Because this question is always coming up, we thought we’d rerun this blog post from last September to help answer any questions:
Our personalized growth charts are available in our signature poster paper and our thick, fine artist canvas — and we’re often asked, what are the pros and cons of each material? So, we thought we’d put this post together to help you figure out which of our personalized growth charts makes the most sense for you and your little one.
We’ll start with our beautiful signature poster paper growth charts. These wall growth charts are printed on a heavy weight, matte finish paper — with bright, long lasting archival inks. Paper growth charts are less expensive than canvas, so they make a great gift or are affordable wall décor for your little one. Our poster paper is thick, however paper can tear if your little one is excitable and has a tendency to handle the growth chart roughly.
Our canvas wall growth charts are printed on a thick, fine artist canvas with a matte finish — printed with the highest quality, eco friendly archival inks. Our canvas growth charts include aluminum grommets in each corner for easy display. Canvas is a bit more expensive than our paper option, however our thick canvas is more durable with little fingers and little people. Our cotton canvas personalized growth charts can also be wiped down with a soft, dry cloth if they get dirty. And lastly, personalized canvas growth charts are durable long lasting keepsakes of childhood.
Here is what our fine artist’s canvas looks like, along with an aluminum grommet. 
Whether you choose paper or canvas, we suggest displaying your personalized growth chart in a place that isn’t in permanent, direct sunlight. We suggest using a fine-tip permanent marker to write on your wall growth chart.
If you’re looking for ways to display your canvas, check out this previous post.
Cheers,
Petite Lemon
GO OUTSIDE & PLAY
The weather has been pretty wonderful lately and summer is almost here, which means it’s time to get outside and have some fun. We’ve rounded up five fun things to do with the kids that’ll get them (and you!) out of the house.
1. Get Sporty – whether the kids are in a league or just want to have some fun, hit the playing field (or court) for a game of soccer, touch football, basketball, or just simply throw the ball around.
2. See the Animals – if there’s a local zoo or wildlife refuge, spend a fun day visiting, and learning about, the different animals and their environments.
3. Play Tourist – sometimes we forget what makes where we live special. Identify some popular or historic landmarks in your city or town and spend the day there, pretending it’s your first time or just seeing it with fresh eyes.
4. Get in the Garden – plant a garden with their favorite berries, veggies and/or herbs – or inspire them to like them by growing their own. Having to water and care for a garden is not only fun, it’s also a great opportunity to learn about plants, nutrition, and of course bugs!
5. Be with Nature – sometimes just being outside, enjoying the wonders of nature is all you need, either at the beach, a park, or on a hike. It’s a great opportunity to teach the kids to stop and smell the roses.
Continue their love of the outdoors by decorating their room with accent pieces, like personalized growth charts or an alphabet poster, that are in line with their favorite activities.
Zoo Friends, Butterfly Kisses, and Junior Varsity personalized growth charts.
NEW TSHIRTS FOR GIRLS
We’ve had such a great response to our Big Brother Tshirt and Big Sister Tshirt collection – not to mention how much fun we’ve had designing them – so we figured why stop there? Why not expand our line of personalized shirts for kids?
We’re just about ready to launch new individual Tshirts, and of course each design is also available as a personalized baby onesie – so cute, right? The new designs highlight personal preferences, like “I Love Robots,” or their name as a dinosaur species, like “Peyton-o-Saurus.” Plus our new personalized birthday shirts let kids proudly show off how old they are.
Here’s a sneak peek at some of the new personalized shirts for kids designs for girls. Which of these are your favorites? 
Oh and be sure to check back on Thursday when we offer up a sneak peek at some of the newest designs for boys.
TRENDY BABY NAMES
Being all about personalization, we are fascinated by names and what inspires trends in baby names. What makes a name so popular one year and then out the next or a classic that never seems to go out of style?
A down economy can create a sense of nostalgia for “the good old days,” which is probably why old school names like Mabel, Hattie, Gus, and Oscar are making a comeback. But right now it seems like musicians, celebs, and characters from popular movies, TV shows and books are the biggest major influencers for today’s trendy names.
And since it’s Friday, we thought we’d have a little fun and create a few of our personalized shirts for kids using some of today’s most popular baby names.
1. Jessica Simpson just gave birth to baby girl Maxwell Drew, but someday she may be wearing a Whale of Fun Big Sister Tshirt. Could A Boy Named Sue be next?
2. Rumor Has It the amazing voice of singer Adele is the inspiration for the increase in popularity of this name and will be showing up on many a baby girls’ personalized onesies, like this feminine Flower Power one.
3. If one day Christina Applegate gave daughter Sadie a Colorful Big Sister Tshirt, it could be a hint mama may soon be staying Up All Night again.
4. Good looking, sweet, and just a little goofy describes our Playful Doodles Big Brother Tshirt, as well as the hunks that play characters named Grayson on “Drop Dead Diva” and “Cougar Town.”
5. Like Maxwell, is Arlo posed to become a girl’s name? Johnny Knoxville may have named his daughter that, but we think Toni Collette’s son is among a slew of Arlos who’ll be wearing a Little or Big Brother Tshirt, instead of a sister T.
6. Was it a love of Westerns that spurred Jenna Fischer to choose the name Weston for her lil guy? Whatever it was we think it’ll create a stampede of dudes in need of a Little or Big Brother Tshirt.
We have a lot of fun coming up with names for our personalized growth charts, alphabet posters, and of course personalized shirts for kids.
What names do you love most right now?
SWEET DREAMS AND DREAM BIG ART – FREE DOWNLOAD
“If you can dream it, you can make it so.” – Belva Davis, Award Winning Journalist
These are great words to live by and a wonderful message to pass on to your little ones, which is why we created these adorable 8×10 downloadable prints to hang in a nursery or kid’s room. We hope they help inspire your kids to dream the impossible dream.
To download a high resolution PDF of these designs, click here.
And if you want to add in some complementary décor, these are some great choices for personalized growth charts and alphabet posters:
For the owl prints, we’d choose the Hoot! Hoot! or Woodland Fun personalized growth charts
For the transportation print, we’d accent it with the On the Go personalized growth chart and On the Go alphabet poster.
Dream on!
SIP ‘N SEE
photo by Allyson Wiley
When you’re pregnant with your first baby, there are showers and gifts galore, but along comes baby number two, three or more and having a shower is usually considered unnecessary. But that doesn’t mean people don’t want to see the new bundle of joy and celebrate his or her arrival with a glass of something sparkling and a few treats.
Because you already know the sex and name of the baby, what better time than a Sip ‘n See to gift baby with their first personalized onesies, as well as present a Big Sister Tshirt or Big Brother Tshirt to the new sis or bro so they can celebrate their sibling status too.
In addition to personalized shirts for kids, other unique gifts with baby’s name, like a personalized growth chart or alphabet poster, are also ideal.
We think these Cheeky Dot personalized growth charts would go great with a Welcome to the World theme, don’t you?
* Watch CBS Eye on the Bay on May 22 to see this over-the-top adorable birthday party
A WINNING STORY
Last week we asked our blog readers (and Facebook fans) to tell us the sweet, funny, surprising stories that came about when their firstborn met their brand new baby brother or sister for the first time. And we heard some really heartwarming stories, like this one from Allyson H:
“My oldest is six, and her sister was born 12 days ago. She was so excited when she came in to meet her – she sat in the hospital rocking chair, held her sister on a pillow and made up a song she still sings to her today, and her sister is mesmerized by the song – so precious!”
For sharing this lovely story with us*, Allyson won her choice of two of our personalized shirts for kids, so her eldest daughter will get her very own Big Sister Tshirt and baby sister will also get one of our personalized onesies. We picked a couple of our favorites below, but we can’t wait to hear from Allyson which designs she’ll choose for her lil girls.
If your firstborn deserves their own Big Sister Tshirt or Big Brother Tshirt, check out our collection of personalized shirts for kids here.
* Winner was chosen at random using Random.org
MEMORABLE GIFTS
We’ve done some fun roundups of great gift ideas for babies and kids before, because honestly, who doesn’t love surfing around on the interwebs looking for cool stuff, but we’ve been thinking more about the meaning behind gift giving. What is it that makes a gift truly memorable?
Is it special because it came from someone special or because it was homemade? Is it because it was pretty or just plain useful? There can be many reasons, but thoughtfulness is at the top of the list.
Of course we think personalization makes an ideal gift as it definitely fits the recipient to a tee (no, we won’t make a Big Sister Tshirt or Big Brother Tshirt pun here, though we kind of want to!).
We wanted our personalized growth charts, alphabet posters, and personalized shirts for kids to be individualized not just by name, but also by a child’s favorite color(s), interests (cars, animals, etc), personality or sibling status.
If Emmy was an animal lover who also liked the colors blue and purple, we’d choose our Zoo Friends personalized growth chart, Animal Crackers alphabet poster in Tutti Frutti, or Playful Doodles Little or Big Sister Tshirt to proudly declare her sibling status.
For Joshua, who likes trucks and tractors, as well as the colors blue and orange, we’d pick the Let’s Get to Work personalized growth chart, A To Z alphabet poster, or Modern Fun Little or Big Brother Tshirt (depending on his place in the family line up).
These gifts would be memorable ones because it shows we know the recipient and put some thought into what it is they like most.
What was your most memorable gift?
Looking for personal gifts? Click here for all of our growth charts for kids or here for personalized shirts for kids.
T-Up to DIY
As much as we love the idea of our little ones staying sweet and little, they grow up so fast and outgrow their clothes too quickly. There are certain articles of clothing though, like their personalized Big Sister Tshirt or Big Brother Tshirt, which you won’t want to toss. To avoid too much clutter in the house (no hoarders here, thank you very much!), we found these DIY tutorials for upcycling treasured personalized shirts for kids into useful items that will allow them to live on. And help teach kids a new skill, like sewing or cooking, while showing them to be resourceful and eco-friendly. Win-win!
TShirt Bag – This adorable, reusable DIY grocery shopping bag tutorial from Martha Stewart also features a how-to video.
Tshirt Pillow – A cute way to decorate big brother or sister’s bedroom is to turn their old T into a throw pillow using this DIY tutorial from the Maiden Jane blog. Doesn’t our Under Construction Big Brother Tshirt look great as a pillow too?
Tshirt Apron – Use this DIY tutorial from the Ruffles and Stuff blog to get kids into the kitchen by turning their personalized Tshirts for kids into aprons.
Which of these DIY projects would you choose when your little one outgrows (sniff sniff) their Big Sister Tshirt or Big Brother Tshirt?
VROOM VROOM
We adore the exciting tale of Pixar’s Cars 2. Star racecar Lightning McQueen and tow truck Mater set out on a journey overseas to compete in the first ever World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest racecar. Although the road to the championship is packed with bumps and potholes, the journey is filled with inspirational messages and valuable life lessons. It’s no wonder little boys and girls alike (ok, and us parents too), get caught up in the crazy detours and hilarious surprises in this film.
Based on the style of a few of our personalized growth charts, it’s safe to say our team of Mommy and Daddy designers loves things that go vroom vroom too! That’s right, the On the Go personalized growth chart (and coordinating alphabet poster) and Finish Line personalized growth chart feature cool car inspired designs, which fans of Lightning McQueen and his friends are sure to love as much as we do!
Check out our entire collection of personalize growth charts for kids by clicking here.
