Water Bottle Snafu

In my prior post, I mentioned running into an issue with the water bottle labels. Yes, it's true. Stupid me for not testing ONE sheet, before Jen went and self-laminated 25 sheets and I cut them all. Duh. Lesson learned. Not that that would have saved any money, because I'd already bought the laminating sheets.

So anyway, what I'm trying to create is a water bottle label that is water proof. Not water resistant, water PROOF. For the wedding reception, we were picturing having some water bottles in big tubs of ice. I thought by laminating them I had found the solution.

First attempt: I printed five labels per page and Jen laminated the sheet. Then I cut the labels out, attached one to a water bottle using hot glue, and tossed it into a sink full of water and ice. It was looking good the first few minutes and then disaster! The ink started to run!! And the funny part is I was worried about the label staying on the bottle, not the ink running.


I guess the fact that it wasn't heat laminated plus me cutting it down, gave it just enough of an opening for water to seep in. Boo.

Second attempt: I went to Kinko's this week because I thought maybe their professional heat lamination would work better. I had them do one test sheet for me and I brought it home to give it a shot. The problem is, the lamination is much thicker and stiffer, so putting the label on the bottle turned out to be a challenge. I used hot glue again, and before I even got the bottle in the water, the label was coming off. Geh.

Third (and final) attempt: I have ordered iGage Weatherproof Paper from Amazon.com. It's a synthetic paper used for weatherproofing maps. The details state you can print on it from an ink jet printer, glue it, and it can even be WRITTEN ON underwater. Now if this doesn't work, I'm throwing in the towel. For $20 per 50 sheets, it wasn't a huge expensive to give this one last try. Keep your fingers crossed!


(And yes, I do realize that using the labels I have is an option. We would just have to keep them cold some other way than submerging them in water.)