Tuesday Reviews-Day: Epson LabelWorks Ribbon Kit

Tuesday Revews-Day

Personalized ribbons are a nice way to finish off wedding favors, holiday gifts, or team promotions, but they have one big drawback: a high minimum order at most shops that specialize in these sorts of printed ribbons. While there are workarounds to this involving wax paper, and iron, and your home inkjet printer, Epson is now making it a lot easier with their line of LabelWorks printers and tape products.

I was recently given the change to try one out and I have to say: I am in love with the possibilities!

The ribbon kit holds the printer as well as 2 spare cartridges in a sturdy carrying case.

The ribbon kit holds the printer as well as 2 spare cartridges in a sturdy carrying case.

Given the choice between the stand-alone LW-300 kit and the smartphone-controlled LW-600P, I opted for the former though neither would be a bad choice. The 300 version prints up to 2 lines on tapes and ribbons up to 1/2″ wide with several built in fonts, icons, and frames. The 600P offers printing up to 1″ ribbons and works with both Android and iOS phones. The cartridges contain both the tape/ribbon and the ink and the combinations range from clear and metallic tapes to various ribbons–including iron-on! I see this as a major boon for crafters who want to attach a Made By ribbon to their projects before selling or gifting them away.

Through a window on the back you can see which cartridge you have currently loaded or remove the back to get to the batteries (6AAA) as well as the easy-to-swap cartridge.

Through a window on the back you can see which cartridge you have currently loaded or remove the back to get to the batteries (6AAA) as well as the easy-to-swap cartridge.

With visions of personalized ribbon gift tags for this Christmas dancing in my head, first I had another test in mind.

The included booklet shows the different icons, frames, and fonts loaded in the machine, or you can scroll through the various menus.

The included booklet shows the different icons, frames, and fonts loaded in the machine, or you can scroll through the various menus.

I’m cohosting a baby shower this weekend and since our mom-to-be isn’t a huge fan of a lot of the traditional shower games, I thought a craft activity would make a good start to the afternoon. As guests arrived they’ll get to decorate a white cotton onesie with fabric markers (I ordered 5-packs of the onesies in 3 different sizes plus a teacher-pack of Crayola fabric markers from Amazon to round out the fabric markers and paint already in my stash).

My "prototype" decorated onesie with it's personalized tag.

My “prototype” decorated onesie with it’s personalized tag.

With the LabelWorks printer I created a baby-themed framed label with a Made by… sentiment and the date. This label is saved in the machine’s memory so I can go in and print one with each guest’s name on it and then, after the party’s complete, I’ll heat set the various onesie designs and stitch the looped ribbon to each (on an outside to avoid irritating baby’s sensitive skin) as a keepsake for our friend.

I was sent a LabelWorks Ribbon Kit for the purpose of testing and review. All opinions are my own.

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