When I was young, I was obliged to take craft classes at school. I excelled in two things only. Macrame (I once made a very fetching hanging pot holder) and weaving, using willow twigs, twisted this way and that until they were transformed into a perfect somewhat resembled a basket. However, every other aspect of the classes eluded me. I could never get the hang of ‘casting on and off’, so a career in knitting was out. And I continue to tip my hat to anyone who can take a lump of clay and turn it into anything other than an amorphous mass of dried silt. Although, one year I (Grandma) got an A+ for making a beautiful little upside-down doll. I (She) spent hours hand-sewing her dress and attaching pretty ribbons and button eyes. It was a triumph.
Because of this, I am still left clueless when faced with stitching a hem or sewing a button that has fallen from a shirt. Imagine the horror when my children started school and everything had to be labelled. “Everything must be clearly labelled with your daughter’s name. This includes full uniform, underpants, socks, shoes, lunchbox, drink bottle, hat, school bag, pencil case & pencils, rulers and every other item that she may need at school.” Outsourcing quickly became my friend. There are a number of companies that will do this for you and at quite reasonable prices. Over the ensuing years, I’ve tried them all with varying degrees of success.
When we relocated to our farm recently, I was faced with having to label a whole new set of school paraphernalia. Sigh. However, serendipity intervened, as Bright Star Kids had contacted me just a week prior asking if I’d be interested in giving their labels* a test run. Well, heck yes! My daughter Grace and I have now labelled everything. She has also chosen to label the dog, her quad bike, the garden tags in the veggie patch and our letterbox at the end of the road. She also snuck into the pantry and labelled all the jars containing lunch-box treats. Clever girl; cranky brother.
So how would I rate Bright Star Kids? After 6 weeks, the stickers are still sticking, despite many of the items to which they are adhered having gone through the dishwasher each day. Any parent will know that this is the true test of a sticker’s quality. Interestingly, Grace is also doing a roaring trade at school swapping some of her funky personalised stickers with schoolmates – sticker swapping is all the rage apparently. It was “Love Is…” swap-cards in my day … but I digress.
And they don’t just supply labels. How beautiful is this wall decal?
So, if like me, you are craft-challenged, think of Bright Star Kids next time you’re facing a labelling crisis. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. Oh, and the gang at Bright Star Kids have offered readers of this blog the chance to win one of two Preschool and Daycare Label Kits valued at $34.95 each. For that you’ll receive 160 assorted labels with the name and design of your choice. Simply leave a comment here letting me know if you’d like one. Grace will choose two winners at random. Be quick!
Until next time….
*Bright Star supplied us with their standard back-to-school sticker pack for review.
Craft is anything that can be stuck, tied, moulded, hung, cut, pasted or even baked in Tessa;s opinion, which I’m inclined to agree with. Would LOVE to win a bright star pack. Coat missing from preschool last week. All Harriet’s clothes have Tessa’s name in and Tessa’s are mostly unlabelled!
Bright Star kids make awesome labels. We have some that are 4 years old and still making it through the dishwasher! So glad your Grace found an even more fun use for them, swapping sounds fun! I’ll try to remember to bring some our our Gracie’s when we catch up x
Would love to win labels for my little niece also called Grace! 🙂
The labels are fantastic as you always will have one on hand for something you all of a sudden realise needs to be labelled (usually at the last minute)
Im not very artistic unless you included photography or cakes but I 100% agree that bright star are fantastic !!!!! Have used their labels on my daughter’s lunch box stuff for 2 terms and they are as good as new!!! With another little one on the way to school winning this set would be so handy hehe :))
I have a friend who swears by these labels! I would LOVE to try them first my little girl, Amelia. She starts kinder next year so they would be perfect! 🙂
craft was never my thing either and as soon as i heard i had to label everything for kindy i very excitedly did a google search for iron on not sew on labels have been very impressed with them!! and so is my daughter she loves knowing which water bottle is hers at the water table at kindy because ‘i can read my name on it and see my pink butterfly’ 🙂
yes i’d like one 🙂
My little Ben has just started childcare. Things to label: clothes, dummies, bag, drink container (probably lots of others I haven’t thought of yet… Most importantly, don’t want labels to fall off, so these must be the ones! Ben has a little cuddly lion, so maybe we can get labels to match Lion.
I have 4 little ones, and with three of them at big school, the ONLY thing I regret about placing my order through Bright Star Kids, is not ordering enough pencil labels!!! 😉 These packs are BRILLIANT and my kids love helping me label all their belongings! 🙂
I would love some… With my 3 kids it’ll help!
I am loving the idea of craft however I was not born crafty, like you I will resort to getting pre made labels and probably press my friends (sweet, gullible creatures they are!) into attaching them for me. Having married into a crafty family I have tried to become more like them with limited success! However for the sake of my little girl (and hopefully more children to come) I will keep trying and hope my husband doesn’t laugh too much!
As a working mum of two kids who has time to sew on labels, would love to win this prize!
just bought a baby pack for my son for daycare, they turned out great & were posted so quickly! so happy I would LOVE to win more,:)
Bright Star kids labels rock and my little Sam says please may I have some to start Kindy with 🙂
each year i print out names on paper and stick it to all of their school/daycare items with sticky tape. Use thick texta for everything else, it just looks so tacky, the writing fades and the stick y tape falls off, getting the school pack of labels for my daughter was the best thing ive ever done, her belongings stay neat and she takes more pride in them, and most of all they are returned when lost!
With 2 girls 1 school age 1 in Fdc they are forever loosing books. Clothes, containers, shoes, hats, you name it gets lost I’m sick of all the expense as a single mum I can’t afford it soo please pick me I will tell all my mummy friends were I got them from
Dang! I didn’t get this in time! *SIGH* I found it stuffed away in My Spam with 2 others! Hopefully this time I have rectified that….and will no longer miss Your Wonderful Writings! 🙂