Our friend, Portia, is a counselor/consultant here in town. Every year she sends out cards to her clients, and this year she decided to step it up a bit and have the cards letterpressed! She wanted 5 x 7 cards with letterhead on one side and her logo on the other with a matching envelope with her return address letterpressed on the envelope. She wanted the color scheme to match her website.
For the most part, it was a piece of cake. The problem arose when we decided to die-cut the envelopes ourselves (as artists, we realize there are always problems -- sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse). We thought it would be easy and would save some money, to boot. As it turned out, our press is not big enough to hold the die we had made to punch out A7 envelopes! Of course, we found this out right before our deadline!
In dealing with this unexpected obstacle we practiced some creative engineering, and we learned a new trick! The die was too big to fit in the chase, but we realized that we could do a lock-up directly in the press instead of in the chase. Genius! They turned out great! By the time we cut out the envelopes, folded them, glued them together, and added the lick and stick adhesive to the top flap, we determined that it is actually a LOT cheaper to just buy the envelopes... but how else could we match the envelopes exactly to the cards? Portia chose a nice smooth Welsh Blue Neenah paper -- surprisingly similar to the blue Elie had chosen for her cards -- with recycled content and made from sustainably harvested trees.
Portia loved them so much, she has asked to print up the invites for her and her husbands annual holiday party, but that is a story for another time!
