making custom matchboxes
one of my favorite parts of buying from artisans directly is that there's always some surprise, personal touch added to the package - like a free sticker, candy, or a handwritten note. to me, it's proof of care and craft, and that's very important in this era of rampant ip theft and stealthy drop-shipping.
as i work towards opening my own art and candle store later this month, i have been thinking as much about shipping as i've been melting wax and swirling paint. with candles being my primary ware, i thought it would be fun to include a custom matchbox with orders. i did a test run last week to give out to visitors over the weekend and they were a huge hit.
here's how i made them.
materials i used
-blank matchboxes. you can get these in bulk from a lot of places online, i got mine from a local wedding favor retailer. they come out to less than 50 cents a pop.
-label paper. you can buy these by the sheet from onlinelabels.com which is where i got mine. for the pumagreg matchboxes, i used a sheet of white-gloss for ink jet printers.
-printer. i have an inkjet color printer. if you don't, please see if your library has one before buying an actual printer or paying a big box print shop. i've brought my own paper and paid like 50 cents for a color print at my local branch before.
-cricut. this is just to cut the labels. to me the cricut is like a javascript framework: it makes the rare, difficult thing easy and makes the common, easy things impossible. andy just happened to own one already when we moved in together and he very kindly lets me use it and talk huge shit about it ("i hate it too" - andy). what i'm trying to say is i do not recommend getting a cricut unless you plan to do a lot of precision cutting of paper and vinyl. for rectangle labels, a sharp set of scissors will suffice.
process
1.design your label. i took a photo of pumagreg i loved, then cropped and resized it down to the size i measured it to fit on the matchbox. in this case, i wanted the label to be 2" by 1.25" and 300 dpi. i use a mac and do most cropping and resizing in the native Preview app. remember to use print measurement units when printing, not pixels!
2.print your labels to the label paper. since i was using the cricut to cut, i used cricut design space to lay out 8 of the labels. if you're not using the cricut, i recommend photopea which is a free in-browser alternative to photoshop that i use all the time (and pay for because fuck adobe lol).
3.cut the labels. this is fairly straightforward...unless you're using a cricut. the "print to cut" feature was overkill for my 8 labels but i wanted to learn because i'll be making many more (hopefully). after printing from cricut design space, you'll get the labels within a black box guideline that the cricut needs to see where to cut. place the label paper on the cutting mat and into the cricut - design space will walk you through all these steps. if you're using glossy paper, put matte scotch tape over the black guidelines because the cricut is a big dumb baby and can't handle our shine. also, sometimes the cricut will need 500 hours to "calibrate."
4.place the labels on the matchboxes. the label paper i used is considered "permanent" in that once you put it on, you can't remove it without tearing the label. if you hate this, you'll want to explore printing on vinyl, but that's a bit much for matchboxes, yeah? just be mindful of how you place the labels and don't go crazy if any of them end up off-center. it's just matches.
custom matchboxes are a fun, easy and elegant thing to have in your home. you don't need to get married or baptize a child to make them, just put your cat on them, or your website. if you plan on shipping them, though, make sure you only do ground shipping because - and please withold your surprise and horror with this one - matches can catch fire near an open flame.
have fun playing with fire (safely)! xoxo jenn
