Monday, August 30, 2010

Create your own Signature item!

5 sample designs
Hole punch, bottle cap, my design, and a quarter
I think all Geocachers should have a signature item that they drop in most if not all their finds.  We have been doing this for over a year now and we know we like it, so it was time to create a signature item we liked.  We came across a pathtag in a cache one day, and thought it was a trackable item.  We went to pathtags.com and found that there are thousands of cachers that have created these pathtags to drop into their favorite containers, to give to other geocachers.  We spent the next couple weeks coming up with a design and used a designer to help us (I have a link to the designer we used in my geocaching links).  The pathtags finally arrived today and we could not be happier with them!  It looks just like the picture I have at the top of the blog, and if you want to see it up close you will have to find a container we drop one in, or be the FTF on one of my hides!  Since these are for special trades, or special finds, we won't drop one of these in every cache we find (cost was over $1 a coin to make them).  Not everyone is committed to the hobby enough to create a pathtag, nor do many have the means to drop a $1-$2 item at every stop on the geo-trail (we will be pretty selective I'm sure)

So... we wanted another item to bring geocaching with us in addition to the pathtag.  We decided to create something a bit more cost effective to leave behind in all of our finds. In the past year we have seen many different signature items that we liked and collected.  After looking over many options we decided to let the girls choose a picture of something that describe's them (Dolphin and Butterfly), and we'd create a bottle cap item.  This is very simple idea.  We bought a bag of a few hundred bottle caps, and a paper hole punch that cuts a circle about the size of a quarter, a glue stick, and some high gloss finish.  We then had an inexpensive item the girls could drop into cache's.  We would love to find more signature items!  With an easy and inexpensive option like these bottle caps everyone that is out caching can do it!  Once the gloss finish dries, you have a small item that fits in most any container, and looks unique enough that other cachers will like it.   (This article will be in FTF Geocacher Magazine Issue #5!)     

1 comment: