Vistaprint~Your new addiction

 I visit ProTeacher and Second Grade Teachers Club A LOT and the teachers over there are super amazingly awesome.  Last summer around this time I kept seeing post after post about Vistaprint so I became intrigued and holy cow ~ an addiction was born! The secret to Vistaprint is that once you order one little thing from them, you get put on their mailing list which taunts you with some freakishly good discounts and free items. I tested the theory and bought this pen (& this pen only) for my trial run:

Almost immediately my inbox was filled with crazy good discounts that I would have thought too good to be true, had it not been for those testimonials on ProTeacher and 2nd Grade Club.  So, I just thought I'd pass along some of the things I ended up ordering. Most of them were free and some were just a few dollars. Even with shipping, I bet I spent less than $30.00 total on everything on this page. So, in order from worst to best purchase, here is my Vistaprint haul:

My least useful, kind of a waste purchase is this little tote bag. First of all, what teacher needs another tote bag, right? But this one was all cute and natural canvas and I was proud of the snarky "green" comment I designed.  I imagined myself proudly bringing my eco-friendly bag shopping,  feeling all granola-chic. The only problem is that this picture of the bag is actual size. Ok, maybe it's a bit bigger, but not much. I could probably fit a pack of notebook paper inside, but certainly not much else. So if you need a teeny tiny tote, go for it. Otherwise, I'd skip this one:

The next least useful item is this banner. It's actually a really nice quality vinyl banner. Colors are great and it came just as I ordered it. The problem with this one is that it's about a trillion times bigger than the picture. Ok, that's another exaggeration. Actually, it's about 4 feet by 2 feet. I knew the size when I ordered it, but I never quite found the right place to hang it. The plan was to have kids sign the banner when they reached the top of our behavior chart system, but sadly it ended up staying rolled up next to my umbrella all year. Maybe next year. Maybe I need to do something about my obvious problem judging measurements.

 

I realize I'm not being the best advocate for Vistaprint here, but it gets better. Next up is this T-Shirt. It was free, so of course I had to find some use for it. I figured this would be good for Just Say No week. Problem with this? For some reason, we didn't really celebrate Just Say No week for the first time in my 18 year career! So, not much use from this one...yet.

Next on the list would be T-shirt #2. Love the comment I came with for this one, too! I was feeling very sassy last summer, huh? I actually did get some use out of this shirt. So the list starts to improve significantly from here. It's a nice quality heather gray, much softer than the white one above. Order them a big bigger, it ran kind of small.

Moving on, we get to these postcards. They are larger than a standard postcard and great quality. Nothing wrong with these at all. I ordered them to participate in a postcard exchange that I signed up for through ProTeacher. I'm signed up for another exchange this year, but I don't think I'll use these again. The postcards we received from the other classes around the country were actual touristy postcards that were more specific to the area. So what do to with the other 50 of these I have left? Umm...a cute art project with cutout flip flops?

The next three items are in a tie. They are return address labels. The first one I used as a sticker that I attached to the kids' center response sheets  (they also got a roll of Smartie's candy if they kept up with the response sheets all week). The second one is just a label for my books. And finally, my favorite label was the conference request sticker that I would just stick in their agenda books. Our school mascot is the gator, so those worked out well.

 

Next is the business card collection. One was for a homework pass reward. The AR Star card was placed in their report card at the end of each quarter and were a BIG hit) and the final one is for my TpT store. I need to get better at handing those out...

This beauty is a lawn sign. I'd say it's about 3ft by 2 ft, but then again it seems that I have a serious problem with estimating measurements. It hangs over my class library. I also added some cute wall decals from the dollar store that match the flowers. I love this corner. I hope I can recreate it in my new room in the fall:

Next up is this spacey magnet. It's business card sized (yes, I'm sure) and I got 25 FREE! This was a huge savings for me. I usually print these myself and run them through my Xyron on laminated magnetic paper, which can get expensive and is time consuming. I give these out at Meet & Greet and I will definitely be ordering these again.

The next two items are self inking stamps and they got A LOT of use. I used the red one for things we worked on together at small group and the other was used every morning to quickly mark spelling homework. Remarkably, the kids are the ones who actually used the stamps and they worked all year. Durable little suckers! They are still going strong, but now I can't be without them, so I'd totally have to replace them when they do go.

And, Ta-da!! My favorite item is this sticky note pad. I just like the coffee theme and the comment I had printed on it. I've used these like crazy and still have a bunch left. But they are just so me!

I'm not one to suffer alone in my addiction, so I invite you to join me in Vistaprint mania. 

You're Welcome. 

I had to edit this to add one more picture. The day after I published this post, this was the email I received from Vistaprint. If I didn't know any better, I'd think they were a follower!