PERSONALIZATION CHOICES

Stone Wheel | Surface Abrasion | Sand Blasting | Metal Engraving
Font Examples | Do’s and Don'ts | Shipping & Handling | Out-of-Stock

As befits the Web’s premier Personalization site, we are pleased to offer you a comprehensive range of options when choosing how to best personalize your gift.

Your first choice is the font, or style, of engraving to be used; please note that we have found that the terms ‘engraving’, monogramming’ and ‘etching’ to be used interchangeably when describing how to personalize gifts, even though they have different technical definitions.

The Crystal Shoppe has been customizing gifts for over 50 years; the most common process we use – and the one which really differentiates us from computerized engravers – is hand-cutting on a stone wheel. This age-old craft is time consuming and exacting, yet the reward for this effort is a unique and highly personalized gift.

Please remember that, as with any handcrafted objects, a degree of variation is not only to be expected, but in fact identifies the gift as having been etched by hand, and minor variations should not be regarded as imperfections.

Stone wheel cutting is used in the following font selections:

• Traditional, Step, Block & Straight Monograms
• Diamonte and Slanted
• Ann’s English, Block Letters

We recommend one of these options on the following gift choices:

• Pitcher and glass sets
• Barware, including monogrammed beer mugs
• Paperweights, trinket boxes and candy jars
• Coffee Mugs

A second style of hand engraving is referred to as surface abrasion; in this process, the artists guides a stylus over the crystal while using a foot-pedal to direct a stream of finely ground abrasive through the nozzle and thereby ‘writing’ on the glass. The fine sand cuts into the glass or crystal, marking it permanently, and the end result has a more delicate and refined appearance. It is also used when a detailed message is required, as it can be smaller than hand cut letters.

Surface abrasion is used for the following font selections:

• Air Abrasion
• Slanted

We recommend one of these options on the following gift choices:

• Sets of Toasting Glasses
• Photo frames
• Awards

The Crystal Shoppe is also pleased to offer a selection of popular computerized font choices to embellish your personalized gifts. These processes involve a sand-blasting technique which produces gifts with a uniform and standard appearance.

back to top

Sand Blasting is used for the following font selections:

• Interlock, Diamond, Oval& Octagon
• Hexagram, Olde English, Century, Amaze & Disney

We recommend one of these options on the following gift choices:

• Jewelry Boxes
• Wine Glasses

back to top

Metal engraving is self-explanatory in that it refers to our silver and brass gift selections. We use a hand-operated pantograph for metal gift decoration.

Styles available include:

• Three-letter Round
• Double and Single Line Script
• Olde English
• Fancy

back to top

Click here to see examples of all available fonts.

While we are pleased to offer these different styles of engraving, please note that certain gift items look better with one specific engraving style rather than an alternate font.

Accordingly, we ask that you trust our judgment and years of experience to select the style of engraving most appropriate for your gift if one is not specified.

Of course, if you select a particular style of engraving we will respect your wishes or contact you for clarification.

The Crystal Shoppe is proud to offer freehand artwork designs for our customization options. The more common patterns include Grapes, Lighthouses, Yachts, Pineapples, Palm Trees, Palmetto Trees and an assortment of geometric designs. If you have any questions please either use the ‘Contact Us’ form or call us at 1-800-852-3111.

Some monogramming do’s and don'ts …

When requesting a 3-Letter Monogram Use the following instructions:

You are purchasing a gift for: Charles Andrew Burns Type in the initials in the following order:

First Initial, LAST Initial, Middle Initial
Example: C B A
Remember the center letter is the LAST NAME

If you are monogramming a gift for a couple, Jane and Andrew Gallow, you would engrave the initials in the order J G A

back to top

SHIPPING & HANDLING INFORMATION

We ship your personalized gifts using either the United States Postal Service or UPS. ALL SHIPMENTS ARE 100% GUARANTEED.

Shipments usually take 2-3 days from receiving order.

Our UPS shipping charges include a packing fee for labor and materials. The total shipping charge is based on your order value. We try to keep the costs of shipping and packaging to a minimum. When we ship for you, your order is insured against breakage
and we will replace any broken item at no charge to you. We will notify you via email of the tracking information when your gift ships.

If you have any questions or need rush deliveries please either use the ‘Contact Us’ form or call us at 1-800-852-3111.

back to top

OUT-OF-STOCK ITEMS

From time to time we are faced with temporary shortages of various items offered on our site and we may receive orders for these items before we have the opportunity to deactivate them.

In these rare occasions we might substitute your choice with a similar item (eg: a 16oz. beer mug in place of a 15oz. beer mug); we will only do this if the replacement item is more expensive than the original choice (although you will only be charged the lower price).

If you receive your order and are dissatisfied in any way we will cheerfully replace it with the original choice as soon as it becomes available.

back to top