New initiation gift ideas as inspired by the APO store at national convention:

APO now has Forget-me-not seeds for sale for only a dollar each! (per packet) So what you could do is decorate a flower pot and give the pot and the seeds to the new initiate. FYI: I'm sure you could get regular packets of seeds for less, but the APO ones have the APO logo on them.

APO has a candy jar with the coat of arms -- fill it with blue and gold jelly beans. (I'm currently on the lookout for CHEAP jelly beans in bulk. I love Jelly Belly but dammit they're expensive.

From Family Dollar, I recently bought some nesting baskets without the handles. I realize they aren't the best quality baskets, but I like them for non-permanent use. I plan on spray painting them and using them as containers for the gifts I give out.

At the APO store they made me take old convention shirts as a free gift at check out LOL..... I absolutely hated this particular design, but I took one for my "AI."

I basically got everything I could possibly need for my honorary initiate for under $60. Anything else I get will most likely be handmade and personalized somehow.

kd4me
 

True confessions time...when I was in college, I was in charge of skit night one year during recruitment. I spent the summer making shrinky-dink nametags for all of our members that would match our skit. It was a different time back then.

I had never played with shrinky dinks before, and haven't since! Wonder if they till make them? That would be fun to do with my kids in a few years!

Well, my honorary initiate crossed this weekend! I spray painted a basket metallic blue and used gold tissue paper to line it. I ended up getting him everything I listed above, plus:

APO license plate frame
APO note cube
A personalized wooden picture from from greekgear.com
And because he is an educator, a blue plastic pencil box which I decorated with an APO sticker and put the following items in: APO pencils, APO pens, a blue protractor, APO shield pin, lanyard keychain, and blue and gold smiley face stickers.

He loved it!

Yes they do, my kids love to make key chain charms out of shrinky dinks. You can buy them at Barnes & Noble in the kids section or just about any craft store.

For Zetas:
 

Surprise your little legacy with this (and the proceeds go to breast care research!): Princess Crown