This Time, It's Personal: The DIYer's Guide to Personalization

Summer’s almost here. And with it comes weddings, family reunions, work cookouts, and a whole host of other special events.

But with so many of these events all swirling together, how do you make sure your event stands out?

Easy answer: personalized favors.

And don’t worry: they don’t have to be expensive. In fact, we have a number of ways you can make custom gifts right here in the shop.

Here are a few ideas.

Customized T-Shirts
Is there a better freebie than custom t-shirts?

A comfortable t-shirt with a stylish print builds hype for your event, and can keep people excitedly remembering it for years to come. Just look at all the people paying top dollar for vintage concert t-shirts!

You can use our screenprinting studio to print as many shirts as you bring! Make a strong, memorable design, and make sure to print on a comfortable base shirt. No one wants to wear a stiff shirt with a tight neck hole.

Personalized Tote Bags
With all the concern for plastic waste, many people are opting to use reusable cloth tote bags.

And why not? They’re durable, stylish—and easy to personalize.

Using our Silhouette Cameo vinyl cutter, you can cut out intricate designs (including text). Then using the heat press, you can bond it right to the fabric. It’s sort of like an iron-on, but way more durable, and way more classy.

Unlike screenprinting, which is best for quickly printing lot of one design, you can personalize each heat press graphic. This is perfect for putting guests’ names on each bag (or shirt—you use the heat transfer on basically every cloth).

Hand-stamped Swag
Hand stamping is a simple, charming way to personalize a number of items.

You can use metal stamps to inscribe on metal or leather. Make a bracelet, keychain, necklace pendant, belt, whatever you can think of.

Simply choose your item, line up the stamp, and give it a few wacks with the hammer. It’s a quick and easy way to make a charming party favor that your friends will love for years.

Laser Cut Name Badges
Few tools in our shop are as versatile as the laser cutter. It can be used to cut through wood, acrylic, and leather, and can engrave wood, acrylic, leather, glass, ceramic, and more.

There’s a million ways you can use the laser cutter to customize great gifts (photo ornaments anyone?), but for the purposes of this blog, we’ll look at name tags.

If you’re hosting a party with a big guest list of people that don’t know eachother, you could offer up some white sticker tags and Sharpies…

Or you could use the laser cutter to make attractive name tags.

Make wooden tags with a classy typeface, or acrylic tags with an LED illuminating them. You could also add an icon that corresponds with something they like as an icebreaker.

For a more formal affair, you can order professional-grade magnetic name tags and alter them yourself. Find more here.

Letterpressed Cards
When the printing press was introduced, it revolutionized the world. And while it’s not the most efficient way to print text anymore, there’s something undeniably alluring about the aesthetic of letterpressing.

If you’re going to a wedding or birthday party, skip the Hallmark aisle and make your own card in the shop. An abstract watercolor with a custom letterpressed message is sure to make an impression.

Custom 3D Prints
Okay, so this one is a bit more involved, but the payoff is enormous.

Using the 3D printer, you can design just about any gift you can think of.

If you have access to a 3D scanner, you can create an accurate 3D model of a person’s face. Then using a modeling program like TinkerCad, you can refine that into a bust, which you can print a model of (we recommend adding a pair of beefy arms, like this).

If you don’t have a scanner, you can make use a modeling program to make a more simplified version, sort of like a Funko Pop figure. After it’s printed, you can paint on the model to make it even more personalized.

Just keep in mind—3D printing takes a while, so you might not want to make one for everyone on your guest list. Maybe just the guest of honor.

What Will You Make?
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands more ideas that you can make a reality in our workspace.
So put on your thinking caps, get a day pass, and get to work!

We’d love to see what you make!