The folks at Bright Star Kids contacted me to ask if I would take a look at their name labels and share my thoughts with you. They provided me a complementary sample of a school value label kit as the basis for my review. All opinions are my own.
I had never heard of Bright Star Kids so I spent some time familiarizing myself with the brand by spending time on their website. I loved the site and enjoyed looking at the seriously cute, kid friendly products that they offer. In addition to name labels, which I'll get to in a second, they carry cute wall art, personalized clothing, backpacks and kids accessories. I also figured out why I hadn't heard of them before; they are an Australian company which isn't normally on my radar because I'm in the US. They offer worldwide shipping in a reasonable time frame for a reasonable shipping fee. In fact name labels ship to the US, UK, the EU and Singapore and most arrive in 7-15 business days.
Many Uses for Name Labels
I'm a huge fan of using name labels for kids stuff. When my daughter was in preschool, I made homemade labels for her bottles and food containers by writing her name on blank shipping labels or simply using masking tape. They never held up, so I was replacing the labels on each week's supplies. The personalized name labels hold up SO much better. The stick-on labels actually stay on through the dishwasher cycle. The clothing labels last wash after wash.
I used the labels from the kit to label my daughter's summer camp supplies such as her sunscreen, her insect repellent spray, her sandwich container, and her flip flops. I even put a thin pencil tag on her favorite pair of goggles. When school starts up in the fall again, we'll tag her pencil box, pencils, colored pencils, markers, highlighters, her composition books and her folders. I'll put the clothing tags on all layering items such as coats, sweaters, and winter hats. The round tags with covers are great for rain and snow boots which she has to change out of after arriving at school. It is also great to tag stuff for her activities such as her ballet slippers, tap shoes, and her soccer cleats.
Sounds like a lot of tags, right? We'll it is, but there are over 175 labels in the School Value Label Kit:
- 10 Large Labels - these stick on labels are great for larger school items such as lunchboxes, water bottles, and food storage containers, pencil boxes, workbooks, or electronic devices. They are safe to use in the dishwasher, microwave or freezer.
- 30 Small Labels - these stick on labels are great for smaller school items such as glue sticks, rulers, staplers, notebooks, hair brushes, eye glasses case, calculator, and small toys.
- 10 Subject Labels - these stick on labels are made from vinyl which are perfect to put on all your kids school books or notebooks. You can write their subject and class with a permanent marker or pen.
- 80 Tiny Pencil Labels - these stick on labels are great for thin school items such as pencils, pens, markers, highlighters, or even, lunch utensils.
- 16 Large Round Labels and 16 Clear Covers - this combination is perfect for shoes. Use these in sneakers, flip flops, dance shoes, soccer cleats, or rain boots.
- 30 Iron on Labels - these labels are designed be used on clothing items. They are safe to use and stay on through the washer and the dryer.
Using the Iron on Labels
I had never used iron on labels previously, so I tested it out. I gathered up a few new sweaters and hoodies that hadn't yet been tagged. For first things first, I had to identify the iron-on labels in the package. All of the stickers in the package have a color background and white lettering, except, the iron on labels which have a white background and the lettering is in the color we had selected. They were otherwise indistinguishable to my untrained eye.
Being a newbie, I then read the directions:
- First, I emptied my iron of any water and turned it on the highest, non-steam setting.
- Once it was hot, I placed the sticker on the clothing, topped it with the parchment paper provided and gently moved the iron around it for approximately 10-15 seconds.
- In the last step, I peeled the parchment paper off and checked the edges to make sure it had merged with the fabric.
It wasn't hard at all. And I'm NOT a crafty person. I did five items in just a few minutes. Since I like to pass along my daughter's clothes when she outgrows them, I placed the iron on label onto the manufacturers sewn-in tag on most of her sweaters. That way, we can simply cut out the tag before passing it along for another go in another child's closet. For some square tags, I cut the iron on tag into two pieces stacking them on top of each other. On another shorter tag, I simply cut off the extra space from the ends of the label to make it fit. Both variations seemed to work just fine.
The Value of Using Name Labels
In my opinion, the value of personalized tags is two-fold. First you save time by only tagging items once. These labels stay on throughout the school year. No more tagging with homemade tags every Sunday night. Second is the value of the kids stuff. We parents spend a pretty penny on back to school clothing and supplies. It is a pity when it ends up unclaimed in a bin at the lost and found. And then there is the sentimental value attached to a favorite sweater or super duper 4-color pen or sparkle gel pen. When those things disappear, sometimes, tears are shed. Prevent the tears and increase the chance that kids won't loose the stuff you buy them, but placing a label on it. It's like insurance for kids stuff.
