Whether you’re barbecuing, watching the fireworks display, having a picnic or staying in, here’s hoping you stay cool, take lots of pictures and make tons of memories. If you’re going to take photos of the fireworks this year, you’ll want to pick an ideal spot, choose a wide-angle lens and keep your hand steady. For more tips check out BudgetTravel. Their article on Fireworks Photography is sure to bring out the professional photographer in you. In honor of tomorrow’s special holiday, we at Tiny Prints want to wish you all a safe, fun 4th of July.

Have a teenager in your life? If so, you might be having a hard time deciding what to get them for their birthday. I have a girl cousin who just turned 13 so I know how difficult it can be. One thing about teens is that they really want to embrace their individuality. A gift option that would be perfect for my cousin and any teenager is giving them something personalized and unique. Tiny Prints has a line of new note cards especially for the teen in mind. Match these with a personalized address labels and a gift certificate to really create an outstanding birthday gift!

Following my post on Diva Dialogues, I learned that in addition to creating your own wedding website, these days you can also create a fun baby website for friends and family to get updates about your little one. Sites like Babysites.com and Babyjellybeans.com allow new parents and new parents-to-be to download current pictures of their new babies or pictures of the pregnancy. Having a website would allow loved ones who live far away feel involved in the process and be able to view pictures and get exciting information about all the changes that are going on.

A great idea would be to send out one of Tiny Print’s Pregnancy Story cards with the information of your new website.

Or share your website information on one of Tiny Print’s birth announcements.

Gingham Garden

Mother’s Day is creeping up upon us. For all you late shoppers out there, here’s another idea for a late mom gift, a graduation present or a thoughtful birthday gift to give anyone you know.

One year for Christmas my mentor and boss at the time gave me one of the most precious and useful gifts I’ve ever received. She gave me a box of beautiful stationery personalized with my name on it. To this day, I still enjoy using it. I loved sending friends, family and acquaintances brief notes of appreciation on those cool, personal cards.

Wouldn’t it be nice to do the same for the people in your life? If you know someone who’s graduating, has a birthday coming up or for your mom who always sends personal thank you notes, send them these. With a variety of designs to suit their personality and personalized with their name, it’s sure to make them feel special too.

With a lot of my friends living oceans away from me, I feel like I’m missing out on all of their pregnancies. I realized that I won’t see what they look like pregnant or hear all of their personal stories. The next time I see them they will be a new mommies. This is why I love the idea of sending out pregnancy story cards.

Tiny Prints sells a whole bunch of adorable cards some with the option of including a photo of the mommy-to-be. Don’t deprive your friends and family the details of your pregnancy. Send them one of these fun pregnancy announcements.

Baby Face

Damask Baby: Sky

(Inside Damask Baby Story Card)

Continuing from my previous post about Kara’s cupcakes, I thought I would show you some cute designs that would go great with a Teddy Bear themed baby shower or birthday party. Teddy bears are popular for both boys and girls. Here, you can give away Kara’s cute treats as favors which would match perfectly with our adorable baby shower invites.

Or how about having a spring themed shower or holiday shower with baby chicks?

“A dog is the only thing on earth that will love you more than you love yourself.”
Josh Billings

This will either sound outrageous to you or normal cause you’ve done it before. Have you ever celebrated your pet’s birthday? Because there are a number of Doggy Bakeries popping up everywhere with birthday cakes made especially for your pooch, I wasn’t too surprised when I also found a lot of websites devoted to helping make your pet’s day special too. Nor was I shocked to hear that there was about 700,000 pets in the US lucky enough to have owners help them celebrate their birthday.

While I’ll embarrassingly admit that I don’t know the exact date of my dog’s birthday, I do know that she is turning 13 this year. No small feat for a dog. If you have a good dog like mine, you’ll want to celebrate another year with them as well. I found this cute Pet Announcement on Tiny Prints. I edited the text and made them into adorable pet party invites for friends and family.

Austin Photo Dog Announcement: Black

Sources:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Celebrate-Your-Dogs-Birthday-with-a-Dog-Party&id=177157

Moving to your dream house? You’re so lucky! The hardest part, however, is the moving part. All those boxes, and the packing and unpacking can be a little overwhelming. There are however, a lot of great websites you can go to for tips on the best strategies to make your move effortless. Check out FlyLady.net for some awesome tips. About.com also has a great article on helping you to have a smoother move. Here’s a few things I found on various websites and things that have helped me personally:

1. The next time you go to a market or store ask them if they have some boxes you can take. A lot of places have more boxes than they know what to do with.
2. Remember to bring cleaning supplies to get your new home in tip top shape.
3. Get lots and lots of packing material. Think tape, newspapers and bubble wrap!
4. Label the outside of our boxes. This seems obvious but sometimes people forget. And can you imagine the horror of having to open up every box to find something as important as toilet paper?
5. I think moving is a great time to discard old things that you no longer have any use for. Separate clothes and books that can be donated and other things that need to be thrown away. This way you won’t bring old clutter into your new house.
6. Make sure you let friends and family know where to reach you. A great way would be to get some really cool Moving Announcements. Here are just a few from the Tiny Prints collection.

Acanthus Damask

Urban Chic

Does anyone else dream of being in school like I do? Thoughts of Spring vacation temporarily make me forget exams, papers and pop quizzes and sends me into happy visions of a whole week of play. As a parent, however, spring dreams can quickly turn into a seasonal nightmare. Thinking about how to keep your kids occupied can be a bit stressful so here’s a few things that might ward off spring fever this year.

If taking a vacation is not in your budget, thinking of special activities that you can do together, might be a fun alternative. This may be a great time to finish that project you started on before the holidays. Or how about starting a new one? Encourage your child’s creativity by having them create a unique work of art. Then, make a card out of it. You can choose any one of the photo cards at Tiny Prints and replace a photo with your child’s drawing. They will be proud to send it to friends and family. And you will be happy to keep them so blissfully occupied.

My thank you cards story is short and sweet-hey just like your thank you notes should be! But anyway, as a kid, my family and I would take a few trips a year to visit my grandparents. I loved staying with them. We would go to the beach, eat lots of delicious home cooked meals and fresh fruits. And my favorite memories always included my family and all the things we did together.

To show how much I appreciated them, I began writing thank you notes to my grandparents as a way to tell them how much I loved and appreciated them. I would hide these notes and leave them as little surprises for them to find and read later. I later heard how much they looked forward to finding my notes. And even years later when I was an adult, my grandmother found one and said it brought tears to her eyes.

Needless to say I think thank you notes are SO important! Especially now when everyone’s moving so fast, it’s nice to take the time to write a handwritten note. And with so many cute options these days, there really is no excuse. Check out this adorable design! I wish they were around when I was a kid.

Baby Tree