Today I’m over at So You Think Your Crafty sharing some items from my etsy shop, Ginger Snaps (annnd sharing a coupon code!!!), & later on this week I’ll be back with a tutorial on how to make one of the items in my shop. So make sure you stop by & say hi. :)
Speaking of etsy shops….remember my guinea pig post??? :)
For the past year I have been selling washable personalized sippy cups & drink cup labels in my etsy shop. Well, the dreaded thing happened…one of my customers emailed me & said all of her labels had fallen off! If you know me I was a little FrEaKeD out by that! She was super nice, and I sent her a new set of cups and some extra labels. Thank you, nice customer! :) I heart you! Buuuut I felt so bad. I have used these same labels on our cups forever, & I’ve never have had a problem. FYI: I cut these labels with a different kind of vinyl. It’s called cast vinyl (ORACAL 751 High Performance Cast Vinyl), and it’s suppose to be pretty heavy duty.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cast vinyl…I blogged about it here and here and here.
So I came up with the idea to do a little product testing of my own just to see how the labels would perform in other people’s dishwashers (in comes my guinea pig post). :) I sent of set of 3 labels to my reviewers to apply to their own cups. My little labels went BIG places: Washington, Tennessee, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, even out of the country to Ontario, Canada ANNND even across the ocean to North Yorkshire (in the United Kingdom!!). I really had a lot of fun with this! I LOVED getting to know some of YOU better!!! You guys are awesome & so fun to work with!!! Thank YOU!
So here they are - the results! :)
I applied two of these beauties onto my sons plastic sippy cups! They survived every test I put them through wonderfully! Unfortunately, my nephew began to pick off one of the letters! The dishwasher test was very successful though! No matter how many times I scrubbed them, they went through the ancient dishwasher or got abused by my son, they held up so strong! I even boiled the cup with them on to sanitize from a sickness and again....flawless! Definitely a purchase in the future!
The labels are great. For the first time it kept my boys from arguing who's water bottle was who's.
They were put on travel mugs (for hot drinks). The ones that I followed your instructions I had no issues. The other one that I didn't follow 100% started to come off a bit but when I took it out of the dishwasher right away I just held the parts that were starting to peel ever so slightly and everything was fine.
I loved, loved, loved the vinyl. I even bought new glasses to put them on! They looked awesome!!!!! Sadly, during the 3rd wash (in the dishwasher), the vinyl came off (of all 3). I wish I had better news...but they looked amazing!
All three of my kids, (my fourteen year old included!) thought they were the greatest thing and used the bottles that we put them on on a daily basis. You asked what I put the labels on-- believe it or not I put them on recycled Starbuck's Frappuccino bottles. They were super easy to apply, held up great in both the dishwasher and the sink (quite often I had to hand wash them) and even held up to my three year old "picking" at the label. Overall the "personalized" bottles were a hit and my kids thought I was the coolest mom for making them. :D
They are awesome, but maybe you should include a warning in your labels about how addictive they are! I keep thinking of things around my house I could label! :) (my kids maybe?!)
Loved the font you used very nice, easy to apply, holding up very well, would love to see them in colors too if possible.
On the glass I did first, all the letters peeled off and got all mashed up the first time I dish washed it. I am willing to take all the blame, because I got impatient about waiting like your instructions said, and I peeled off the backing before the 15 minutes was up. The other two had not been used yet, so after the first one was destroyed, I went back over the other two with a piece of waxed paper and a credit card in hopes of sticking the vinyl down better. These two have held up great after nearly daily use the last couple of weeks. (FYI, my dishwasher is a dinosaur - probably 20+ years old - just so you know what the labels were up against.)
Here’s a picture from one of the “reviewers”! :)
So overall, not too bad. Pretty good reviews! :) Annnd YES I’m still a HUGE fan of cast vinyl.
For Christmas I made these adorable popcorn bowls for gifts for family gifts.
For the nursery class at our church I made these sippy cups! A HUGE hit! (Took these pictures after they had been used and washed a few times in our dishwasher.)
Buuuuut since now I can’t say 100% of the time they’ll be OK I’ve decided to stop carrying the cast vinyl labels in my etsy shop. Three of the reviewers did have issues with their labels. One even had one come off & another all 3 came off the third time they got washed in the dishwasher. :( I’m not sure if it’s how you apply them or if it could be what kind of dishwasher or soap you use that could make a difference. I’m stumped! So I’d rather be safe than sorry when it comes to paying customers. :)
Thank YOU again to all of my reviewers!!!
