anyone know any handmade swag/ signature items i can make ?

[mead2006]

i was wondering i'm intrested in making some sig / swag items but can find very few tutorials or ideas on how to make them if anyone has ideas or links so i can make so sig items please post them

[AZcachemeister]

i was wondering i'm intrested in making some sig / swag items but can find very few tutorials or ideas on how to make them if anyone has ideas or links so i can make so sig items please post them

 

I would suggest 'wooden nickle' blanks that you customized in some way.

You could get them 'factory done' to your specification, but doing the work yourself would make them more special.

 

Lots of other small customizable wood items available at craft shops, too,

[Pup Patrol]

If you do a forum search for "handmade signature items", there will be a few threads pop up.

 

Not so much "tutorials", but some ideas and inspiration:

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=274065

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=272187

[+niraD]

My sig items are polymer clay tokens made using canework techniques. Searching for "polymer clay cane tutorial" turned up several reasonable tutorials.

[+WarNinjas]

Sometimes we take sea shells that are the flat open ones and write our geo name in them with permanent marker. We got a bunch of them at a dollar store for $1.

-WarNinjas

[+W4G_SOTAGoat]

I've seen some larger wooden nickels with what appeared to be a rubber stamp imprint on both sides. Not bad if you're on a budget or want something with a more personal touch.

[+kunarion]

i was wondering i'm intrested in making some sig / swag items but can find very few tutorials or ideas on how to make them if anyone has ideas or links so i can make so sig items please post them

If you have small smooth stones and waterproof paints, you could paint a huge variety of sig items inexpensively. They could be painted like little animals, or have shapes & patterns, or have a solid color and have your sig on them.

[+mpilchfamily]

My sig items are blanks cut from a branch that is about 2" in diameter. I then use my Dremal to cut it down to look like a cog. Then i wood burn my designs into it and seal it with polyurethane. You can see a picture of one i have attached to a coin i've sent out.

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=3451647

 

Just be creative and come up with your own thing. It doesn't have to be complicated, just be creative.

[+BMndFul]

I totally agree with the personalized "home made" approach. Unfortunately, I don't possess any craft genes. I opted for having wooden nickels made for me. Signature items are the only thing I am interested in when I find a cache. I prefer signature items with names and locations, vs even nicely done items with no identification. I have found a few sig items from Germany, and the East coast. I usually look up the owner's profile etc. Wooden nickel blanks are very inexpensive. You might consider wood burning on them. If you are interested in having wooden nickels make check out Old Time Wooden Nickels. Here is their link: Wooden Nickels. They have a very cool on-line wooden nickel designer, even with geocaching logo graphics.

[+popokiiti]

I totally agree with the personalized "home made" approach. Unfortunately, I don't possess any craft genes. I opted for having wooden nickels made for me. Signature items are the only thing I am interested in when I find a cache. I prefer signature items with names and locations, vs even nicely done items with no identification. I have found a few sig items from Germany, and the East coast. I usually look up the owner's profile etc. Wooden nickel blanks are very inexpensive. You might consider wood burning on them. If you are interested in having wooden nickels make check out Old Time Wooden Nickels. Here is their link: Wooden Nickels. They have a very cool on-line wooden nickel designer, even with geocaching logo graphics.

That is such a cool site - thanks for the link. I did a trial run with the wooden nickel designer.....I think I am tempted - very tempted - to get us some.

[+jellis]

My sig items are polymer clay tokens made using canework techniques. Searching for "polymer clay cane tutorial" turned up several reasonable tutorials.

Yeah what he said. Just wish WOW could come up to my area and give a class or two.

You can also go to sigitem.com for some ideas.

[+ras_oscar]

I bought a set of 500 casino weight poker chips in different colors, printed round stickers to apply front and back with my personal graphics, then put them in jewelry Zlock baggies as personal sig items. Inexpensive, and fun to produce when I have the time. Had a nice PM from one CO who sent it out as a travel bug.

[+Cliff's Notes]

Get some blank wooden nickels at a craft store like Michaels.

 

Design a round design and get it made up by a rubber stamp maker. I use a company called Stamp-Connection, once they figure out what you are looking for they can make round stamps. Stamp-Connection offers an acrylic stamp you can see through which makes stamp placement a breeze. Making stamps then stamping wooden blanks will allow you to make more of a variety of signature items. Once you haves stamped the nickels you could add colors with sharpie fine points.

 

Stamp-Connection can use any image you scrounge up and wrap text around to fit in the area.

 

Instead of a 1000 nickels with one message you can make smaller runs to commemorate other things like your 500th cache, or other things. Once I run out of my order of poker chips I am seriously considering this as an alternative.

[+Exiton&Umiyama]

I have only seen a few signature items so far and I have a question about them. Are they a calling card to be left in the cache, a kind of i was here item or are they like normal swag to be traded for other items? When i first saw one i thought it was left for the cache owner to see who found their cache.

[+kunarion]

Are they a calling card to be left in the cache, a kind of i was here item or are they like normal swag to be traded for other items?

They're most often treated as swag.

[+leejas72]

i was wondering i'm intrested in making some sig / swag items but can find very few tutorials or ideas on how to make them if anyone has ideas or links so i can make so sig items please post them

 

I just came up with one that my family and I are going to start using. It's called altered matchboxes. I've just started and it's really quite enjoyable. And I think people will enjoy getting them. Since we're making them ourselves they'll all be different!

[Ga-lo-nii]

i was wondering i'm intrested in making some sig / swag items but can find very few tutorials or ideas on how to make them if anyone has ideas or links so i can make so sig items please post them

Try making your own wooden nickels. They're really cheap and easy to make. I have an instructable on how to make them just follow the link

http://www.instructables.com/id/Geocaching-Wooden-Nickels/

[+TXHooligans]

My wife made us a logo with the year on it.. we then place it in the bottom of unused bottle caps and use some clear scrapbooking stuff to seal them in.. very quick to make.

[+FolsomNatural]

You can make "wooden nickel" signature items using either a hand-made or commercial rubber stamp.

I used www.paperangel.com rubber stamps, as they make round designs that are particularly suited to geocaching themes and just fit on the craft-sized wooden nickels.

 

[+FolsomNatural]

Another variation - gold nuggets painted fishing sinkers.

 

[Dinoprophet]

I used to woodburn my avatar into square pieces of wood and add a pin on the back. I've also occasionally left a version of the Michigan Geocaching Organization logo made out of Perler beads -- plastic beads that you arrange on small peg boards then melt with an iron to make them permanent. I'm kind of surprised there aren't more sig items made from those.

[+TeamTurtles]

Go try Shrink E Dinks at your local craft store. Its a clear plastic you can write on, put in oven to shrink and harden into a coin. Works great for making different styles of coins.

[+BaseOverApex]

Here are a couple of my plastic (polyester) cast personal geocoins.

 

http://coord.info/TB50N32

http://coord.info/TB50N35

 

I bought a batch of official numbers and the only stipulation for the coins was that they had to have www.geocaching.com on them. These would make inexpensive signature items.

[+scrapcat]

 

I just came up with one that my family and I are going to start using. It's called altered matchboxes. I've just started and it's really quite enjoyable. And I think people will enjoy getting them. Since we're making them ourselves they'll all be different!

 

Do you have an example of this?

[+Dan2099]

I was thinking of buying some "make your own pin kits" and printing and making my own sig items with my name and a qr code with my profile link or other info.

[+autigerman]

I tie survival bracelets. To make them sig items I use orange and blue, since that is Auburn's colors. I'll put one in a baggie with a little card to identify that it was from me.

[+Lady Loki]

One thing we're planning to do is use the polymer clay casting material to make a cast of my icon (which is actually a pendant), then cast it in various colors and put our names on the back, then color them with metallic Sharpies and wipe it off so the metallic parts stand out and give the token dimension and detail.

 

- Lady Loki

 

ETA: Er. My icon on the rest of the site... for some reason, the forums haven't seemed to update with my new icon (or new name).

 

ETA2: Aha! Never mind. I had to log out and back in.

Edited May 15, 2012 by Lady Loki