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Personalized cards


Krusers

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Its fairly easy to do. You need a pragram like PintMaster, Printshop, etc. They have a template for business cards. Just make a number of cards and print them out. You can even buy pre perforated biz card paper. However i would suggest a cardstock as it will stand up better.

 

Instead of laminating the cards i would suggest you just buy some heavy duty clear packing tape. Laminating the cards will run into money fast and it is really not that important.

 

Just print out your cards and tape them up, then trim, easy :unsure:

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if you're using a template, it isn't very personalized.

 

moreover, i'm going to encourage you to come up with a better signature item than home-printed cards. even when these are laminated, it's usually done on the cheap and the cards become just so much squishy cache litter.

 

almost without exception cards are to signature items what cut and pastes are to logs.

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I thought of doin gthis but then thought its not personal:

 

so after a little thought i come up with this -

 

c1da9f41-dd14-4b8b-a2ed-f468631e0ce7.jpg

 

On the side photoed you can see my Avatar used on the forum and the geocaching website, on the other it says:

 

Dave_in_Deal

TFTC

#XX

 

the XX - is numbered to corispond with my cache find number - today i placed #52

 

i bought the chips of a ?-Bay place 100 (including P&P) was £5 the stickers were £2 for 700 and then printed them on my home PC.

 

If the chips are to big to fit (like the micro shown above) i just take a photo and add it to the log, i also have them in my earth cache finds to prove its me taking the photo (see below).

 

ab23e5cf-ebca-401d-8db2-68e3408f1efa.jpg

Edited by daveindeal
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Many Geocachers leave a laminated card in geocaches that they have visited. Does anyone know of a forum or templates that we could use to develop our own? Any ideas?

The companies that make printable business card stock have free templates to download, and even free programs to make and print the card designs. Nothing fancy. I cheated and use a "greeting card" program with suitable features. My sig card has a "decoder" on one side and "trade up/trade even" graphic on the back (it's mainly for high-traffic, high-muggle caches). I also have a "what is Geocaching" card, and a small "replacement cache note", all of them laminated. But like flask, I don't really care for business cards, so I only make a few.

 

I sign every sig item I make, if there's room for an initial. You could number yours before laminating.

 

Do whatever you think is necessary to protect the cards in the elements. Some people collect sig cards in particular, and mint-condition is a plus. Lamination will degrade. The thick kind from laminating machines is best, and it's fine until the card is bent, or the edges fray. If you use expensive lamination, save those cards for caches that you particularly enjoyed.

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if you're using a template, it isn't very personalized.

 

moreover, I'm going to encourage you to come up with a better signature item than home-printed cards. even when these are laminated, it's usually done on the cheap and the cards become just so much squishy cache litter.

 

almost without exception cards are to signature items what cut and pastes are to logs.

 

I don't know how you can equate a well done card to cut and paste logs.

 

Some of the cards I have seen are very well made, and took a bit of time and thought.

 

I do like the wooden nickles and the poker chip, but a well made card properly protected beats them out. Anyone can send a few dollars off and have someone else make up there signature item, but the best ones are the ones that are personal. Whether they are wooden nickles, poker chips, business type cards or whatever.

 

I bought an inexpensive heat laminater, and use it on the cards I make. I do not leave them in caches that are wet or look like they may get that way. However, I have seen wooden nickles that are almost unreadable in wet caches.

 

I prefer almost any homemade signature item to the ones someone has bought. One of my favorite I've seen is this area is a polymer clay disk with a dragonfly on it, and the persons handle hand written.

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if you're using a template, it isn't very personalized.

 

moreover, I'm going to encourage you to come up with a better signature item than home-printed cards. even when these are laminated, it's usually done on the cheap and the cards become just so much squishy cache litter.

 

almost without exception cards are to signature items what cut and pastes are to logs.

 

I don't know how you can equate a well done card to cut and paste logs.

 

Some of the cards I have seen are very well made, and took a bit of time and thought.

 

I do like the wooden nickles and the poker chip, but a well made card properly protected beats them out. Anyone can send a few dollars off and have someone else make up there signature item, but the best ones are the ones that are personal. Whether they are wooden nickles, poker chips, business type cards or whatever.

 

I bought an inexpensive heat laminater, and use it on the cards I make. I do not leave them in caches that are wet or look like they may get that way. However, I have seen wooden nickles that are almost unreadable in wet caches.

 

I prefer almost any homemade signature item to the ones someone has bought. One of my favorite I've seen is this area is a polymer clay disk with a dragonfly on it, and the persons handle hand written.

 

did you miss my "almost"?

 

while i have seen some VERY well-done cards that are both a beauty and a joy to me, they are still a VERY small percentage of the total cards i see and therefore i stand by my statement.

 

while i have seen a number of cheesy wooden nickles and poker chips, i think they have a greater percentage of successes in terms of desirability.

 

i've seen some very nice signature items that are done for a cacher by someone else; not everyone has the graphic design skills nor the hardware to create the signature they want.

 

i have even seen normal items signed and dated; depending on the item these are also desirable.

 

tops on my list, of course, is anything handmade.

 

pretty near the top of my list are items that are printed with a cacher's own artwork or photos (buttons and magnets come to mind).

 

currently i am using as my full-size signature cds of music i have written. for my small signature, i have printed aome of my artwork on shrink plastic, as well as a new series of photos of trail markers that i've seen while caching, and i also print those on shrink plastic, with my signature on the back.

 

when i get gears replaced on my bikes, i save the gears, clean them up, and engrave them with my signature and the year i wore them out. people who collect sigs seem to like those because they're very personal to me, and comparatively rare.

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I have a decent Laminating Machine and was thinking about using my Cowboy Cacher (CBY CCHR) plate design on one side of a card. Similar to the CBY CMPR plate I'm using as the avatar at the moment. A good Cacher Plate can be found in my profile.

 

I also like the idea of numbering them for each cache find. I'd maybe use that on the back of the card.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Side question I have about the Signature items. Are these meant to be kept by the cache owner, or are they meant to be used as trade items as well? I haven't taken any cause I figured they were meant for the CO to keep. Just thought I'd ask to be sure about that.

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the clear tape option for "laminating", while cheap, only takes a month or two in a cache before the card is waterlogged most of the time.

 

Quite correct, but i was only answering the question. Truth is i am so new to this game i dont even have a sig item. Were i to make one i think it would be in the form of a resin cast trinket with my info on the back.

 

Would love to see what others are using to give me ideas :unsure:

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Side question I have about the Signature items. Are these meant to be kept by the cache owner, or are they meant to be used as trade items as well?

They are not usually intended to remain in the cache. And, although it's fine to trade for a signature item, many people (including me) don't expect you to trade. A note in the cache log about what you liked would be good :lol:

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people who wish for their cards to stay in the cache often staple them to the logbook.

 

while i might take a signature card without making a trade, i will trade something for any substantive signature item, like a pathtag or a cast resin trinket.

 

sometimes i leave even my cds, signed and dated as a gift without taking anything, but it's more a gift to that cache or to the local cache swag economy than a gift to any specific finder, and i hope people leave something in return for it.

 

sometimes a thing will be left in a cache for the hider; these things are usually labeled clearly and are bad form to take unless you are the hider.

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the clear tape option for "laminating", while cheap, only takes a month or two in a cache before the card is waterlogged most of the time.

Quite correct, but i was only answering the question. Truth is i am so new to this game i dont even have a sig item. Were i to make one i think it would be in the form of a resin cast trinket with my info on the back.

 

Would love to see what others are using to give me ideas :lol:

Here are some things I've done. The first is a laminated card, so although it may look like I'm hijacking this thread to answer a question about sig items other than cards, it actually has info that applies to the Original Post ;)

 

It's a "decoder card", in "ROT13" format. Plenty of room on the back for other stuff. If you laminate cards, be sure to have a large border of lamination beyond all edges of the card (I learned that the hard way). I have an even wider border on the left, with a hole punched for a cord (you can't see it in the picture).

 

I haven't used any numbering system on my sig items, but I've seen that done occasionally.

 

Other sig items (some I only made a handful of) are:

Carabiners. They're almost indistinguishable from trade items.

Small pack of foreign coins (some people go nuts over these), and a small round Sig card with the pack.

"Pogs" -- collectible milkcaps. I have thousands of these to get rid of. I sign the back of a very worthless one, in case anyone collects these, then baggie a dozen assorted Pogs.

Tiny inexpensive working compasses, with printed stickers on the back, or just a signature and year. You could even peel off the sticker and use one as a trade item.

Pin buttons. I have a box of button parts left over from an old project. So I have fun just making any variety of designs I like. I sign them, too.

 

CRW_3178SigItems.jpg

 

Any Sig items of mine that have "Geocaching" logos are very rare. I don't make anything that isn't my own design anymore.

Edited by kunarion
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Its fairly easy to do. You need a pragram like PintMaster, Printshop, etc. They have a template for business cards. Just make a number of cards and print them out. You can even buy pre perforated biz card paper. However i would suggest a cardstock as it will stand up better.

 

Instead of laminating the cards i would suggest you just buy some heavy duty clear packing tape. Laminating the cards will run into money fast and it is really not that important.

 

Just print out your cards and tape them up, then trim, easy :angry:

 

Many Thanks. Those are the ideas that I am looking for........................

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Thanks for all the ideas. Here is one that I will attempt. I collected several fossil fish in western WY. I have some pieces of fish heads etc. that I can use. The material is very chalky thus allowing a dremel to sign my name by penetrating the material.

 

Sounds like this could be a fun and interesting signature item.

 

I would suggest, if the material is chalky and somewhat soft, you put them in a plastic baggie. That should help protect them from the other swag, and keep the other swag from getting a little chalky.

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