Support Your School with Labels for Education {plus make a fun pouch!} #Labels4Edu #CBias

This #Labels4Edu shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CollectiveBias

Could your child’s school use new art supplies? Basketballs, scooters, or jump ropes for PE? Classroom supplies like pencil sharpeners and dictionaries? What about new technology like a laptop or iPad?  Every school has a wish list, and there’s a really simple way you and I can help our local schools turn those wishes into realities.  With the Campbell’s Labels for Education program, you can earn free merchandise for your school with almost no effort at all.

 Here’s how it works.  You just have to do three super-simple things.

1. Buy specially marked items. {I bet you already have some of these in your cupboards right now.}
2. Cut off the UPC label.
3. Turn it in to your school.

Can you say easy peasy?!

Each label you clip has a point value of either 1, 5, or 10 points.  As your school collects the labels, those points can be added up and redeemed for merchandise from the catalog.  Schools can make their wish lists online, and you can watch the progress as the points add up by visiting the website and selecting your school.

To show you just HOW easy this is, I thought I’d take you on a little adventure in the Artsy Family kitchen.  You see, when I heard about this program, I thought to myself, “I wonder how many of these things I already actually have in my cabinets right now.”  How many labels have I been throwing away instead of taking advantage of the chance to get free stuff for Little Crafter’s school?!

The first stop was the cabinet next to the fridge where I keep cereals and snack foods.  Would you look at that?  Every single morning, I eat a bowl of this Honey Bunches of Oats cereal.  That means I buy about a box a week.  And each one has a label on it that I could be clipping and saving to earn 1 point.

And then there’s the Pop Secret Movie Theater Butter Value Pack…it’s got a label worth a whopping 10 points!  I don’t even want to think about how many of those I’ve tossed in the recycling bin.

Moving on to the cabinet where I keep canned vegetables…I spy a Campbell’s label.  Sure enough, the Campbell’s Pork & Beans I add to our chili have a label worth 1 point.

Let’s check the fridge, shall we?  Guess what?  The V8 Splash Fruit Medley that is a favorite here in our house has a 1 point label.

…and then there’s the freezer.  All three of us devour Pepperidge Farm Frozen Garlic Bread every week on spaghetti night…and on leftover spaghetti night.  We always have this in the house, and each loaf is worth a point.  Oh, and did I mention that Goldfish Crackers have the special labels too?  Yup.

Suffice it to say, I’ve been wasting a lot of points around here just on the things I already normally buy.  I don’t even have to go out of my way to purchase “special” items, I already literally have at least 15 points sitting in my kitchen right now.  Wondering what items you might have that are worth some points? There’s a full list on the Labels for Education website that shows all the products from brands like Campbell’s, Dannon, Emerald, Pace, Pepperidge Farm, Pop Secret, Post, Prego, Swanson, and V8 that qualify for the program.  BIC also has participating products, so you can earn points when you purchase school and office supplies too.  The Labels for Education site does offer special coupons for qualifying products, so be sure to check those out and save a little extra while you’re at it!

Now that we know about the program, you can bet the Artsy Family will be clipping our labels and asking our family and friends to do the same.  To help us stay organized and keep them all together, I created a really simple little pouch.  Here’s how…

Materials:
– Oly*Fun {or felt would work too}
– button
– small piece of elastic cord
– scissors
– sewing machine and thread

Step 1: Cut a rectangle from Oly*Fun.
As you know, I usually create my “patterns” by tracing random things…this time I put two DVD cases side by side and it worked quite nicely.  It was roughly 8×11.”

Step 2: Fold up a little more than 1/3 of the rectangle {mine was about 4″} and sew along the two edges.
Just a note: Oly*Fun doesn’t have a “right side” or “wrong side”, which is one of the awesome things about it.  If you decide to use a fabric other than this or felt, which is also double sided, make sure you fold this step with the right sides together and sew with the wrong side facing you.

Step 3: Turn right side out.  Fold the corners of the top flap down to meet the other piece, as shown and pin in place.

Step 4: Sew along the edges of the top flap, then cut off the excess fabric.

Step 5: Sew your button in place.
To get the right location, I folded my pouch in half and marked the center with a pin.  Just a tip, make sure you only sew through the front layer of the pouch and not both, accidentally sewing it shut!

Step 6: Sew an elastic loop onto the back of your top flap.
Honestly, this was the hardest part!  I tried fabric glue, hot glue, hand sewing…nothing worked except to machine stitch over it back and forth and back and forth.  Ugh!  So, I saved you the trouble of figuring that out.  You’re welcome.

Step 7: Write/draw on your pouch as desired.
I chose to write “Labels” on ours using a BIC Mark-It permanent marker so that everyone in the family knows exactly what goes inside.  Now there’s no excuses not to clip and save our labels anymore!

What about you?  Do you have some of these products in your cupboard, your fridge, and your freezer?  Are there labels just waiting to earn points and cool stuff for the local schools in your area?

Oh, and if you REALLY want to “wow” your school, Campbell’s is hosting a $1 million sweepstakes in which 1000 schools will each win $1000!  For more information on how you can enter, check out the official rules and FAQs.

Now, get clipping!