamp with her name on it. We LOVE it! The image to the right gives you a sense for what it looks like, but I’m not keen on sharing Darah’s last name here, so you won’t be able to see the actual stamp (sorry!). We asked for it to just have her name on the top and bottom (no address since we are renting our current home and won’t be here forever). And we had it done in purple. Customizing the stamp was a total breeze!

I am NOT a crafty person, but I have still found several uses for Darah’s stamp, so far. I received notice of two Valentine’s parties that Darah would be attending, and found myself needing to make around 20 Valentines. I didn’t want to go purchase Valentine cards, and thought that we could turn the task into a project (*gulp*). I got out some index cards and wrote, “Happy Valentine’s Day!” on them (0riginal, I know). I then found two sets of stickers that Darah would put on the cards to make them more fun. I had some Disney stickers and I also had some stickers with pink roses on them. I helped her remove the stickers, and then just let her put them where she wanted. Most of them were on top of the card message, but I didn’t care, and I suspect the 1 year old recipients didn’t care, either! Then we got out the crayons and Darah colored a bit on each card. Finally, we turned the card’s over and wrote each child’s name on them, and then wrote from: and put Dararh’s new stamp there. The stamp looked fantastic!

custom ink stamps from PJ Greetings I have also used the stamp as a “seal” on the back of a letter. Darah has some personalized cards, and we used one to send a note to a brand new cousin. The stamp on the back of the card looked great! I also plan to use the stamp to mark on the inside of some of her favorite books. I won’t mark on all of them because she probably isn’t going to keep all of her childhood books all of her life, and it will be nice to pass on those books to other people. As Darah gets older, the stamp will come in handy for times when she brings books to school or over to a friend’s house, though.

PJ Greetings is unlike any other stamp store I know of. Their stamp selection is HUGE and the possibilities for customization are almost endless. They have over 300 designs and 8 ink choices. These make an awesome housewarming gift for the family who just bought a new home. They are also wonderful for anyone who likes to make things and/or give gifts. The stamps can also be address labels and “property of” labels. Definitely peruse their options and see what you could use a PJ Greetings stamp for in your home.

Each stamp comes packaged in a pink organza bag with a stamped gift tag, so they come ready to go to that birthday party! Proofs of the stamp are emailed to the customer, and once you give them your stamp of approval (ha ha) they will typically ship within 2 days, so the turnaround, especially for the item being customized, is quite fast!

Buy it!: Most of the customized stamps at PJ Greetings are $39.95, and have enough ink in them to be used over 30,000 times, which is 3 times the amount of most other stamps. If you think strategically, you can create a stamp that will grow with your child and that can be used for years! Also….I have a coupon code for 20% off your purchase! Just use code TOMOSON at checkout! Hooray!

Win it!: One Stuff Parents Need reader will get a custom stamp of your choice from PJ Greetings! The contest will run until March 6th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: PJ Greetings wants to be friends on Facebook, so please “like” them for your first entry!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Since you already liked PJ Greetings on Facebook, post your favorite stamp design on their Facebook wall and come back here to tell me you did for your next entry! Woo hoo!
2. Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need by Google Friend Connect

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the side bar of my home page.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Tomoson Product review & giveaway Disclosure.