If you’ve taken a gander at BIC’s selection of special-edition lighters and thought, “Wow, those designs look boring,” then you should consider getting a BIC lighter wrap. To make a lighter wrap, you first have to figure out its dimensions.
A BIC lighter wrap typically measures 3 × 3 inches. It should cover the entire plastic casing of the BIC lighter, only exposing the sparkwheel, the metal hood, and the fork.
In this guide, I’ll explain what a BIC lighter wrap is, what size it should be, the benefits of lighter wraps, and how to make one using your printer at home.
What Is a BIC Lighter Wrap?
A BIC lighter wrapper is exactly as it sounds—it’s a wrapper that you use to cover the ugly pink, gray, yellow, or green plastic cases. You can print any design you want on the wrap to cover your lighter, giving it some personality or, at the very least, shielding your eyes from the unsightly solid colors associated with BIC lighters.
BIC Lighter Wrap Dimensions
The size of the BIC lighter wrap should be roughly the same size as the height and circumference of a BIC lighter’s plastic case. The goal is to paste the wrap over the plastic casing, leaving the igniter mechanism untouched.
For full-size BIC lighters, you’ll need wraps that measure 3 inches long and 3 inches wide. BIC mini-lighters measure about 2.5 inches tall, so you’ll need a wrap that’s about 2 inches tall and roughly 2.5 inches wide.
How to Measure a BIC Lighter
To get a more accurate measurement for your BIC lighter wraps, you should figure out the precise dimensions of a BIC lighter. So, how do you go about doing this?
Use a ruler and measure the distance from the base of the lighter to the bottom of the fork—the turning mechanism that adjusts butane flow. To measure the circumference of the lighter, take a piece of string or twine and carefully wrap it around the lighter. Use a ruler to measure the distance between one end of the string and where it intersects with the rest of the string.
You can also follow these steps to get the measurements of a BIC mini-lighter since they are similar in shape.
Why Should I Make BIC Lighter Wraps?
As I stated earlier in this guide, the classic lighters of BIC lighters are God-awful. Sure, they’re iconic, but they’re loud as heck. Plus, there’s nobody in the world who would willingly ask for a pink BIC lighter, but the other color options aren’t much better. That’s just my not-so-controversial take on the matter, anyway.
Another reason you might want to wrap your BIC lighters is to promote your business. You can customize the wraps to include anything you like, including the name of your band or the logo of your brand (bars).
People usually sell BIC lighters in packs of up to 50, which will cost about a C-note. If my math is correct, that means each lighter will cost you around $2. Since a single full-size BIC lighter is good enough for 3,000 ignitions or roughly 1 hour of non-consecutive use, a single person will be exposed to your brand for quite a long time. Add in the fact that people lose BIC lighters all the time (or get them stolen), and that means multiple people will lay eyes on the message your brand is trying to sell!
So, for roughly $2 per lighter plus the costs of printing and sticking on the lighter wraps, you’re hardly spending anything on increasing your brand’s reach! Of course, you first have to figure out how to make BIC lighter wraps. Speaking of which…
How to Make BIC Lighter Wraps
Making BIC lighter wraps is as easy as pie, provided that you have the right supplies and materials on hand.
- Before we get started, make sure that you have the following things:
- Printer
- X-Acto knife
- 3-inch square sticker sheets
- A brilliant design idea
- BIC lighters
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can begin making BIC lighter wraps on your own. That way, you can reduce the cost of having them printed by a professional printing service provider.
1. Define the printing area
In your designing software (I use PowerPoint—yes, I’m a bad designer), go to settings and change the printing area. You will want to get the precise measurements of your sticker sheets to make sure that the printer doesn’t accidentally waste ink by coloring in the margins.
Something you can do is figure out whether your printer supports borderless printing—a printing technique that allows your printer to print to the very edge of the margins. This doesn’t take into account ink bleeding, but that’s hardly an issue since we’re printing on such tiny sheets.
2. Add your design to the printing area
Do you have an awesome design in mind? If you don’t, then maybe you should spend a few hours trying to come up with something. Alternatively, you can reach out to a professional designer and see what sort of design they can whip up. It might cost a bundle, but it’s a one-time cost that can more than make up for itself with all the exposure you’ll get from your BIC lighter wraps.
After coming up with the design, make sure it fits within the 3-inch square printing area. You can make the design as simplistic or as detail-packed as you want. The important thing is to add your brand’s name and possibly details on how the reader can reach out to you.
3. Print the stickers and stick them onto the BIC lighters
After running a test print to ensure that your design fits within the stickers’ margins, it’s time to print out a boatload of stickers. Remember: 1 sticker per BIC lighter!
When you’ve printed out the stickers, remove them from the back paper and carefully paste them on the surface of the lighter’s plastic case. Make sure that the stickers are in the correct orientation and that the bottoms of the stickers are perfectly aligned with the bottom of the lighter.
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