Tag Archives: Recycled

letters through time

So, I am going to go out on a limb and admit that I love girly romantic movies. I will also admit that I was excited to see “Letters to Juliet” this weekend with a couple of 10 year old girls. Let’s call it “research”, right?

I have to say that the movie was very predictable, even for my young friends, and more than anything I enjoyed the main prop, the letter to Juliet, that was aged and weathered as it had been trapped in a brick wall for 50 years, as the story goes.

I instantly remembered this envelope that a friend of mine sent to me recently. He reused an envelope that had been addressed to his mother by erasing the pencil and removing the stamp. The envelope is lined, thankfully, since the liner is the only thing holding it together, yellow and vibrant as ever.

The best part about this old re-used envelope is the texture. It’s ragged and almost soft yet crispy. It reminds me of cockle onion skin (my very very favorite of the old school writing papers).

Needless to say, when I got this envelope in the mail, it was obvious to me that THIS is the best form of recycling. No chemical processing, no electricity used to re-make this envelope.

Makes me think that I should start using pencil for my correspondence…. so in the future, someone can do the same thing with my envelopes….

Dani & Sean

As always, this summer I was insanely busy creating some unique wedding invitations. And because I am so busy working on them, I have less time to devote to photographing and posting them. Turns out, sometimes wedding photographers do that. This wedding was shot by Amelia Lyon and I think the event looks so lovely!

One of my favorite parts about my work is that I get to collaborate with clients and event designers to create the perfect mailable communications for each event. And to tell the truth, in the past couple of years, Sillapere Events has become one of my very favorites to work with. Nicole is so artistic and caring about the tiniest details, plus they are super GREEN! everything I do for them is always Recycled, Tree Free or Sustainable.

sdwed031-thumb-678x626-5929Here are some photos of the invitation &  save the date and day that we created together to make Dani & Sean’s wedding so special. Thanks to Amelia for posting the photos! If you check out her blog post, there are more Tiny Pine/Sillapere creations as you scroll down….

I think they all turned out whimsical yet elegant…. This was one of my very favorite wedding invitations all year. For Sure!

Raised to Reuse

I am a real conservative when it comes to printing. Not conservative in a political or religious way… but in an environmental way.ziplock drying rack In my family we reused as much as possible. This is a photo of my cousin JC’s drying rack. He washes and reuses the ziplock bags multiple times (I love how he hangs them to dry) (the photos a little blurry). I try to reuse as much as possible. At work and at home. 

This week I got to reuse in the best way.

A client had sent out 150 save the dates. They were 100% tree free or recylced based on what we could get paper-wise because she has a big commitment to conservation as well.  Of those sent, she had the wrong addresses for 6 people, so the save the dates came back to her. Instead of resending out new save the dates, requiring me to make up some more from scratch, she brought the returned ones back to me and I printed new envelopes and reused those perfectly good save the dates. 

Now, I know that this form of reusing seems fairly simple and obvious. But I have been working at this career for 5 years now, and I can only remember a couple of other times when I did this. Sometimes reusing returns is necessary because we run out of whatever it is that is being sent (same as this case). But running out is actually directly related to being a conservative printer. I can’t stand wasting paper so I don’t usually print many over what is ordered.

And this client’s decision to bring the save the dates back so I could reuse them, well, that’s a testament to her commitment. 

For the record, when I do have extras, I try to reuse those as make-ready for letterpress or for the big scrap bin for making valentines, birthday cards or other crafty things. Here’s a photo from a mess in my apartment floor from the “sometimes annual pre-valentine’s day ice cream social” that I have so my friends can make art with the year’s printing leftovers.valentine making mess

Can you tell I was the president of the energy club in high school?? I also represented the energy club in the beauty pageant when I was 14. I am not posting that picture, though. No Way!

I will tell you that it was a really big pink puffy dress…. Someone should reuse that thing for a big tablecloth and matching napkins.