Adam and Jodi's Save the Dates

While we hope not to get a lot of repeat business from them, brides and grooms love our custom bottle caps. For the wedding of Adam and Jodi at the Jester King Brewery (located in the nonpareil Texas Hill Country), nothing suited better than a bottle cap logo, and some bottle caps to go with it!

Here's their save-the-date magnet bottle caps alongside their invitation.

And here's the happy couple!

Nom.

Check out all of Adam and Jodi's gorgeous wedding porn in Jodi's "Tasty Touring" blog post here:
Tasty Touring: Our Texas Hill Country Wedding

You don't want to miss the sandwich collage. Trust me.

The Bottle Cap Bar of Dodge Brewery

After four and a half years of brewing, Eric Dodge finally has all the badging of the pros. He's put his family crest logo on t-shirts and labels before, but nothing says "official" quite like a bottle cap.

Classy? Quite. 

But wait...it gets even classier. Saddled with an outdated bar in his basement, Eric Dodge decided to jazz it up with bottle caps. He edged it in wine corks, laid out a substantial collection of bottle caps, and covered the top with half-an-inch of clear resin for a solid top surface.

The ultimate basement accessory.

Check out the cork siding.

A custom cap in action!

Dodge's only regret? Not using more custom caps. My only regret? Not having a basement where I can have my own bottle cap bar.

If you collect or otherwise craft with custom caps, check out our quarter technique tutorial—by far the best way to remove a bottle cap without damaging it.

Review from Bull City Homebrew Shop

Over the last year, BottleMark has been causing a bit of an online stir among homebrewers. I've seen a lot of reviews on blogs and forums--and then there are those 438 five stars of feedback from our customers (enough to make even George S. Patton blush)--but I can't help but shout out a special thanks for the recent BottleMark review on the Bull City Homebrew Blog.

Located in Durham, North Carolina, this homebrew store ordered some logo caps to sell as promotional magnets. And I think they liked them!

Magnety goodness.

We've also got an in-store coupon available for patrons of Bull City Homebrew, so if you're near Durham, go get thee some yeast, hops, barley, and a special custom cap offer.

What with passionate homebrew shops and custom caps for homebrewers, revolution is indeed brewing.

Gift Receipts, Epoxy Stickers, and Local Pickup for the win!

We've made some exciting changes to our offerings here at BottleMark.

Giving the gift of custom caps? Now you have the option at checkout for a gift receipt! This special packing slip leaves off the cost of the goods and also provides ample space for a personal message.

He loves me so much!

You can opt for a gift receipt and a gift message at Checkout under "ADDITIONAL OPTIONS" (it's to the left).

For all you bottle cap crafters out there, BottleMark now sells Epoxy Domes aka Epoxy Stickers aka Epoxy Dots aka magical little sticky shields that protect interior bottle cap decoration or exterior custom cap designs. Want your BottleMark handcrafted keychain to last years of abuse on your enormous, 2 lb. set of keys? Buy one! Protection for the low price of $0.15 each.

I'll defend you, fair bottle cap!

And for you Houstonians out there: you asked for it, and now you've got it! Local pick-up is now available at our office. It's a great way to save a few bucks on shipping if you live nearby, but be warned...often gas and time combine to make First Class shipping more affordable. You can check out the details on our shipping page.

Please note we recommend against Local Pickup during a hurricane evacuation. But the choice is yours.

So if you're giving the gift of caps for crafts and want to wrap it up for that special person yourself, these three services are for you!

You...uhhh...shouldn't have.

Mercier Literacy for Children

Mercier Literacy for Children works hard year-round providing high-quality reading and writing instruction to Rochester's at-risk kids. So naturally, the program needed a set of bottle caps.

Can you identify them all?

Agathi Consulting recently organized a fundraiser for Mercier Lit called "Uncork Your Imagination." The event featured dishes and wines from local restaurants inspired by classic children's books. The Jack and the Beanstalk booth served an organic bean spread, the Snow White table offered cider-brazed pork stuffed with apple--you get the idea: YUM! And to go with every glass of wine, guests received a unique storybook wine charm, handmade from BottleMark caps.

Charming! (Photo courtesy of DK Photography)

Agathi and her interns made these unique giveaways with simple ingredients: recloseable hoops, colorful accent beads, and pre-punched custom caps. And no charm was left behind! At the end of the night, the event was a huge success, raising over $17,000 for Mercier's literacy programs. And giving BottleMark a new idea...custom cap wine/beer charms, coming soon to our shop!

Find out more and help support Mercier Literacy for Children.

Wedding Soda Caps

In a little more than two months, Chris and Jessica will tie the knot, and then celebrate in true bottle cap style.

 

 

These caps will adorn Chris and Jessica's vintage soda bar at the reception, and afterwards, paired with some bottle caps magnets, they'll go home as a unique guest souvenirs. I love how each cap design is totally distinct from the others. And the added distressed look brings out a genuine vintage feel. Lovely!

Congrats to the soon-to-be bride and groom! I don't suppose these count as something old and something new...?

Solid

BottleMark loves brewers, but we also love companies that support brewers, too! And who can deny the awesome that is bottle cap schwag?

You cannot deny it.

Solid, a reputation management company specializing in elegant websites and media campaigns, is helping get some breweries going strong. As a special beer-themed gift, Solid designed these caps, dropped them into resin, attached a magnet, and...

Voilà!

A Solid idea.

Blank caps, magnets, and more, oh my!

BottleMark recently added some new fun stuff to the shop.

We've got blank caps for those of you without any custom cap ambitions. Fully lined white and silver caps for $0.03 each.

Our bounty is as boundless as the sea

We're also offering these totally bizarre bullseye caps. We printed a whole heap of these to help calibrate our printer. They're raw caps, so the design may scratch a bit. But they're perfectly good for capping!

Won't you give one a home? Only a penny each.

Our favorite new product: practically-perfect-in-every-way bottle cap magnets. At 3/4" they nest exquisitely inside of a bottle cap. Ideal for crafting or displaying your custom cap. Order a magnet for each of your designs!

Made for each other.

Crafting with bottle caps? Check out our new services...
If you don't own a capper ($15-$60 bucks) but still want the "finished look" of a bottle cap, let us cap your caps for you!

Uncapped vs. capped (definitely a crafting-only service).

Making bottle cap jewelry and need a hole for a jump ring? We're punching small holes in caps for our customers, too.

Go explore the whole store! 

The Best Bottle Opener

Bottle cap collecting is totally awesome. They're small, colorful, unique, and—like little love notes carefully stowed away in a shoebox—the sole bearers of deliciously delicate memories, of Blonde Ales and Belgians once tasted, now gone. Check out our collection of commercial caps:

My love life, mounted on a magnetic board.

And now with custom caps, these memories can be all the more delicious. You probably want to preserve one from your order for posterity.

So how do you open a beer bottle without damaging the cap? The average opener bends the cap in the middle: a very unattractive result. So everyone's on the search for "The Perfect Bottle Opener." What does BottleMark recommend?

The simple answer: if you're homebrewing, use twist-off bottles! No opener required, and you get a undamaged cap every time. Only problem: twist-off bottles are really weak. A twist-off bottle has a thinner lip than a normal bottle (and bottle cappers grab onto the lip of the bottle with lots of force), so after two or three uses, the top will break off. Yikes!

DO NOT WANT!

Some homebrewers don't bother using them.

So...is there a way to preserve caps on normal bottles?
The best answer: The perfect bottle opener is the one that you have. Plus a quarter.

Here's the trick...
1. Place a coin on top of the cap (a US quarter is the ideal size). The coin transfers the pressure from the middle of the cap to the edged teeth of the cap, thus preserving the cap's shape.
2. Gently apply your bottle opener to two or three places on the cap. Gently, mind you! The cap should come off easily in your hand, without any violence, if you do it right. NOTE: If you apply your opener to one place only, you'll end up with a flared edge.
See the technique in action (both correctly and incorrectly performed) in this short video...



But if you've run out of change and the bottle's not a twist-off, try to find an opener without any sharp teeth to it (the wider, the better) and apply mild pressure all-round.

Some other cool bottle openers and techniques...

Klein bottle bottle opener

Mounted gargoyle opener (WANT!)

Key-style Churchkey, perfect for key chains. Lots of different versions available, from the ornamental to the disguised.

Ring opener

Credit Card sized opener

Winner for the most bizarre: Flipflops with an opener in the sole.

Winner for the most disturbing: The "Happy Man" Opener (who, from the looks of it, has more reason to be sad)

The "Sentol" opener, a most crazy contraption: push down on the bottle, and the cap pops off clean. Available @ bottlepal.com

Other people swear by using a simple BIC Lighter (cool video here).

Really. Just an average lighter.

And then of course, there's always your teeth.

The original bottle opener.

Clearly there's no end to the bottle openers out there. But as long as you have something and a quarter, your cap will come off clean!

Just...don't buy the happy man.