Mirror Card
Before I begin, I want to acknowledge that the mirror card can be referred to as a "credit card mirror" or "wallet mirror". However, it's not a credit card doubling as a mirror, nor is this a wallet that has a mirror attached inside; dressed down and stripped bare of all advertisement and glitter, it is a square card with a mirror on one or both sides. A Mirror Card.
The idea for a mirror card crops up a few times during normal, everyday living. Perhaps I'm eating and I'm afraid there are chives stuck in my teeth or I've got BBQ sauce on my cheek. Maybe I'm walking and a bird flies by: was that poop or is it about to rain? Or I've scratched a bump on my forehead. There's a eyelash in my eye. I'm a spy and I need to check behind myself discretely. You get the idea. And in all these situations, I think back to my old metal signaling mirror I used for camping. It was tough, it got the job done, but it's too big for my wallet and now I haven't the slightest where it is. So I look online, and my options are lacking. One looks professional, but I don't want it to look like a credit card. I see another, but it's taking up the back with a big ugly logo. I see another with a customizable backing, but you have to order five at a time and I question their legitimacy because their web design is a joke.
So what do I do?
I give it the ol' do-it-yourself try, that's what I do!
I want...
- a mirror that will bend with stress
- to see myself clearly enough to pick my teeth
- a back to put my own image
- to be the size of a credit card
- it cheap
- it easy
02012/03/11: Cut-To-Fit Replacement Lens. $7.99 at O'Reilly Auto Parts.
02012/03/11: Mirror and instructions shown in full.
Materials
- Sticker Project Paper
- Cut-To-Fit Replacement Lens ($7.99 at O'Reilly Auto Parts)
- Scissors
- Computer with Printer and Photo Editing Software
First thing I needed was an image and, after thinking about it for a bit, I wanted the back to have M.C. Escher's Hand with Reflecting Sphere. I picked up a quick copy of the image off of Wikipedia and flew to my Photo Editing Software to prep it for printing. The image miraculously turned out to already have the dimensions of a card, so I didn't have to crop, but I did have to resize it. I was using a template card that was 24mm by 85mm. I wanted some oops room so I wouldn't have white lines on the edge, so I bumped it up to 30mm by 90 mm.
02012/03/11: Dimensions are displayed as inches, but were measured in millimeters. PPI was set to 600 for maximum printer capacity. 72 PPI seemed too blocky.
The printer didn't catch the paper immediately when it printed, which was my fault, and so the card came out shorter than I planned for. I also didn't bother trimming the card down to 24mm out of sheer laziness. I figure if I don't like it sticking up as much in my wallet, I can always trim more off later.
02012/03/11: All of the materials ready to be put together.
02012/03/11: The final product next to the template used for sizing.
02012/03/11: The final product on top of the template used for sizing. Note it is wider, but shorter in this photograph.
02012/03/11: The reflective front of the mirror card.
If I had to do this again, I'd make sure it printed in the middle of the page or print multiple prints all on one page if making this for friends and relatives. I'd also prefer one of those long bladed paper cutter/trimmers for a straighter, easier cut. All in all, this is a pretty simple project and you can probably make about 9 mirrors from this if you were frugal enough with your cutting, and it takes less than a free evening from start to finish.