A printed paperboard card with a clear plastic bubble sealed to the front, so shoppers see the actual thing and the store can hang it on a peg (we do a lot of these for hardware, batteries, little cosmetics and toys). Minimums are low. Design help costs nothing.
Your time is very important to us so we have kept it short.
Ever notice how much of a hardware aisle is just stuff hanging on hooks inside clear bubbles stuck to cards? Yep. That’s blister card packaging. A printed paperboard card on the back, a formed plastic shell on the front, and the product sitting in between where everyone can see it.
It suits small things people buy by looking at them, so we see drill bits and phone chargers and fishing lures, plus earrings and nail kits, and the odd keychain order too. The buyer wants to see what they’re getting, the store wants it hanging straight and kind of hard to rip open quietly in aisle 9. Fair enough.
We thermoform the bubble out of clear PVC or PET over a mold roughly the shape of your product, and it comes out with a flat lip (a flange) running all the way around, and that lip is heat sealed to the printed face of the card, which has a heat-seal coating so the plastic bonds to it. Once sealed, the only way in is to tear the card, which gives you built-in tamper evidence.
There are a few variations. A face seal blister is the most common and the cheapest. A full face blister covers the whole card for a bit more protection. A slide blister (we also make slide blister packaging) slips into a folded card instead of being heat sealed, so it can be packed by hand without a sealing machine. Handy for small runs.
The card does all the talking. Front: product name, key selling point, your logo, and a photo or illustration around the bubble. Back: instructions, specs, warnings, barcode. We print on SBS paperboard because it’s bright white and holds fine text well, which matters on a card this small.
A hang hole at the top lets it go on a peg. A round hole is simplest, a euro slot (that sort of sombrero shape) stops the card from spinning on the hook. If the product is heavy, a thicker card stops it from drooping forward on the peg. Droopy cards don’t sell. We’ve seen it.
Gloss or matte lamination is fine on the face, so is spot UV, foil too, as long as you keep it all clear of the seal area, because some coatings stop the blister from bonding. Our team handles that when they set up the dieline and lay out your artwork, at no cost. We check your files for print issues and send a digital proof before anything runs.
The bubble should hold the product snugly without crushing it. Too loose, and the product rattles and slides to the bottom of the bubble on the hook. Too tight, and it’s a pain to seal. A physical sample before the bulk run is a really good idea here; send us one or two pieces of the product and we’ll check the fit.
Got a few small parts in one pack? The blister can be formed with separate pockets, so screws stay apart from the tool, or the earring backs stay separate from the earrings. For more on materials, our plastic blister packaging page goes deeper, and the wider range is in custom blister packaging.
Minimums are low, often around 50 units depending on the build, and per-unit price drops as you order more. Production is 10 to 12 business days after proof approval, rush is available on request, and ground shipping is free across the USA. For a sense of what drives price, see how much custom packaging costs, then send us your product details.
For face sealed blisters, yes, or we can talk about options. If you’d rather pack by hand, a slide blister card avoids heat sealing entirely.
Honestly, just ask the store what hooks they’ve got. Euro slots are more common in big stores and keep the card facing forward, while round holes suit lighter cards.
Sure, and most people do: logo and the pitch up front, then directions, specs and the barcode on the back where nobody minds a bit of small print.
Building a full product line? Take a look at plastic blister packaging, blister packaging for toys, custom action figure blister packs and custom cosmetic blister packaging. Everything in this range is listed under custom blister packaging.
