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Travel Mugs are an excellent advertisement tool. All you have to do is provide a few to some key team members and you can be assured that the mugs will be used time and time again. The good news is that the insulated mugs will get used on the job and off. And the more places the travel mugs go the more places they will be seen. It’s almost like having an entire advertising team working for you without pay. In fact, your team members will be happy to do this easy marketing for you because they don’t have to do anything except drink from a very nice mug.

If you decide to ‘go big’ and provide Travel Mugs for all your staff or as a give-away item during a special campaign or promotion you will have even more free marketing happening for you and your business. This is not the kind of promotional give away item that gets tossed in the can as your potential customers walk out the door. They will use their mug regularly and just as your own employees have become an unpaid advertising team, so will they.

Promotional mugs can help you feel better in another way too. We’ve all heard about global warming and the problems our environment is facing. Are you doing your part to ‘go green’? Customized promotional mugs help save the environment by decreasing the need for paper, plastic, and Styrofoam cups. Plus, the insulated mugs help keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold. This not only means the drinks are kept at an ideal temperature, but because the ice lasts longer, we use less. Once again, we are being kinder to the environment.

When you consider promotional items it is sometimes difficult to come up with an item that is appreciated by the masses. But whether it’s coffee, tea, water, soda, or something else, we all drink something several times a day. A customized insulated mug makes the ideal promotional tool.

The travel mugs are available in various materials and many even allow for full-color, photo realistic images. Quality Logo Products offers a wide selection of insulated mugs. Check the site out for details.

A holiday treasure box is a great momento of your holiday for your children.  It will keep them occupied and involved in your trip or holiday.  Any sort of box can be used, we found plastic boxes with compartments in them, but a cardboard box could also be used.  Encourage your child to collect ‘treasures’ along your trip such as:

• beach shells
• rocks
• tickets
• feathers
• brochures
• sand

The type of holiday you have will determine the items in the treasure box, but what every your child wants to collect should be encouraged.  He / she can enjoy sorting through their treasures on the trip and then back at home after.

For other fun toddler activies visit baby-patch

Jen

Well Ben has been watering our egg heads and we think they look great! The wheat grass just keeps growing and growing. They are a bit thin on top and a bit smudged but our pirate and clown are the topic of many conversations and we are enjoying them. We are planning on giving them a hair cut tomorrow…..

Jen

I was looking through my craft book to find something creative I could do with Ben and came across some very neat and pretty eggheads. As you can see from the photo, ours are far from neat and pretty but they were fun to make and hopefully we will grow some hair on them!

Ben wanted me to draw a clown and a pirate, so I attempted, I cant even blame him for the poor artwork….

So if you are feeling creative with your toddler give this a go, all you need is a few eggs, cotton wool, alfalfa or quick-growing seeds and felt tipped pens or paint (preferably water proof).

1. Hard boil your eggs, carefully cut the top off the egg and remove the egg from shell.
2. Decorate the shells with faces
3. Fill the empty shell with cotton wool
4. Sprinkle seeds on top of cotton wool and moisten well
5. Cover with a small amount of moistened cotton wool and put in egg cups near the window moisten cotton wool daily

My mistake was using non waterproof pens and it is pretty hard to draw faces on egg shells!!!

Ben has been good at watering the egg heads and hopefully the hair will grow soon. I will let you know how it goes.

Jen
www.baby-patch.com

My mum came to stay and we made a ‘Humpty Dumpty’ from some left over material and felt. Ben came accross the pattern in a book and he wanted to make it (which means he wanted me to make it). He glued a few spots on and we did the rest. I think Humpty looked pretty good in the end.

For other creative ideas for kids visit baby-patch.com

Jen

I had forgotten how exciting odds and ends are to babies! Emily, my 9 month old is now crawling and exploring everything she can get her hands on. I have found that I can keep her in one spot by giving her a box full of odds and ends eg a tea set, odd toys or plastic kitchen utensils. She will spend quite awhile in one spot rummaging through the box and taking everything out of it. This gives me a bit of time to do other things!

Jen
www.baby-patch.com

Wiggles Puppets

Ben, my 2 year old loved making these puppets with me, they are easy, simple and have kept him busy for ages performing Wiggles songs in our make do puppet theatre (blanket thrown over a small table).

All you need is a book of your favorite characters to photocopy and cut out. Or draw and cut out a character. Get your child to colour in the character. Cut it out, stick it onto a paddle pop stick and if you want stick a couple of googily eyes on it. You could also stick hair or clothing on to it depending on what you have. Once it is dried you have a pretty basic but fun puppet for your toddler to play with!

For more creative ideas to do with your toddler or baby visit baby-patch.com

Jen
www.baby-patch.com

Now this painting may not look like much, but it was fun to make. If you are feeling a little adventurous when painting with your toddler and you have mastered the handprints and finger painting, why not try this. Use a sheet of plastic (like a table cloth) or a large sheet of paper and fasten it to the table. Let your toddler have fun covering a large area of the plastic with paint and their fingers.

Then, using the wrong end of a paint brush or a blunt pencil let your toddler draw a design on the painted surface. Get a second piece of paper and lay it on top of the design, carefully press down and then lift off and you have a screen print! It takes a bit of practise to work out the best amount of paint to have on the paper / plastic - to much and the screen print smudges all over the design, to little and the paint does not transfer. As long as you all enjoy yourself in the process it dosent really matter what the end product looks like!

For more fun ideas to do with toddlers check out jelly painting!

Jen
www.baby-patch.com

I came home the other day and found Chris and Ben (our 2 year old) performing a puppet show with their newly made puppets.
Chris had drawn a couple of dinasours and cut them out. Ben coloured them in and then Chris stuck them on a paddle pop stick and stuck a couple of googily eyes on. They both had a great time making them.

These dinasour puppets are a easy, quick and fun creative activity to do with Toddlers. For more creative inspirations visit baby-patch.com

Jen
www.baby-patch.com