Like most parents I am, unfortunately, over familiar with the phrases “I don’t know where it is”, “I think I left it somewhere” and “I thought I put it in my bag”. Our kids special talent is for loosing water bottles, cups and lunch boxes & coats. Stickers with their names on just soak off in the wash and even permanent marker isn’t so permanent when its been through the dishwasher a few times so I had become resigned to the fact I would be a major purchaser of Tupperware for the next few years. Then I was asked to review KideCals. They are not name stickers, they are high quality waterproof labels that are good for everything from clothes & footwear to camping gear, school supplies, sports equipment and anything else you may want to keep but your child might loose.
I would like to say that the process for ordering was quick on the Kidecals website, but once our kids got a look at all of the possibilities it seemed to take hours for them to whittle down the choices to just one style each. To help with this the decals can be sorted by use, age, gender, shape and style. This was a great help with Evey who will always goes for the most ‘girly girl’ version of anything she can find and it didn’t take too long to find a style with a pretty crown. Unfortunately Gabriel wanted the robot AND the train AND the rock climber AND the tent AND, well you get the picture! Once you have chosen a basic style there are a number of customization options. You can choose background colors, add phone numbers and names, even add special messages on some of them.
Which brings me to all of the other great items Kidecals has.
They also have some fabulous chalkboard & dry erase labels to help with organisation and an amazing selection of wall decals that are movable, removable and won’t hurt your walls. Imagine – you could paint the walls in your kids rooms a neutral color and change the look all the time, just by changing the decals.
Even better, changing your seasonal decoration has just become as quick and simple as changing the decals on your wall!
Even your laptops and keyboards aren’t left out. Printed on premium quality removable vinyl with a non-residue acrylic adhesive that’s ideal for delicate surfaces, these stylish computer decals will spiffy up your typing area and make your laptop or desktop the coolest looking tech device around. I know many people who would go for these vintage look USA keycals or the Trekkie keycals but for me the winner was the sweet dots laptop skin – you can even design your own.
The ordering process was very simple and delivery was very quick – navigate to the page, personalize your decals and pay (credit card or paypal) then in just 3 days we received our decals.
Now, I wouldn’t normally bother taking ‘photos of the packaging but I really did like the packaging that the Kidecals arrived in – it made me feel like I was getting a special present – not just something practical for the kids. When companies take care like this over something as simple as their packaging, you know you are going to be receiving an item that they really care about.
We ordered the mega sets that contain 24 two inch labels and 48 one inch labels – 72 labels all together – for $28. You can order an everyday set of 12 two inch labels and 24 one inch labels -36 labels all together – for $21 or the mini set of 66 one inch labels – also for $21. For some of the sets you can buy a mega combo set of different sizes and shapes (96 labels for $36) and you know what? It doesn’t matter how many labels or packs you order, shipping is free – all day every day – Free Shipping. For those of you, like me, who have no ability to visualize what a one or two inch label might look like – Here is one sheet of 1 inch & 2 inch decals with regular Playmobil person for perspective.
Once I had opened the pack and our kids got their sticky little fingers on them, Kidecals started to pop up all around the house.
But I did manage to save enough of them for their intended use! The decals peeled off of the backing sheet very easily and were simple to apply to both smooth and uneven surfaces. For me the big test was being able to wash items with the decals on and have them remain intact and readable – and I wasn’t disappointed. In fact the decals wore better than some of the items they were placed on!
These water bottles are a month old. They have been through the dishwasher at least twice a day, been dragged around in the garden and the woods, left out overnight in the ice and rain and generally thoroughly abused by our 6 & 7 year olds.What you can’t see is that the bottle with the yellow top started out with a “Cars” theme on it and the bottle with the pink top was decorated with a “Hello Kitty” theme. The repeated washes and heavy use has worn away the factory decoration but the Kidecals that were stuck on them have gone through the same abuse and come out looking as good as they did at the start. The Kidecals that have gone through the washing machine have worn in exactly the same way. I couldn’t be more happy with the quality of these decals.
Now we will be buying them to label some of our homemade Christmas presents, to label the many, many plastic boxes we use to organize stuff and to label all of the camping and hunting equipment the boys use to help ensure everything they take out of the house comes back when they return.
