Reward the graduate’s hard work with a high quality personalized notepad from Giftsin24.

Graduation. It’s an exciting time for many young adults, as well as returning adult students who seek to move ahead or change careers. They put in years of hard work, and now they are hopeful that their efforts will pay off in a rewarding job…or at least one that pays the bills.

Create thoughtful gifts for grads with our notepads and memos, now on sale this month. Personalize one line with their name and the second line with “Class of 2015” or the name of their school or mascot.  The new graduate will treasure this memento long after the notes of “Pomp and Circumstance” fade.

Our Favorites

Crest Super Slab   The design of our Crest Carnival Super Slab is simple and clean, leaving you plenty of room to write the day’s important necessities. Choose one of five vibrant paper colors on this spacious square slab. It offers the newly minted graduate a place to write down job leads, imagine new pathways or simply decorate their new desk at work.

Family Photo Desk Slab Incorporate a photograph of the graduation ceremony to commemorate the big day.  This desk slab also includes a choice of 15 lettering styles, two lines of personalization and a small photo.  Beautiful, thick, high quality paper makes this desk slab a treat!

Watercolor Super Slab keeps your memos, lists and message organized and a pleasure to look at.

Watercolor Monogram Desk Slab   We can think of so many uses for our Watercolor Monogram Desk Slab: personal reminders, staff memos, love notes, gifts for grads…you get the picture! Featuring our Classic monogram in 7 soft colors, this desk slab makes a fresh, modern statement. The desk slab transitions from the graduate’s home to his or her office.

It’s that time of year to thank the teachers in your life, whether you’re 2 or 92.

Everyone has a teacher to thank, whether you’re 2 or 92. If you’re learning how to read, trying to code a video game, or are working on your guitar fingering, teachers are right there along with you, guiding you, cheering you on and encouraging you to work through mistakes.

One of the best ways to acknowledge a teacher’s value in your life is by writing him or her a thank you note, according to the National PTA. And writing a thank you note to a teacher is one of the best ways to teach a child how to show gratitude. Here are 3 tips to writing the perfect thank you note to a teacher.

Three Writing Tips

1. Be thankful. This is a thank you note, and so say it ! “Thank you for all your hard work with me this year.” “Thank you for helping me be the best I can be.” You get the picture.

2. Be specific. If you can point to a specific example or time that the teacher helped you, you’ll make the note become more personal and all the more treasured.  “I am so relieved that I know fractions now.” “The way you encouraged me to work on my fingering has given me more confidence than I ever imagined I could have.”

3. Be expansive. Teachers have dedicated their lives to making the world a better place. Wax poetic about their importance to you, your school or the world at large. You can never compliment a teacher too much.

Celebrate Mom’s love on Mother’s Day.

Moms are amazing. Who else can get you to ballet practice in a torrential downpour while humming “Singing in the Rain”? Who else puts in the time and thought to plan a healthy, tasty family dinner so everyone can reconnect and laugh after a busy day? And who can wipe away a toddler’s tears and have her singing “Let It Go” as passionately as Elsa from the movie Frozen? Hint: her name is spelled Wow upside-down.

All those beautiful moms work in and out of the home 24/7. Give them personalized stationery gifts that add a touch of luxury to their day. Even if they’re in their yoga pants on their third cup of coffee, when they pull out this stationery, they’ll feel like the Queen of England.

Three Gifts for Your Amazing Mom

Classic Frame Monogram Note This folded note brings a classic and refined design together with the smooth and carefree lines of a script typeface. A delicate border binds your monogram in the center. The country’s top embosser and monogram designer produces and designs this note.

Wow Mom with the Damask Note for Mother’s Day. She’ll treasure this beautiful work of art from Giftsin24.

Anthony Note  A fun and timeless way to showcase Mom’s name. Let her be the star of the moment and enjoy the spotlight. Customize this card in a variety of ink colors, and add an optional lining to the envelope to make it extra special.

Damask Note  Simply the best! Mom will enjoy the feeling of running her hands over this luxurious embossed design. This is the type of work we are known for in the social stationery industry. A true work of art, the Damask Note features an ornate composition used in the decorative arts for hundreds of years. The crisp design pops in white or ivory triple-thick paper. Her name will appear in shiny raised ink. Choose from among many lettering styles and ink colors.

Impression Notes in black ink on crisp white paper are the perfect canvas on which to express your gratitude.

Wedding season is upon us. Are you ready to write your wedding thank you notes? Don’t fall flat in conveying your gratitude. Avoid these common mistakes, and you’ll be sitting pretty.

Mistake #1 Sending out wedding thank you notes too late.

Do you remember what you did one year ago? Not many other people do either. So be sure that Uncle Marty gets that thank you note pronto, or at least within three months of the wedding.

Mistake #2 Writing a plain vanilla message.

Was your wedding a bore? Is your marriage lacking pizzazz? No way! So why should your thank you notes not reflect that same passion for the giver and the gift. Avoid general statements like: “Thank you for your generous gift.” Snore. Share your excitement with the giver about specific ways you’ll use the gift.

Mistake #3 Sending an e-card.

Yes, we do live in a digital age…but if cousin Sue drove 100 miles to get to your shindig, bought a new dress and gave you a hand-made quilt, she deserves a heart-felt, handwritten note that conveys all your love and appreciation. Unless you had a virtual wedding, avoid virtual cards.

Family togetherness starts with love. Personalized stationery from Giftsin24.com displays that love in style.

Do you know a new family in the making? Consider our top 3 gift ideas for new parents.

These personalized gifts help parents capture or display favorite memories. They can also announce their new family life to everyone. It’s an exciting time, filled with love and laughter. You can help them build and share memories with thoughtful personalized gifts.

Gifts That Share and Create Cherished Memories

Treasured Moment Picture Frame. Give your favorite photograph pride of place inside the Treasured Moment Picture Frame. Two lines of personalization. Choice of lettering style and either horizontal or vertical format. Laser-etched, solid alderwood.

Anthony Family Pride Note. Nothing beats the delicious feeling of family togetherness. Capture that pride with the Anthony Family Pride Note, which accommodates the names of the new mom, dad and children. The texture of the raised-ink names, bullets and border makes this folded note a delight to touch and hold. Choose an ink from among our 11 raised-ink options.

Carnival Family Pride List with Holder. Customize this item with your family name at the top and the whole family’s first names along the edge. Cheerful paper colors make list-making a pleasure. Comes with a CrystalClear Holder to keep the lists neat and tidy.

Use nature to inspire your spring party table setting.

In a few weeks, family and friends will be knocking at your door. Maybe you’re hosting the family Easter celebration. Or hosting a bridal shower for your sister-in-law. Or maybe there will be a new baby in the family soon. Do you know how you’ll decorate your table? In this happy and wondrous spring season of change, the best and easiest way to decorate spring party tables is to keep things simple.

Use Nature-Inspired Pastels. 

For a color scheme, you can never go wrong with nature-inspired pastels. Whether it’s a soft grass green, lemon yellow, robin’s egg blue, sweet organge or cherry-blossom pink, pastels automatically make people think spring. Choose a white tablecloth with a pastel runner and napkins. Or try a softly hued table cloth with white napkins.

Go Green.

With nature coming alive, there’s an abundance of free greenery and foliage in your yard that would make a beautiful centerpiece. Look around you and see what’s blooming or budding out. Depending on where you live, you might find cherry, crabapple,  or serviceberry blossoms. Farther north, you might find sprays of pussywillow, witchhazel or even young maple leaves popping out. Keep the centerpiece simple, and if you need to, round it out with evergreen foliage or supermarket mums.

Tie it Together.

For a quick way to add festivity, wind some coordinating curling or grosgrain ribbons through your chandelier or around your centerpiece. If you’re lucky enough to be able to have the windows open, they’ll dance in the breeze.

Choose Color Mist Napkins.

Gifts in 24 offers a beautiful array of Color Mist Napkins & Guest Towels that come in so many colors, they’ll match any decor. Color Mist comes in two finishes: Pearl and Tint. Our Pearl finish lends a soft, pastel shimmer to the raised personalization on these high quality, three-ply napkins. The Tint finish features a unique faded, watercolor effect where the matte color fades as it approaches the center of the raised letters.

Give Kids a Place to Play.

One of the easiest and best ways to decorate the kids table is with butcher paper. Spread it out, wrap the corners under the table, and tape in place. Then add a box of crayons and add a few story books, and the kids will keep themselves busy while munching their meals.

We make all our envelopes in our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Aurora, IL

Longtime Giftsin24 customers know our products shine above the competition’s. One reason is our color-matched, perfectly fitted, beautifully crafted envelopes. That’s because we make all our envelopes right here in our state-of-the art manufacturing plant in Aurora, IL. We have total control of the process, from start to finish. Plus, our sole focus is on creating a perfect product and delighting you, our customer.

Some other companies don’t make their envelopes. Telltale signs include…

• mismatched stationery and envelope papers.  Ivory stationery and white envelopes? Never from us !
• envelope proportions don’t match stationery. For example, there might be 1/2 inch extra space on the sides and 1 inch of extra space on the top and bottom. Yuck!
• too much room in the envelope. For example, the stationery rattles around inside the envelope–there’s no need for that !

Giftsin24 envelopes are always perfect

Here’s how we do it:

1. We order our stationery paper and envelope paper from the same mill. That ensures that all papers closely match in color. Plus, this mill creates high quality paper using the best sustainable practices. Check them out here: www.NeenahPaper.com

Here’s Raphael zipping around on one of our three-wheel bikes to carry freshly made envelopes

2. Our expert envelope makers have been making envelopes for decades. They work within tiny tolerances to ensure that each of your envelopes is absolutely perfect. In addition, we don’t give our envelope makers quotas. If one doesn’t turn out, it goes into the recycle bin, and the crafts person starts with new paper.

3. We cut and fold our envelopes to our highest quality standards. Consequently, when you insert the matching stationery, it fits like a glove.  It’s all in the details !

When should you use a comma when listing nouns or verbs?

Recently at Giftsin24.com, a bunch of us were talking about whether or not to use the comma before the “and” when you write a sentence that includes a series of nouns or verbs. That’s called a “serial comma.”

For example, do you write “Melanie, Anthony and Esther went to the store.”?

Or “Melanie, Anthony, and Esther went to the store.”?

When it comes down to it, it’s a matter of style. There are many style manuals out there, but the two most used in publishing are the AP Manual of Style (used in journalism and newspapers) and The Chicago Manual of Style (used in book publishing).

Leave serial comma out unless there’s confusion

The AP Manual of Style does not recommend routinely using the extra comma before the “and.”

Exceptions where you might use it are in situations where the meaning would be confusing, such as this:

“Last week I cooked my favorite recipes: pepperoni pizza, orange chicken and wild rice and seared steak.”

Is the rice part of the chicken dish or the steak dish? Hmmm. In this case the writer should help readers out by using a comma before the “and.”

Keep things simply by being consistent

Because we live in an imperfect world, The Chicago Manual of Style encourages the consistent use of the comma before the “and.” You don’t have to think about it; simply always use it and there will never be confusion.

So there you have it: serial commas made easy. Pick your style and stick with it. You’ll never go wrong!

Tweens (kids ages 9-12) are at a wonderful stage in life.

For the Tween girl or boy in your life, all the world’s a stage at this age. Tweens (roughly ages 9-12) are growing out of their stuffed animals, but not quite ready for The Hunger Games.

Kids this age still are drawn to the worlds of magic and imagination. They are developing their sense of self and self-esteem. As they explore who they are, they can be sensitive to how others perceive them. This is also the age when girls may turn away from sports or decide they don’t like math, due to peer pressure or other messages in the mainstream media.

Help the tween in your life be who he or she wants to be by encouraging him or her to follow their own star and not worry about what others think.

If you have a terrific tween in your life who is having a birthday or will make the transition to middle school this summer, we have some gifts for tweens that celebrate the young man or woman they are becoming. Check these out.

Great Gifts for Tweens

Sport Note  The perfect gift for an aspiring young athlete. Proclaim a love of sports with these fun, raised-ink illustrations. Five designs: crossed baseball bats, basketball, football, volleyball, and crossed hockey sticks. Offered in a choice of raised-ink colors, including fuchsia, navy and emerald, as well as 6 playful lettering styles.

Modern Dot Ensemble Stand out and get noticed with our dotted specialty ensemble. Choose white or ivory paper and their favorite raised-ink color.

Aviator Carnival Memo Square Reinvent your style with this colorful memo square. Add two lines at the top and the bottom for the ultimate customization in black ink. Colors come in Terra Green, Pulsar Pink and Lunar Blue.

Start kids out with simple chores, like hanging towels or clearing the table. Before long, they may be washing loads or making whole meals.

Getting kids to remember their chores is one thing. Motivating them to do them is quite another. Many parents give up and decide it’s not worth the fight. But other parents believe instilling a shared sense of responsibility and work ethic in children sets them up to be productive, hard-working adults.

Behavioral psychologists recommend creating a visual schedule for children so that they can see their tasks at a glance and gauge their progress.

When you’re just starting out, it’s important to keep tasks simple. Folding and putting away clothes, setting or clearing the table, and taking a dog for a walk are all good places to start. Gradually increase the complexity of the tasks as your child masters the easy ones.

Building in simple rewards is another key. These rewards can be stickers, experiences with you or the children’s friends, or a weekly allowance.

Before long, you may just find that kids will be cooking meals, cleaning bathrooms and mowing the lawn!

Tools for Raising Responsible Kids

Giftsin24 offers several products that can help you create a visual schedule. These three oversized slabs contain 250 sheets, offering up to 5 years of weekly chore sheets for your busy family.

The Family Organize by Day Slab  makes a great basis for a visual schedule. Simply tear off a page, write in the daily chores for each person and hang it on your refrigerator, pinboard or other central, convenient place. This is a useful tool to show that everyone in the family has responsibilities.

The Organize by Day Slab  is appropriate for making chore lists for individual children or family members. Each week, hang a new sheet in a child’s room so their list is always close at hand.

The Organize by Week Slab is another tool for creating a visual schedule for individual family members.