Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew
Have you ever searched for a gift but wanted it to be both unique and personable? Enter in CrossTimber and their Name Meaning Gifts!
The Bookmarks
We were able to choose 5 different bookmarks, which was perfect for our family of five. The ordering process was fairly simple and easy. The first step was to choose the design we wanted on the bookmark. The website has a menu of different image categories such as sports, nature, animals, castles, symbols and SO many more! It was fun looking through all of the designs and everyone was able to pick their favorite for their own bookmark. Next, you can choose any add-on options that you’d like, such as adding a ribbon or special corner designs. For the sake of our review, we decided to keep it simple and just chose the basic bookmarks. Then you can choose whether you’d like a quote, bible verse, or character quality on the front of your bookmark (you can also add custom text for an additional fee). We chose to use the character qualities on our bookmarks. The last step is to enter the name you’d like on the bookmark and then just add it to your cart and you can start working on another design. Because our family’s beliefs are a little different than mainstream Christianity, we were able to contact CrossTimber and explain to them that we’d prefer not to have any biblical quotes or specific wording on our bookmarks (we use a different bible version than they do at CrossTimber). John from CrossTimber was able to adapt the bookmarks to fit our needs and was so kind about it. We were able to omit any bible verses that didn’t match the ones in our own bibles. I really appreciated that he took the time to understand what we wanted to change and why. Have a look at these beautiful bookmarks that we were able to create, we are really loving them! My youngest was especially excited to see his very own name on his bookmark!
AmazingName Activity Pages
The other item that we received was the customized AmazingName Activity pages. These are available in either PDF or printed version, we received both. A really good reason for getting the PDF version is that you can print the activity pages as many times as you want!
There are over 25 pages of activities, with your child’s name incorporated into them. These could work for a variety of ages, I would guess from about five up to maybe 10-12 depending on your child. Some of the pages are simple, such as tracing their name in either print or cursive. Other pages are a bit more challenging, such as crosswords or more intricate coloring pages. If you’re ordering for a younger child, you could give them the easier pages now, and hold on to the more difficult pages until they are ready for them.
For our activity set, I ordered them for my ten old daughter. She likes the mazes and the more complex coloring sheets the most but probably won’t use the tracing practice writing pages.
Final Thoughts
I am really impressed by the quality of the bookmarks, they are nice and think and have a photo or laminated-like finish. I think these will hold up well over time, even with my rambunctious kids! The AmazingName Activity Set is a fun, personalized activity booklet for younger kids. It would be great to see two or three different sets that are aimed at more specific age groups. I’d also love to see the printed activity set put together like an actual booklet, with a more durable cover, though. In my personal experience, my items were shipped to me in a manila envelope, and some of the corners of the activity pages got a little bent in the mail. It wasn’t bad and I was able to straighten them back out, but it may be better to use a more rigid packaging method, or make it into a more durable booklet to stand up to the mailing process better.
All in all we are VERY happy with our bookmarks and would recommend CrossTimber as a great source for unique and personalized name gifts. You can find a number of other items on their website as well, such as plaques and mugs.
