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Reward Excellence Within Your Corporation

Established in 1999, the Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) helps define America as a positive force in the world. It highlights our increasing outreach to the business community, our public-private partnerships, and our public diplomacy efforts to further corporate social responsibility, innovation, exemplary practices and democratic values worldwide.

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A Patently Excellent Idea

From the beginning of time, innovative thinkers have changed the way we live with unique inventions and technological advances for each generation. With every step forward, human civilization and those that we coexist with continue to benefit from patently excellent ideas.

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Best Practices for Awesome Sales Presentations

How do you convince prospective clients that your business provides something that they can’t find anywhere else? In a competitive marketplace, salespeople not only need persuasive tools that help turn opportunity into success, they need a fresh perspective on what makes a sales presentation great and powerful.

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7 Heartfelt Ways to Thank Volunteers for Their Service

Benjamin Franklin understood the importance of giving back to your community. Known as the founding father of American volunteerism, he organizes the first volunteer fire department in colonial times. Today, 62.8 million Americans continue his tradition, volunteering an estimated 20 million hours a year giving back to their communities by serving meals to the homeless, walking shelter dogs, cleaning up national parks and then some. Their service generates the equivalent of $482 million in assistance to organizations and causes near and dear to their hearts.

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School Sports Trophies & Fundraisers

It also means rewarding everyone involved, from those who excel at the game to Moms in the stands to coaches, sponsors and volunteers working for a win.

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Custom Metal Asset Tags with QR Codes

PlaqueMaker’s QR code custom metal asset tags are perfect for labeling machinery, crates, shelving or equipment, and are ideal for any other industrial purpose that requires targeted inventory and management. You can engrave each tag with information and a QR code that’s easy to scan.

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Perpetual Plaques for a History of Success

Companies that believe in employee recognition know that custom perpetual plaques are a unique way to document an outstanding history of success. You may have seen perpetual plaques on display at a university to honor notable alumni or the corporate office of a non-profit or community organization to thank inspiring leaders or generous donors. Perpetual plaques are a great way to celebrate a number of individual achievements with one award.

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Beautiful People, Beautiful Reminders

“I ordered this stone for my son’s memorial garden on Sunday, August 9. The proof arrived in just a few hours and I requested a change,” Debra Riendeau tells us on our Facebook Page. “The changes were made and the stone shipped by Wednesday, August 12. It arrived along with its stand on Monday, August 17.”

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6 Ways to Honor Heroism with a Custom Plaque

Giving a plaque to a local hero is always a gift that is well received. Personalizing the plaque makes it both meaningful and memorable. You can choose from one of several ways to honor a hero - all which distinguish them in a special way.

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Animal Lover’s Clip Art Gallery

Pet owners & animal lovers – this one’s for you.

From cats and dogs, horses and turtles and birds and everything in-between, our animal lover’s clip art galleries feature lifelike line art and illustrations, cartoons and tribal interpretations for use on all of our customizable gifts, trophies, gifts and more.


● Surprise a special animal lover in your life

● Create a memorial for a beloved pet

● Honor a vet or anyone who works with animals, whether in a zoo, wildlife refuge or sanctuary

● Give a trophy award to an equestrian

● Craft a school mascot graphic


Any animal design is possible with a little imagination and PlaqueMaker’s animal lover’s clip art galleries.

Individual clip art galleries feature animals by breed or type in black and white or color, and all of our personalized plaques, signs, awards, trophies and gifts include one free clip art with no set-up fees.

You’re free to upgrade with as many pieces of clip art as your design allows. We also offer free shipping for pet lovers on personalized animal gifts and memorials.

Goatoit!

Get your personalized pet present or memorial today.

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Love a Nurse!

Show your appreciation for that special nurse with a personalized plaque, award or gift from PlaqueMaker.com.

In a year when Ebola and the measles make international headlines … when a young woman from Colorado shares firsthand how her work touches her patients on national television, sparking media coverage, a social media movement, support from other caregivers and people everywhere, the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) chooses the theme of “Celebrating the Courage of Nurses Worldwide” for Emergency Nurses Week™ October 10-16. This occasion, along with Emergency Nurses Day®, Wednesday, October 12, recognizes nurses who courageously stand at the front line of emergency care every day.


“I am a nurse and that’s my talent, taking care of people and caring about other people. I wanted to give the nurses that don’t have that voice, that voice and that recognition of somebody going up there and just being a little bit different and unique.”

-Miss Colorado and Nurse Kelley Johnson


Since 1989, the Emergency Nurses Association has recognized the second Wednesday in October as Emergency Nurses Day, an occasion honoring emergency nurses for their commitment to patient care. In 2001, ENA expanded the celebration to devote an entire week to honoring emergency nurses, because one day is simply not enough to recognize all contributions made by emergency nurses. This year, the organization also celebrating 45 years as an authority, advocate, lobbyist and voice for emergency nursing, with 40,000+ members representing over 35 countries around the world.


Beautiful Recognition

PlaqueMaker offers full color printed plaques that include a coated wood board with keyhole slot and a sublimated aluminum plate. Upgrade to solid wood or glass boards or choose a brass, bronze, copper, stainless steel or titanium metal that is laser engraved with laser fused pigment in a process known as Thermal Bonded Laser Engraving. It combines precise lasers and pigmented marking material to permanently fuse black images on our solid metals. The marking material, or ink, consists of traditional ceramic glazing material, with the addition of a thermal absorber. The ceramic glazing material is a mixture of glass frit – small particles of partially fused glass designed to melt at a much lower temperature than ordinary window glass – with pigments for coloring. The traditional use of such glazing material requires it to be applied to the surface of a ceramic object, and then baked in a very hot kiln for more than an hour. Once fired, the glass frit and pigments combine to form a thin layer of colored glass that is further fused onto the surface of the ceramic object. The patented method uses a laser as the heat source to fuse the ceramic glaze instead of a kiln. All this happens in microseconds as opposed to hours, consuming far less “energy” and, consequently, without compromising or damaging the material being marked. It is the thermal absorber within the marking materials that enhances and speeds the heat absorption from the laser beam, improving the transfer to the glaze for a permanent mark.


Design a personalized plaque, award, gift and more for that perfect expression of thanks to a special nurse you know on Emergency Nurses Day October 12.




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Feng Shui of Bamboo

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese practice of creating harmonious surroundings that enhance the balance of yin and yang. Used primarily in architectural and interior design, the principles of Feng Shui determine the placement of furniture and accessories, a room, an entire building –even a grave to maximize the flow of energy (qi) and that of the person or people who occupy the place, in an effort to bring good fortune.

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Athletes Inspiring Greatness

As Coach Taylor tells his team in the (shall we say epic) television series, Friday Night Lights, “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!” Football players, cheerleaders, even coaches and referees. They’re all out there on the field for endless workout and practice sessions –and certainly on game day- getting the job done. Play by play. Game by game.

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Veterans Memorial Gets Honorable Makeover

This Veterans Day –and especially on December 12- the people of Newington, Connecticut will honor their fallen heroes at the town’s newly refurbished veterans memorial, thanks to the work and dedication of Jacob Sirois.

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Creating a Values-Based Employee Recognition Program

When it comes to employee engagement, retention and turnover, employers have a tough job. These are considered the most pressing human resource challenges of the last two years, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Organizations are finding success using values-based employee recognition programs.

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Student of the Year Awards

Usually awarded at the end of a school year, the Student of the Year award recognizes outstanding students who use their natural talents for good – achieving top academic marks while giving back to their school and their community.

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Honor Favorite Teachers with Personalized Gifts

Custom Paperweights are beloved by our customers for their beauty and ease of display, especially by teachers, who are known to wrangle a certain kind of paperwork: student tests! A thoughtful gift for most any occasion, our paperweights are individually packaged in white boxes – perfect for giving that parting present to a teacher on the last day of school. Here are just a few style selections.

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12 Ways to Increase Employee Engagement

One of the top two human resource priorities of any company, organization or enterprise, employee engagement not only makes for happy, satisfied employees, it can positively impact the ability to attain corporate goals. According to Dale Carnegie, the top three drivers of employee engagement are

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Personalized LED Signs Light it Up!

“I ordered a custom LED sign for my fiancée’s graduation and it was delivered to a wrong house. PlaqueMaker was amazing and made me a new one in under 2 hours and had it shipped the same day so it would be here for his graduation! The sign was exactly what I expected and we cannot wait to hang it in the man cave!! Highly recommend to others!!”

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Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign …

Ah, the Boomer anti-establishment. Those were the days.

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