A couple of months ago I was delighted to receive custom orders from Malaika of Hand Me Down Designs and Laura Duplissis LeBrun of Sweeter Salt for two very different wedding-related orders. Malaika needed gifts for bridal showers (magnet sets with the couples’ images and two bottle cap charm necklaces of the same) and Laura wanted some unique, DIY-type gifts for all her wedding guests. Tonight, I want to illustrate the custom option that Little Eye has to offer for wedding favors, birthday presents, stocking stuffers, Easter hide-ables, baby showers, etc. etc. – the sky is the limit! I love working with people and their designs, making them fit in bottle caps, and working together to color coordinate the caps for maximum customization. It’s all about you, guys!
Laura wanted little wedding favors that were affordable and memorable – the first thing you should know about custom work from Little Eye Designs is that bulk ordering (100 pieces or more) is priced wholesale. If I can get a whole bunch of work done at once I’m happy to pass the savings on to you! So, Laura’s graphic design-savvy fiancé (now husband!) designed the perfect graphic to describe them, illustrated it in their wedding colors and passed it on to me:
Ross and Laura Sailing, Waving
Yes! Ross sized the image in to a circle for me, but most of the time I am working with raw images and I will do a few crops and submit to my customer’s approval. Some images are better at being ‘circled’ than others – I usually recommend that people send 2-3 images of the thing they might want in their custom caps, that way if one picture is not as good as the others for the crop then there will still be plenty of options.
After receiving the image, Laura and I decided that sunshine-y yellow backs for the bottle caps would be the perfect color to complement the image on the front as well as their wedding colors. Coordination is everything, no? Now, Audrey — get to work!
Custom Images - Printed and Cut
First, I made templates and printed out the design Laura and Ross wanted – then I cut them all out and stacked them up in little columns. I am a bit specific about my process…
Prepared Caps and Fixed Images
The little Rosses and Lauras are then put in to prepared bottle caps (backs painted, half-filled with epoxy) and fixed with a crafters glue to prevent any color bleeding. Then I did this about a 100 more times while I watched silly programs on television – most likely “The Cosmos” with Carl Sagan because I don’t have the right kind of attention span for “The Bachelorette.”
Ahh, finished!
You can see from the shiny-ness above that these are the finished caps. The glued images were then covered in a layer of epoxy and let to dry and cure for maximum strength. .5″ diameter ceramic magnets are then attached to the back using jeweler’s glue (pretty powerful stuff) which makes for a strong hold (3 take out menus? One exceptionally heavy macaroni craft?), good functionality while not being too bulky. You can also see the bright, yellow finish with white dappling which is my handy-dandy “Little Eye” technique. Now put these babies up on a vintage ‘Frigidaire’ door at the entry of your wedding’s dining hall and you’ve got a really cool way to help your guests remember you, your wedding day and how much fun they had every time they open up their refrigerator door.
Here are some applications for custom Little Eye magnets. (I make pins, necklaces, hair clips and rings, too!):
-Bridal Showers (photographs, wedding date, a ‘set of 12’ as a gift)
-Bridal Party Favors (flowers, images of the bride (and groom), sayings)
-Wedding Favors (illustrations, photographs, wedding date)
-Baby Shower Gifts and Favors (ultrasound images, illustrations)
-Stocking Stuffers (inexpensive gifts for everyone)
-Baby Announcement (set of 2 with photograph of baby and birth date/weight) in addition to greeting card announcements
-Birthday Presents (do your friends really like Twin Peaks? How about a magnet set!?)
-Band Pins (your band’s logo or photo to sell at shows with other merch and music)
-Anything else you can dream up in your noggin!
Please don’t hesitate to ask if you’re interested in any of the above or more!
You can reach me at the ol’ gmail at: littleeyedesigns
Metal Feathers Band Pin with Bumper Sticker Graphic - Click to See Their Page!
Little Eye Designs 