Back to School Blog Tour

I am participating in the Back to School Blog Tour this week, sponsored by Living My MoMent and The Work At Home Woman.

We go back to school early here, and all 3 of my boys are well into the first few weeks of the new year.  My oldest son is a 3rd grader, my middle son is a 1st grader, and my youngest son is in PreK this year.  In addition to running my stationery & card business from home, I returned to the classroom last year as a substitute teacher, and I work at the older boys’ school anywhere from 1-5 days/week.  These past few weeks, I have had a lot of sub jobs, so its been very hectic and busy getting into the school routine while trying get 3 kids ready to go to 2 different schools and hustle out the door! (to say the least!)

When I started my business, my goal was to develop products that I would use, and I truly do!  As I have posted numerous times, I could not live without my excuse pads and school envelopes.  I have a few excuse pads stashed in different places because when I am subbing, I use them to let my sons’ teachers know where I will be in the building and how they are getting home.  Right now, I am using the rainbow name pads, and I am working on some new designs for their envelopes to use this year.

If you are stopping by for the first time by means of the Back to School Blog Tour, I hope you enjoyed your visit—my blog is mainly a place where I showcase new products, special events, and custom designs.  Please be sure to stop by my main website & poke around!  I hope you will come back again!  I am getting ready to do a giveaway for Facebook fans of some of my favorite back to school goodies, so be sure to fan my page.

Rainbow Name Excuse Pads, Take Two

These pads are a result of a recent order in which the customer wanted a little customization on the rainbow excuse pads.  She wanted to have individual pads for each child, and I suggested using a different color combination for each so that it was easy to grab the right pad quickly when needing to scribble a note to school!

Get yours HERE!

Monogram School Envelopes

This was a recent custom order.  These are also available in a script monogram, and in other color combos.  Get yours HERE in time for back to school communication!

New Item: Pink Owl Personalized Bag Tag

Such a cute way to label your backpack, diaper bag, luggage, etc. Personalized as desired, front & back printing. Buy yours HERE!

More Cute Owls & Summer Savings!

How cute are these? I want some for me, but somehow, I don't think my sons would want to carry these in to school this year... You can find them HERE though!

It's been awhile since I have posted--summer with the kids home has been busy, and I have been trying to soak up as much time with the boys while they are home as possible. ♥ I do have more new products to share with you soon, and I have a little giveaway planned as well...

This week has been super HOT around here. I missed posting a coupon code to celebrate the Fourth, so I have one for you now. Use the code "sizzle" (no quotation marks) for the rest of July to save 10% on any order over $15.

Teacher Appreciation

Teacher Appreciation Week is just around the corner! Show you teacher(s) they are valued with a gift of personalized stationery, and know that they will be able to put it to good use! Notepads and notecards are popular gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week. Here, the first week of May is typically reserved to honor our educators, though across the country, actual dates may vary.

Handy Dandy School Envelopes

Have I mentioned that these are one of my most favorite things? LOL. I use these several times a week to send in notes to the teacher, book orders, lunch money, you name it... Find them HERE.

If you are not a fan on facebook yet, now is the time to do it--giveaway coming soon exclusively for Facebook fans! Click the link over there to find us --->

I SURVIVED!

Today was the first day of school here, and I had to send off my middle son to kindergarten with his older brother going into 2nd grade. It was a tough day for me...as a mom, you wrestle with the conflicting feelings of being so proud of them for growing up and becoming more independent, yet wanting to hold on to them extra tight because they are growing up so fast! So, I was a bit of a basketcase on the inside today. It was hard sending my oldest to kindergarten, and almost as hard the second time around. (The only part that made it "almost" as hard was knowing his big brother would be there to help him get off the bus at the right spot!)

The whole day was bittersweet..starting with big brother doling out advice about school and explaining how things work from the time they got up til they hopped out of the van and he took Cooper's hand and walked him in! (If that didn't make my heart melt!) Then, when I loaded the pics from my camera I marveled at just how grown up my oldest looked. He is only 6.5 but looked every bit like a 2nd grader today. Seeing Cooper bounce right out of the car and be guided into school by his big brother without even a glance back... And then, spending the day with only my youngest, who suddenly seemed all grown up too, wanting to clear the breakfast dishes and clean up his toys without being asked. He asked about his brothers all day and kept saying he wanted to go to school too. When I put him down for his nap, I told him we would get his brothers when he got up, and as soon as I peeked in on him after naptime, he immediately said he wanted to go get Hayden & Cooper. Awww...

The big boys both had a great day, and my new kindergartner declared that he LOVED school as he bounded off the bus with a HUGE smile on his face!

Here they are getting ready to leave for the big day:





I hope your first day is as smooth as ours was! Don't forget, there are just 2 more days to enter our Back to School giveaway, and you can still earn extra entries!

Back to School GIVEAWAY!

If you read our last post or our most recent newsletter, you may have gotten some ideas for how Cutie Pies Custom Creations can help you stay organized this school year! Now, I would like to offer you a chance to win some of these great items! This is a great package deal for anyone w/school age children. Here is what you can win:

• 10 personalized school envelopes
• Your choice of a personalized school excuse pad or mommy notepad
• 1 sheet of name or book labels

How do you enter? Follow these simple guidelines:

INITIAL ENTRY (Mandatory!):

Post a comment below to enter!

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES (Optional) You many do as many of these as you'd like, but each may be done only once, with the exception of #5. Post a comment below to tell me about it each time, and include a link if applicable. If you are already a subscriber/follower/etc. just leave a comment noting so.

1. Become a fan on Facebook
2. Follow me on Twitter
3. Become a follower of this blog
4. Subscribe to our newsletter
5. Tweet about this giveaway! *You may tweet as often as once a day for additional entries for each tweet*
   
6. Blog about this giveaway

That's it! Good luck! This giveaway will close on Friday, August 21st at midnight EST.

Back to School with Cutie Pies Custom Creations helpful stationery products!

Summer always does seem to fly by, at least at my house! My boys head back in just over 2 weeks, which will be here before we know it. We have been stocking up on school supplies & getting geared up. Next week, I will be working on making up new school stationery products to keep my own family organized this school year.

One of my favorite tools are the school envelopes, which I personalize for each of my boys to transport those important notes, permission slips, money, etc. to school in. The possibilities for personalizing these are vast--you can modify the text/choices to fit your needs, and there are so many graphic choices available as well.

I also love to use several personalized notepads for school communication. I use THESE to send notes into my sons' teachers. I personalize with my contact info so that the teacher can easily respond via email/phone if needed. I also keep a school excuse pad handy, which makes for less work if they are returning to school after an illness, or need to be picked up for an appointment, etc.

My boys pack their lunch pretty often, and I like to include a note in their lunchbox to let them know I am thinking about them. My oldest son really looked forward to these when he started kindergarten and was in school all day for the first time. I use a special Mommy notepad for lunchbox notes.

Another thing I will be working on to prepare for school at my house is new bag tags for the kids' backpacks. I also use them on lunchboxes & sports bags. Again, these may be personalized with as much or as little info as you need to include.

I have hit the sales to stock up on school supplies already, and to label all of our items, I use THESE. Some of the stickers, I print with names only, but they can be customized with hundreds of graphic choices.

My business truly is based on products that I use myself. As a former teacher, I am all about being completely organized for school, and these items make that easier for me as a busy mom of 3 young boys...I must say my least favorite part of the school year is the frenzied mornings of getting everyone dressed, fed, & ready to go out the door! I keep my school stationery products in a special spot so they are handy and accesible. I hope you'll check out the website to see what you could use to make your school year run a little bit smoother this year!