Swag Swag Swag...

I'm still working on my cruise swag bags. If you want to catch up go here, and here.

They are coming along quite nicely but once again, if you, the reader are my sister, please stop reading now. Everyone else, here are a couple of more glimpses...

The group is over 40 people but other than t-shirts and hats, I really had trouble finding personalized items in small quantities  at normal prices. Sure you can get personalized tote bags for $30 each, but I wanted to make overstuffed bags with tons of stuff in it to make my guests feel pampered so I had to do a lot of it myself.



Here is a card that will go in every bag. The front features the guest of honor on a past vacation. I made them on Shutterfly and they came out so well. Very professional. Easy to do and affordable (about $1 per card)

In addition to the adult totes, I had to make 12 kids totes for the under 18 crew.  Once again, I could not source a bag that I liked in a small amount via traditional wholesale sites,  so I turned to eBay.  

As with a few of the things in the bags, I found what I wanted on ebay and asked the seller if they would give me a quantity discount. I was able to source the string backpacks below, lanyards and iphone speakers by asking ebay sellers to give me a wholesale discount. In addition, for some of the swag for the ladies, I asked in a boutique if they would give me a discount for quantity and they did.  So the moral of the story is that even if you are not spending hundreds of dollars, if you need a dozen or so items for a party, you can still be considered a "wholesale" buyer. 

I got these string backpacks for way less than they are selling in the stores. They have a nice mesh pocket on the front and the quality is good. 

I decided to personalize them only by attaching a Sam's Crew Personalized Luggage tag which I made myself as I own not one,but two laminators. I own them because I bought them on separate occasions at Costco because I thought that I needed to laminate something.  I'm so happy that they finally got used. The tags have each kid's name on the back so that we can figure out they belong to on the beach. The luggage tag can easily be removed after the trip and the kids can use them for camp.

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