BPA Free Bottles

As our landfills fill up with plastic water bottles, which also use oil to produce, the trend has switched to carrying your own reusable bottle.  Tap water is often as safe, if not safer than bottled water.

Many people have switched to polycarbonate bottles, including Nalgene bottles.  These bottles contain Bisphenol A, or BPA, which recently has been linked to hormonal problems in lab studies.  While the FDA has said the low amounts of BPA in these bottles pose no health risk, consumers are switching to BPA free bottles.

How do you know if your bottle contains BPA?

Polycarbonate plastic is usually labeled with a #7 on the bottom of the bottle.

If you want to encourage your customers to reuse their water bottles, you may want to consider a BPA free alternative.

Food safe PETE plastic

PETE is a BPA-free alternative to polycarbonate.  It has the same heavy wall construction and durability as polycarbonate bottles.

Stainless Steel and Aluminum Bottles

My new favorite bottle is a stainless steel bottle.  Stainless steel is  the material of choice in the food processing, dairy, and brewery industries. Stainless steel is easy to clean, durable, inert, sanitary, toxin-free, and non-leaching.

Contact us for more information on getting some of these bottles with your custom imprint.

Taking Care of the Earth

Happy Earth Day! I’m happy to say that I have personally done better at helping the environment this year than any other time in the past. I’ve always recycled. And like many people, I’ve switched to reusable shopping bags.

Encourage your customers to do their part by giving away reusable bags. As an extra bonus to saving the earth, your name or logo will be carried everywhere for maximum visibility. Many sizes and shapes of bags are available, from polypropylene to canvas, and even fold up bags that are easier to carry around.

Companies everywhere are going the extra mile to use recycled materials. BIC makes pens from pre-consumer recycled plastic. Even sticky notes are available with recycled paper.

Go the extra mile and give away “green” promotional products, such as umbrellas with 100% recycled fabric and a bamboo shaft and handle.

You can wear earth-friendly products too!  Shirts are available in several styles and colors with organic cotton and/or eco-friendly bamboo.

Earth Day doesn’t have to be one day a year!  Your customers will appreciate how much you care for the environment, just as much as you care for them!

Gift List

Dear Santa,

I’ve been a very good girl this year. I’ve made rush deadlines, kept my customer’s costs low, and I think I’ve come up with some pretty good ideas.

So for Christmas, I would like:
Moso Bamboo Mincing Board and Knife It has a recessed bamboo mincing board, and the blade is Japanese stainless steel. It’ll make chopping herbs for Christmas dinner a breeze! And it would go great with the…
Moso Bamboo Travel Cheese Set to serve my guests a variety of wine and cheeses until dinner is ready. This would be great for my New Year’s Eve party too!
I would also like a Six-in-One Game Set to keep my guests entertained. There’s something for everyone in here, including checkers, chess, dominoes, backgammon, cribbage, dice, and a deck of playing cards. And it comes in an attractive UltraHyde case.
How about something to entertain myself? Like a Portable Media Player that plays MP3/MP4 audio/video files. It also plays video games and is a digital camera, and it’s compatible with Windows Vista. It even comes with a gift box to make wrapping easy on the elves.

I’m a do-it-yourself-er, but I must confess Santa, I do tend to lose my tools. So I would like a 52 In 1 Handyman Set. It’s got anything I might need, including a hammer, a ratchet, pliers, electrical tools, screwdrivers, allen wrenches, crescent wrenches and more. And I won’t misplace them any more because I’ll have a 13 1/2″ x 10 1/2″ case to keep it all in.
Santa, I have another confession to make. I always forget to take my pocket knife out of my purse when I go to the airport, and I can’t take it on the plane. So I would like the Wenger Air Traveler Genuine Swiss Army Knife. It has a micro screwdriver, 1.8” springless scissors, a nail file, a nail cleaner, a toothpick and tweezers, but no knife so I can carry it on board the plane when I travel. This also comes in a gift box to make your job and your elves’ jobs a little easier.

Finally Santa, I love chocolate. There are a variety of Food Gift Boxes available, from a small gift box to a tower of boxes that can be filled with any sort of candy or nuts, including: animal crackers, caramel popcorn, red hots, Goldfish, several types of peanuts, jelly beans, mini pretzels, mints, Tootsie Rolls, several gummy treats, Runts, pistachios, trail mix, gumballs, sunflower seeds, chocolate covered nuts, raisins, and pretzels, conversation hearts, candy corn, turtles, truffles, toffee, M&Ms, chocolate shapes, and more.

And all of these can have your logo on them. You do have a logo for the North Pole, don’t you? If not, I’d be happy to make one for you.

Thank you, Santa! Enjoy the milk and 1 Gallon Tin of Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Holiday Greetings,
Michelle

Things on my desk.

I have a flat panel monitor, which gives me extra space on my desk behind the monitor to display some of my favorite items. Some of the “stuff” currently on my desk include, in no particular order:

“Rembrandt” Highlighters
It sounds silly, but these are so shiny! And the highlighter colors are so bright, even on paper! We saw these at a table top show in Indianapolis, and although they were displayed with other items, they caught my eye immediately. The set of 4 starts at $10.00 each, but they are also available in sets of 2 starting at $6.25 or individually starting at $2.82 each.

Sheep Key Ring In Tin
Frankly, I don’t know what promotion you’d use this for, but these sheep are so cute! The imprint area is on top of the tin, not on the sheep themselves. These woolly key rings start at $2.99. I’m proudly displaying the black sheep.

Cell Phone and Business Card Holder
I have the eye catching yellow one holding my business cards. These fold flat, so they’re perfect for mailing. And starting at $0.99, this is a great value for the amount of exposure.

Star Magnetic Sculpture Block
Aside from the basic tools needed to work (pencil, keyboard, etc.), this is the item on my desk that gets touched the most. I often find myself playing with it while on hold with a supplier, or when trying to think of creative ideas for the design I’m working on. The star block starts at $7.00, but there are many other version available, including: sport balls, poker cards, nuts and bolts, a money tree, music notes, light bulbs, dollar signs, dancers, apple tree, paperclip men, and aquarium fish.

Hawk Book Light
This is the smallest and most useful book light I have seen. It has a clip on the back and is thin enough to use as a bookmark. It has an LED light, which is great for being able to see what you’re reading without waking up other people in the room. Starting at $9.90, it comes with extra batteries and a sleeve, making it perfect to carry in your pocket or purse for any time you need a little extra light.

EcoSphere
These are our office pets. The EcoSphere is a totally enclosed eco system that contains little brine shrimp, along with “tank” decorations and some algae for them to eat. There is no way to get into the clear globe without breaking it, making it totally self contained and the easiest pet I’ve ever had to care for. The shrimps average life expectancy is 2 years, but they can live as long as 7 years. The smallest one starts at $45. Your logo is sandblasted into the glass, which would make this a memorable gift.

Please, stop by to see any of these products for yourself!

Welcome!

On a regular basis, we’ll get a sample of a product that we want to show to everyone. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always seem practical.

But now, we can share with all our customers the ad specialties that we’re excited about!

Check back here often for new and innovative products and news from the promotional world.

Want to learn more about a item we’ve mentioned? Stop by our show room and take a look for yourself!

Don’t see the perfect item for your upcoming event? Contact us at 812-334-8189 or michelle@baughenterprises.com, and we’d be happy to help you find just the right product.