Cache Cards

[Guest Buzzbait]

I was just making up the art for some cache cards to place in the spring. What do you think? Should anything else be on the cards?

 

The coordinates and other info aren't correct yet. I still have to GPS the site and stuff. And a picture of the site obviously needs to be added.

 

[Guest nlazarus]

Pretty cool, I hope when you get the card worked out you'll make the file available to us non-artsy/computer types so we can modify for our caches. I am feeling a little inspired and may try this myself.

[Guest geospotter]

Excellent idea! I love it! Nice job, too.

[Guest TresOkies]

OK, that's cool. I need to check my caches next week and I may add a pack of cards to each.

 

-E

 

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N35°32.981 W98°34.631

[Guest TheBeans]

I made one for the finders of our first cache (see our webpage for the thumbnail photo) and I have to admit that I got the idea from Rob's website (www.creekbed.com).

Wendy

 

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BeanAcres

[Guest gmaxis]

If only I was atistic, I'll make one for every cache I hide!

I can just imagine the potential of cache cards...printed on thick, glossy paper, they might become collectibles and increase in value over time. Wishful thinking?

[Guest mcahunter]

quote:

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Originally posted by Buzzbait:

What do you think?

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I think they look great! Would it be OK with you if I stole the image and made minor changes for my caches?

[Guest glenn95630]

Take a look at these

http://www.creekbed.com/geocache/cards.htm

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000155.html

 

http://www.geocities.com/sailtheoceann/geocard.htm

 

glenn95630

[Guest geofred]

Walking around with a bunch of cards does not appeal to me; but there may be an audience. Now, if you put that on a sheet of "iron-on" paper so I could walk around with it displayed on my T-shirt, now that I like. Right now I just iron on the names of the caches I have. Your artwork would make it even mo-betta.

[Guest TheBeans]

geofred...that is a COOL idea! It wouldn't be any harder to print out an iron-on transfer than it would a card. Probably more cost prohibitive if you are looking to make a multitude of them....but it might make an interesting item to leave in a cache.

 

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BeanAcres

[Guest jeo]

The Iron-ons have been a huge success in one of mine. Cache On A Stick

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=5888

I've had to restock them 4 times, and I have to do it again.

[Guest TheBeans]

are a great idea! I'm going to have to borrow your idea and try one or two here in my own cache and see how they go over. Thanks for the suggestion

 

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Take me toBeanAcres

[Guest maps-r-us]

We started making cards for our caches and use the business card blanks readily available and put a map as the background image. We put a bunch in the cache for folks to take as a souvenir and sometimes leave them as advertising in other caches we visit. Glad to see others are doing the same thing!

 

Visit page at: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=8113

Visit page at: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?id=11447

 

[This message has been edited by maps-r-us (edited 07 January 2002).]

[Guest Hawk-eye]

I've been making and placing cards in my "Hawk 1" through "Hawk 11" caches all year .. so far the response has been very favorable. I made a template that I use in Word and I print on glossy heavy weight photo paper. There's a low resolution photo of each of the cards on each web page.The actually card is very high resolution.

 

Visit page at: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=3886

 

 

[This message has been edited by Hawk-eye (edited 07 January 2002).]

[Guest tedoca]

Nice work on the cache cards everybody. Buzzbait, how do you get your images so sharp and clean? What program are you using to create them?

 

Instead of a cache card I've been toying with the idea of a cacher trading card, like THIS...

 

Pretty poor quality I would have to say compared to some of the cards I've seen here but the best I can do. What do you think?

[Guest Robereno]

I?m interested in exchanging cards with others. I?d like to be able to visit the caches personally but, considering my travel budget, that?s not likely. For those interested you can get my information at http://creekbed.com/geocache/cards.htm

 

Rob Horne

 

Oh yeah, I use Microsoft Picture It! Publishing Platinum to do my cards but I?m interested in other programs if anyone knows of any.

[Guest Choberiba]

Tedoca,

 

Geocities won't allow you to link directly to an image. Not even as a seperate link the way you do it.

 

I hope you don't mind, but I was curious what your card looked like and others might be as well so....

 

[Guest tedoca]

Choberiba,

 

No problem, I don't mind. I put it up as a link instead of inserting the image 'cause I knew it was a rather large file and it just messes everything up and forces you to scroll side to side to read everybody's text. (I hate it when that happens!)

 

Anyway, I don't understand. Were you unable to view the pic? When I click on the link in my post it opens a new window and displays the image just fine.

 

???????????

[Guest treemoss2]

How about placing geocache stickers in caches. Similiar to these cards, but you could put them on your bumper.

Of course that may make you too high profile to the 'guardians of the parks, forests, etc".

[Guest Choberiba]

Tedoca,

 

When I click on your link the following message pops up....

 

"This page is not available. "

 

They do give you a shiny ad to look at, so it's not a complete waste of time.

 

Now I'm wondering if Geocities places a geocookie on your geoharddisk?

 

Clicking on the card01.jpg link from - Here - seems to work just fine.

[Guest navdog]

I have been working on a cacher card also, but I relly like Tedocas idea of geocacher trading cards. Good job. It would be neat if there was a standard template that everynoe could make a similar trading card with their own info.

[Guest Bob_and_Genny]

We've stuck laminated business card in each of our caches with info about the cache. Too see the series ... http://www.bobshome.org/geocaching/ .

 

I use one of the existing ones as a template for the next one, create a JPG, load into Word and print. I uses The GIMP on Linux to create the card.

 

Bob

[Guest maps-r-us]

When we first started making the map-based cache cards mentioned above, it was to use as cache souvenirs. People could collect the cards to remember the caches and use as advertising. It appealed to me since the trinkets most people put in caches are just tchocthke (look that word up!) that you take to put in other caches. The Travel Bugs are an improvement on that idea but you still have nothing to remember your found caches by. And since we really like maps, we decided to put small maps on the cards as souvenirs.

 

The idea of trading cards based on CACHERs themselves seems to make the sport more competitive then it should be. Why would anyone want a card with my picture and statistics for caches found? They wouldn't. I AM slightly curious about the folks who have 300 caches or more - do they have a job? - but I don't want their picture.

 

So much for our ideas!

[Guest tedoca]

quote:

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Originally posted by maps-r-us:

When we first started making the map-based cache cards mentioned above, it was to use as cache souvenirs. People could collect the cards to remember the caches and use as advertising.

 

I couldn't agree more... the cache cards are a great idea that I'd like to adopt myself!

 

It appealed to me since the trinkets most people put in caches are just tchocthke (look that word up!) that you take to put in other caches.

 

As mentioned, I also find the cache card idea appealing. As to the tchocthke, if all everybody did was recycle the trinkets from one cache to another we could virtually gaurantee that no one would ever find an interesting or unique item in a cache. I prefer to leave something of my own that someone else may find useful or even entertaining. If I don't see something I want I'll just leave my item and take nothing.

 

Snip

 

The idea of trading cards based on CACHERs themselves seems to make the sport more competitive then it should be.

 

Here I would have to dissagree... quite to the contrary I believe CACHER trading cards would foster a sense of community among fellow geocachers just as voicing our opinions here in the forums does. Instead of a simple user name on a log entry you would have a face to put with the name, some interesting tid-bits of information about your fellow cacher such as his or her favorite or most memorable cache (maybe it's one you haven't visited yet?), perhaps you would even recognize them on the trail or just learn a bit more about the person who placed that great cache you just found?

 

Why would anyone want a card with my picture and statistics for caches found? They wouldn't.

 

Ahhh, but you assume you know more about me than you do. I would LOVE to find your personal trading card, or the cards of folks who are active cachers in my area (or any area for that matter), or people I've exchanged opinions or ideas with either here in the forums or through email, or of folks I've met at an event or met on the trail or may meet in the future. I would look at them just like a ham radio operator's QSL card.

 

I AM slightly curious about the folks who have 300 caches or more - do they have a job? - but I don't want their picture.

 

... but if you had one of their trading cards you just might learn that they do have a job, or maybe that they're retired, or simply what motivates them so much.

 

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[Guest tedoca]

quote:

---

Originally posted by maps-r-us:

When we first started making the map-based cache cards mentioned above, it was to use as cache souvenirs. People could collect the cards to remember the caches and use as advertising.

 

I couldn't agree more... the cache cards are a great idea that I'd like to adopt myself!

 

It appealed to me since the trinkets most people put in caches are just tchocthke (look that word up!) that you take to put in other caches.

 

As mentioned, I also find the cache card idea appealing. As to the tchocthke, if all everybody did was recycle the trinkets from one cache to another we could virtually gaurantee that no one would ever find an interesting or unique item in a cache. I prefer to leave something of my own that someone else may find useful or even entertaining. If I don't see something I want I'll just leave my item and take nothing.

 

Snip

 

The idea of trading cards based on CACHERs themselves seems to make the sport more competitive then it should be.

 

Here I would have to dissagree... quite to the contrary I believe CACHER trading cards would foster a sense of community among fellow geocachers just as voicing our opinions here in the forums does. Instead of a simple user name on a log entry you would have a face to put with the name, some interesting tid-bits of information about your fellow cacher such as his or her favorite or most memorable cache (maybe it's one you haven't visited yet?), perhaps you would even recognize them on the trail or just learn a bit more about the person who placed that great cache you just found?

 

Why would anyone want a card with my picture and statistics for caches found? They wouldn't.

 

Ahhh, but you assume you know more about me than you do. I would LOVE to find your personal trading card, or the cards of folks who are active cachers in my area (or any area for that matter), or people I've exchanged opinions or ideas with either here in the forums or through email, or of folks I've met at an event or met on the trail or may meet in the future. I would look at them just like a ham radio operator's QSL card.

 

I AM slightly curious about the folks who have 300 caches or more - do they have a job? - but I don't want their picture.

 

... but if you had one of their trading cards you just might learn that they do have a job, or maybe that they're retired, or simply what motivates them so much.

 

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[Guest tedoca]

quote:

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Originally posted by navdog:

It would be neat if there was a standard template that everynoe could make a similar trading card with their own info.

---

 

Navdog, I think that would be the ultimate! If Jeremy were to hook-up with one of those photo or electronic greeting card sites and establish a template for cache cards and cacher cards where you could just make a few mouse clicks, enter your text, upload your pics and print them out that would be cool.

 

OR... instead of printing them out yourself you could order up a bunch of high quality prepared and laminated cards for a small fee (<$1 each?) and even generate some income for the site?

 

Hmmm...

[Guest nlazarus]

what are the dimensions of a baseball card?

[Guest Buzzbait]

For those of you who asked questions about my cards?.. I worked in the printing business for many years, so I know the ins and outs of all this art stuff. I now use Macromedia?s Freehand and Microsoft Image Composer for my artwork. Freehand handles the initial Vector work, and Image Composer just throws in some nifty raster special effects.

 

I?m in the middle of making a few design changes to my initial cards, but will post up the final artwork. I could make some templates for others to use, but I?m not quite sure what format to put the files in. I?m thinking that Microsoft Word could be used to fill in the blanks. Word isn?t the easiest program to add text and pictures to, but it can be done. Publisher would be much easier, but I?m not sure how many people actually have this program. Give me some ideas here.

[Guest GeoForse]

First of all, there is some really cool stuff posted. I'd post my meager efforts, but I's be embarrased.

 

I did, however, add a twist to this particular topic by printing business sized cards on magnetic card stock, and voila!!!...

instant refrigerator magnet! This whole area of home-made, personalized cache gifts will get some more attention after my impending retirement. Hopefully, I'll have increased opportunities to "disperse" them.

[Guest Robereno]

uld have to be in a common, interchangeable format that could be manipulated by the most programs. I?m a novice here but would that be Paint Shop Pro or of course, Photoshop (that old expensive stand by?)

 

I do prefer the idea of everyone experimenting with their own creations rather than a generic ?official? geocache card. Of course I?d be the first to use it if we did go with some sort of standardized format.

[Guest Robereno]

uld have to be in a common, interchangeable format that could be manipulated by the most programs. I?m a novice here but would that be Paint Shop Pro or of course, Photoshop (that old expensive stand by?)

 

I do prefer the idea of everyone experimenting with their own creations rather than a generic ?official? geocache card. Of course I?d be the first to use it if we did go with some sort of standardized format.

[Guest TheBeans]

We really enjoy the cards that are out there....my only protest on this subject would be: please DON'T use a template! If you go to using a template then everyone's cards would look fairly similar and it'd get dull after a while. With everyone creating and making their own you'll get a wide variety of cards that will remain fresh and interesting far longer...and they'll give you ideas to try out yourself!

 

 

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Take me to BeanAcres

[Guest BLOODANGEL86]

not a template but a recomended size that they should all be or somethin

 

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¿Donde es la crema de mani?

[Guest Watson]

The last couple times I purchased business cards and bumper stickers, it was through online print shops.

 

Do any of you know of one that'd be willing to setup a web page that would allow for custom cards to be generated, without taking out a second mortgage in the process?

[Guest Ontario Cacher]

How about logo buttons? I'd love to pin cache logo buttons on my hiking backpack. Anyone know where someone can get logo buttons made?

[Guest maps-r-us]

Well you make some good points, Tedoca, but I still would prefer to have a card to remember the caches I visit. And making cards for the caches could be used to share additional information about the cache location, esp. if it is an historical site. But I can see where some folks would like your kind of card, too.

 

As for templates, I agree with TheBeans that it is more exciting if folks do their own with whatever software they have. The simplest is to buy some Avery business card labels at any office supply store and then fill in the standard templates that come with Wordperfect or Word with your information. Still lots of creativity options by adding simple graphics or pictures to the cards and by choosing font and colors. And since they are perforated, you don't have to cut them out! You could even use Printmaster or any other of the simple $20 graphics programs available everywhere. THose expensive graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, etc. are wonderful if you already have them but I wouldn't spend hundreds of dollars just to make cache cards!

[Guest maps-r-us]

Well you make some good points, Tedoca, but I still would prefer to have a card to remember the caches I visit. And making cards for the caches could be used to share additional information about the cache location, esp. if it is an historical site. But I can see where some folks would like your kind of card, too.

 

As for templates, I agree with TheBeans that it is more exciting if folks do their own with whatever software they have. The simplest is to buy some Avery business card labels at any office supply store and then fill in the standard templates that come with Wordperfect or Word with your information. Still lots of creativity options by adding simple graphics or pictures to the cards and by choosing font and colors. And since they are perforated, you don't have to cut them out! You could even use Printmaster or any other of the simple $20 graphics programs available everywhere. THose expensive graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, etc. are wonderful if you already have them but I wouldn't spend hundreds of dollars just to make cache cards!

[Guest JamieZ]

quote:

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Originally posted by nlazarus:

what are the dimensions of a baseball card?

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NLazarus,

 

If I remember correctly from my heavy collectin' days, 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

 

There were also several series of non-standard size cards issued by a handful of manufacturers, but the standard is still the same.

 

Jamie

[Guest tedoca]

Well it looks like the consensus is against using a template and after thinking about this for awhile I guess I would have to agree that the more personal and unique the cards are the better. My only reservation would be that folks who lack the needed software or who are art-challenged may benefit from access to a template of some sort.

 

As was mentioned, a standard size that could be agreed upon and adopted would be nice. I don't know what the dimensions of a baseball card are, or even if there is a standard across the various manufacturers, but for those who are curious my card is 3" X 5" and I used a very old ('97?) version of MS Publisher to create it.

 

For magnetic business cards, I used this guy to make some cards for my business a few years back. Fast service, good quality, and priced at just under a buck a piece for a minimum order of 40 cards. (FTR, no affiliation) He has an online card designer, the designs available are pretty basic and more geared towards standard business cards but perhaps if enough folks approached him he would be willing...?

 

A sister site to the one above, Magnetking.com, sells the inkjet printable magnetic sheeting.

 

A search on Yahoo yielded a few possibilities as well...

 

http://www.tradingfaces.com/

http://www.customsportscards.com/

http://www.swcp.com/ballooncards/

 

Incidentaly, it seems they all use a size of 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" so maybe that's the standard trading card size?

[Guest Robereno]

>

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[This message has been edited by Robereno (edited 09 January 2002).]

[Guest Buzzbait]

Okay, here's the final card, both front and back. The original was a little too bright for my tastes, so I cleaned it up and toned it down a bit. Now it's only outrageously bright on one side. I muted the other side to make the picture stand out more, which gave it that army surplus kind of look. I like it.

 

I totally understand about people's reactions to card templates. It does suck a little of the originality of the whole card thing. I'll tell you what. The bright side is very simple and easy to manipulate. I'll make the bright side available for people to use. That'll give people, who choose to use it, a good starting point. They can use their own creative minds on the other side. I can make it available in a mess of formats, seeing as the image is so simple.

 

FYI, I designed the cards at baseball card size, 2.5" X 3.5". I'll be printed them out and laminating them against the elements. If people want, they can even punch a hole in them and hang them like ski lift tickets if they like, without fear of them disintegrating.

 

As always, comments and criticisms are very much appreciated.

 

 

[This message has been edited by Buzzbait (edited 09 January 2002).]

[Guest Buzzbait]

Okay, here's the final card, both front and back. The original was a little too bright for my tastes, so I cleaned it up and toned it down a bit. Now it's only outrageously bright on one side. I muted the other side to make the picture stand out more, which gave it that army surplus kind of look. I like it.

 

I totally understand about people's reactions to card templates. It does suck a little of the originality of the whole card thing. I'll tell you what. The bright side is very simple and easy to manipulate. I'll make the bright side available for people to use. That'll give people, who choose to use it, a good starting point. They can use their own creative minds on the other side. I can make it available in a mess of formats, seeing as the image is so simple.

 

FYI, I designed the cards at baseball card size, 2.5" X 3.5". I'll be printed them out and laminating them against the elements. If people want, they can even punch a hole in them and hang them like ski lift tickets if they like, without fear of them disintegrating.

 

As always, comments and criticisms are very much appreciated.

 

 

[This message has been edited by Buzzbait (edited 09 January 2002).]

[Guest RedwoodRed]

A cheap solution but maybe one worth thinking on:

 

www.vistaprint.com offers a first-time FREE printing of business cards and all you need to pay is the $4.99 shipping and handling fee.

 

Yes, they are limited on how many lines you have/modify...

 

Yes, they have limited backgrounds/templates...

 

Yes, you have to pay extra for adding your own background image, logo, more lines of text/information, putting them on shiny card stock, but I paid for all of those extras and it was still only $19.95 for 250 cards.

 

When they get here, I'm going to laminate them and punch little holes in each one for a keyfob/keyring which will drive up the end price, but I have purchased business cards from them before and they get lots of compliments.

 

Just my .02,

[ your price may vary depending on the gold standard in your area ]

 

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Lori aka: RedwoodRed

KF6VFI

"I don't get lost, I investigate alternative destinations."

http://www.geogadgets.com

http://www.beautywithattitude.com

http://www.w6hy.org

[Guest TheBeans]

I like the idea of a standard size. Mine is 6" wide and 4" tall. Probably bigger than a standard postcard (didn't have one to compare the size against) but it does allow for enough graphic and text space while still being small enough to fit in a basic ammo box.

 

For anyone who is feeling graphically challenged, I'd heartily recommend PrintShop software. I like things that give me lots of options but not so many that I never learn all the tricks or shortcuts of the program and PrintShop works very well for me. In fact, I've been working on iron-transfers this week with a lot of success!

 

 

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Take me to BeanAcres

[Guest adventuretom]

I place laminated collectible bag tags in all of mine. Been doing this for 7 months now. They go quickly. People find one and tend to go to my other caches to complete the set. When our group meets it is nice to see them hanging on peoples day packs. My homepage has the art for my current tags, plus our local logo:

 

http://www.adventure-gear.com/geocache.htm

 

I also use the laminated tags for my multicache stage markers. Works great.

[Guest BlueDamsel]

I'd have to protest the idea of using a template. Part of the fun of doing this to me would be collecting a lot of different ones....you know, seeing what people came up with on their own. Sort of like the personal stamps that people use in letterboxing. I definitely wouldn't bother to put out a card if I had to use someone else's layout for it. However, I'm an artist by profession so maybe it's easier for me to come up with my own artwork than it would be for a lot of people.

 

But given that, I'd much rather see badly-designed trading cards that were at least original and had the personality of the issuer, than some glossy cookie cutter thing that looked like every other card out there.

 

I wouldn't be interested in trading a cookie-cutter card.

[Guest Rich in NEPA]

I'm experimenting with 3" magnetic buttons like this.

 

 

Will place cache-specific designs in each of my Geocaches for any finder who wants one.

 

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~Rich in NEPA~

 

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? A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ?

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[Guest Watson]

Rich in NEPA is: "experimenting with 3" magnetic buttons"

 

Truly impressive!

Where do you buy the blanks? How Much?

Do you have to worry about a metal pin rusting in the rain?

 

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"hello Capricorn Florist? Would you mind answering a few calls from the bomb squad for us now and then?" -Mana User

[Guest Zhanna]

wants one.

 

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What about those of us who've already found the Cozy Squirrel; can we go back for one? I adore that squirrel...

 

-Zh.

[Guest Zhanna]

wants one.

 

---

 

What about those of us who've already found the Cozy Squirrel; can we go back for one? I adore that squirrel...

 

-Zh.