FREE from Vistaprint

          I know that lots of teachers use Vistaprint but I thought I'd share some of the things I have "bought" from them. Actually, almost everything I have ever got from Vistaprint has been free. I have paid quite a bit over the years for shipping but I always choose the slow shipping (because it really isn't as slow as they say). When I know I want something I start by going to google and put in what I want and "free Vistaprint." Look at all the different sites that come up. There are always different deals at the same time. It helps if you don't need to get something right away but are willing to look at what is free right now. In fact,  I have sometimes created items I want when I have time and then just kept them in my Vistaprint portfolio to order when I see that they are free. If you sign up for their emails, they will send you notice of special deals. 
        Here are some of the Vistaprint items I have created for my class:

This past year we got these magnets for our families.

          This year I created lots of stuff for my Pre-K Writing Center including this large banner and stationary.

If a student writes a letter to a family member at the Writing Center, I mail it for them...They LOVE this!

I bought this to cut up and put on the desk at the writing center and on clip boards so the kids would know how to spell these words.

           Over the years I have ordered lots of free stationary, post-it notes, stamps and return address labels.

       I have also ordered quite a few things that, in previous years, I  used for classroom management.

             I gave these out last year if a child had a great week. Each Friday I'd invite 5-6 kids for lunch bunch. I started doing this the last couple months of school and it was really effective at motivating good behavior and acknowledging the kids who were always really good.  They loved bringing the notes home too.

            I can't remember where I saw this but last year I gave "Sugar Cookie Awards" to kids who did an especially careful job with their work. I also hung up the work on a board that was covered with silver paper with the edge folded over to look like a cookie sheet  and used little cookies to hold the work up.  Before we started doing this I brought in plain cookies and we added icing and sprinkles and talked about how they were even better than the plain cookies.  I told them that their work was like this... they could answer all the questions or do exactly what I asked and that was good... or they could take their time and use their best handwriting or add details to their writing or drawing and that was like adding icing and sprinkles...even better! The kids seemed to really get this and loved bringing the post cards home.


Here are a few of the other things I ordered:

This is the pamphlet I made for the volunteer organization I started to support my school with money, volunteers and books.  They looked wonderful (and were free too!)

These large return address labels were one of the most useful things I ever got from Vistaprint.  I have them on everything,,,clip boards, staplers, books, etc.

         This t-shirt has  our "popcorn words" on the back.  The front says "Walking Word Wall."  I let kids wear it for the day when they could read all of the words (or almost all of them :).  

My favorite saying...I have it on my file cabinet at school and my refrigerator at home.

I gave these large magnets to my class one year. This and the magnet above are the kind of thing I find myself creating just because they're free.

         These are large address labels.  I ordered about 12 different versions and then put them in my books and on the outside of the book containers so it would be easy for the kids to put the books from our class library back in the right spot.

        Here are some more ideas of things you can create at Vistaprint.  I'd love to hear what you have created.