Tiny Pine Press has been working with the Joyful Heart Foundation for a few years now, designing and printing invitations for some of their events in New York and recently in Los Angeles. The Joyful Heart Foundation’s mission is to heal, educate and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse, and to shed light into the darkness that surrounds these issues.

Since I have really gotten to know the organization over the years, I realize that what they do is truly focus on spreading JOY in the present and for the future and not focus too much on the negativity of experiences.

I designed and created these cards with the same intentions. I wanted to create something that represented the Joyful Heart mission from a pure place…. something that someone would be so grateful to send and grateful to receive.

cheryl's scoring hands

The result was that I was grateful to create them. I haven’t done a line of cards before like this. I cut all the paper (with my new cutter!!), printed two runs on 650 cards, watched Cheryl score them….. (my hand was hurting from the 1300 previous pressings) had some extremely helpful hands with the rhinestone gluing (thanks CHERYL and JILL!), packaged them for gift bags on a Friday night (thanks Joanna), AND I loved every minute of it. I felt joy and love in this work.

What’s amazing about gratitude is that if you truly feel it, your heart opens up and love comes flowing right. Sometimes it lands on the ink disk in the form of soy ink and gets printed on luxurious cotton.