Awards & Recognition On a Tight Budget

In these tough times, everyone's budgets have been cut, and possibly quite severely. At the same time, recognizing superior performance, sponsorships, and volunteer efforts has never been more important. Contributions during hard times is a rare commodity. So how do you say "thank you" on a tight budget, and still have it look appropriately nice?

We've spent a great deal of time considering this dilemma. Since we custom design and build some of our own award blanks we decided to create some nice looking awards for tight budgets and seek out a few special ones from our suppliers.

We offer a line of natural stone tiles that are 6X6 inches. We have built wood frames that may be hung on the wall or may be a desktop stand-up award. The tiles fit neatly into the frames for a classy look. We have made these frames in a cherry and medium dark finish that complements the light color stone and it's mild color streaks. On a large order, we could custom stain the frames either lighter or darker. The stone tiles are sand carved and then color filled with your choice of color. Black, gold and silver look spectacular. They have the appearance of an award that is 4 to 6 times the cost.

If you can get a local kitchen counter maker to sell or give you remnants from counter top projects, they may be sand carved and paint filled making a elegant and natural looking award. Buy a stand designed for showing off framed artwork and you have a beautiful award at a very reasonable price.

We can also etch larger tiles found at Lowe's and Home Depot. Stone (smooth, without holes) and ceramic etch well. Porcelain is very hard and costs more to etch. Fine detail is not a good fit for porcelain.

We have also found a good source for stand-up wood awards. They laser engrave very well, with a dark engraving result. We also have darkeners to make the engraving even darker. The natural look of wood and stone are the trend these days and both offer a great look for less money.

Wood frames are perfect for engraving and fit a tight budget. They go well with an event program, photo or anything else that can be framed.