 |
|
BANG FOR THE BITE
If every American family sends just one recycled greeting card instead of a non-recycled one, the paper saved could bury a football field 33 ft deep.
COCKTAIL FACT
The dead guy who wrote "I'll Be Home for Christmas" earns about $18,000 in royalties every year (which someone smartly channeled into a charitable donation).
| SAVE TO MY BITES |  |
FORWARD TO A FRIEND:
RATE THIS TIP:
How useful is this tip to you?
(5 is the highest)
home › tip library › Recycled Greeting Cards
Wanna spread holiday cheer without bringing down a forest?
The Bite
This holiday season, send recycled cards or bypass the trees altogether - send your greetings on alternative and fun papers like kenaf. "Yule" spread cheer and an important message.The Benefits
- Save trees. You can bet your stocking stuffers that most of the 2.65 billion cards bought in the US each year aren't recycled.
- Be holiday-appropriate. Saying "Happy Hanukkah and Many More to Come" on a non-recycled card is kind of ironic considering we need trees to live.
- Plantable cards that grow when you throw 'em in the backyard will bring a smile even to the Scrooges on your greeting card list.
Personally Speaking
Heather is holding tightly to her habit of sending out a notoriously long Christmas letter, but at least this year she switched to Hemp Heritage stationery. Jen, on the other hand, has fallen in love with Greene Street's customizable cards - she is putting a picture of Cricket scarfing down a Christmas cookie on the front.Wanna Try?
If e-cards aren't your thing, these are the next best for the planet:- Anne Taintor - clever, 50s-style images on recycled cards. Check our faves here and here ($15/10).
- Mudlark - a Biter fave, with a classic design and a keepsake box ($15/25).
- Speak 'Peace' Cards - kitschy elegance, made from 50% recycled paper, part of the sale helps kids who are hard of hearing ($12/8).
- Peaceful Valley Greetings - 33 different holiday designs (some plantable) on recycled or tree-free papers, like kenaf ($10-$16 sets).
- Hemp Heritage Paper - Greentree's hemp-based stationery for those of you who are verbose and want to write a treatise on your year.
- Before you recycle 'em, stay tuned for an upcoming tip on what to do with the mounds of cards you get.
Nov 02,2006
Sponsor
All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.
Cuckoo for Cards
As some of you know, I love cards.
My card fascination started back East when I found these adorable hand stamped cards at a Farmer's market, done on classy thick recycled paper, with a golden horseshoe in the middle. I bought all five, and then found a number for the group that produced them, and ordered 100. I start off every note I write on them with why I feel so lucky to know the recipient.
Last year for Christmas I bought Mudlark cards and then glued a springy picture of Cricket to the front and put frays of bailing twine all around. Hard to imagine, but turned out kitschy cool.
This year I am stoked... working with GreeneStreet I am doing custom cards with a hilarious picture of the Cricket scarfing down a Christmas cookie. I am talking, full crumbs a'flying! If I don't do custom though I was thinking about one of their retro cards... I really want to support Evan (founder) in her endeavor to successfully launch this company... she is a beautiful person (on the inside, only met her via phone) with a beautiful product, with a beautiful mission.
Anywhoo... if you are Kuckoo for Cards, then get your eco-holiday cards early and write one a week, so by the time the holiday's are here you are done. (Now let's see if I can follow my own advice!)
Off to write a card. No, wait, will do my card list on the plane today. That is pretty good start considering we just hit Nov.. Jen
Biter Comments...
Crazy - I am going to NYC Saturday and I was trying to remember where I saw GreeneStreet mentioned. I hope they have a retail store at the address posted on their website because I'm going looking for it!
Yea! Great tips today. Thank you!! It is so ooo oooo grey here today in the lovely state of Vermont. Your holiday cards tips were a welcomed spark of hope! I visited each site and got all gitty with saving the planet AND consumerism-spirituality!!
at the green festival in DC, there was a company that sold all kinds of papers products (cards, photo albums, journals) made out of recycled elephant poo. and the company name is mr. ellie pooh! what a great name and interesting concept! and i can attest, all the products smell great! http://www.mrelliepooh.com/
You forgot the easiset - take last years cards you received, and use as postcards!
I was looking at the Peaceful Valley Cards, referenced in the article. Are these shipped to us in metal containers? If so, isn't that kind of missing the point?
Esti makes a good post about the footprint of Christmas trees. Seems to me like they do a good job of grabbing carbon while they are growing, but their overall footprint seems questionable. Anyone have real data? (I hope that its a positive gain as I love having large trees)
Hello Biter Bloggers! Just wanted to remind everyone that if you click on the "TIP LIBRARY" link up above in the nav bar on the right, you can see ALL our past tips, archived. One of those tips from last year is about Christmas trees. You can view it at: http://idealbite.com/tiplibrary/tip.php?tip=20051122&title=Making_Your_Christmas_(Tree)_a_Little_Greener
If you want to continue the blog discussions there, just click on the blog link at the bottom of that tip, and it will take you to the Christmas tree blog.
Happy Biting from rainy SF...
there's also girlywhirly greeting cards! printed with soy ink on recycled paper (some of which is 100% recycled with 50% post-consumer waste) and printed using a locally owned and operated printshop. check 'em out!
www.girlywhirly.com
Wow! Cool! Another woman named Evan. I don't hear that very often. We decided against cards this year. We sent out almost 300 last year. What a waste of paper and resources. I might be inclined to do the recycled card idea if we can whittle our list down a bit.
In the shameless plug department, I have to endorse Recycled Paper Printing. Sorry, but damn, they're good. Just after college (circa early 1980's), my entrepreneurial and socially conscious friend Todd started a company that sold products made only from recycled paper. He's been doing it since then (meanwhile I have had probably 8 different jobs :-)
Their main business now is doing printing projects for some major clients like the Sierra Club. But they can also do smaller jobs as well.
So give them a call or check their site at http://www.recycledpaper.com/.
And tell him Tom sent you.
How about avoiding paper cards (nearly) altogether? For a few years now, we've designed our own personal photo "card" and distributed it via email. We still send about 5 a year to relatives who aren't online, but that's it. Bonus: people are more apt to reply to an email, rather than the hordes of "regular" cards they get. We've gotten lots of compliments on ours! :)
Hello!
I have a tip for re-using Christmas cards that my mom has been doing for years. Every year after Christmas, we take a pair of pinking shears and make Christmas tags for next year out of them!
First, you pick a bit of a picture you like. Fold the card over so your tag will have a top and a bottom, like a book. Then use the pinking shears to cut out the tag (the folded side is the "spine" of your tag, don't cut this!).
The pinking shears give it a pretty edge. Just make sure the part you want doesn't have any writing on the back. Also if you don't fold the card all the way at first, you can make more tags from one card without creases on the fronts of them.
And there you have it, free custom gift tags! We haven't had to buy tags for years!
I make most of my cards every year from recycled greetings cards, pictures from magazines, odd pieces of wrapping paper too small to be reused as wrapping paper, etc. The rest of my cards are generally from Oxfam on 100% recycled card. I send some e-cards as well.
The Christmas holiday seasons are always so much fun, especially the Parties. Every year I throw a gigantic Christmas party and invite lots of people.
I found three websites that have really unique, exclusive and truly great Christmas party invitations cards,
http://www.cardsshoppe.com/productlist.asp?catid=35
http://www.holiday-invitations.com/Christmas-Invitations-Cards/browse-21.htm
http://www.invitations-shoppe.com/products_List.asp?intCatID=9&catname=Christmas-Cards
These sites have lots of Christmas wording ideas to help me get my Christmas greeting cards just right. And, they print and ship the same day. That's why I tell all my friends and family about them. Try these sites, you will love them - I guarantee it.
Does anyone know what happened to Greene Street Greetings? Their website seems to have turned into a search portal. Did they go out of business? I was so looking forward to using them this year :(
Does anyone know of another company that will do eco-friendly custom photo cards?
Many environmental advocacy groups will offer holiday greeting cards that help support the organization. Sierra Club for example: http://action.sierraclub.org/
Same goes for many other non-profits.
if you're bent on photo-cards, however, you're out of luck. Photographic printing is, in itself, environmentally damaging and no group will get behind it.
Although, I did read the this site allows you to designate any charity to recieve 10% of the profits.
http://www.petersholidaycards.com/
and Tiny Prints is donating to childrens charity as well.
http://www.tinyprints.com/holiday-season-charity-drive.htm
I'm sure there are other charitable options as well.
(again, not "green" but still charitable)
another good source:
http://www.cardsthatgive.org
Mardi Gras is always so special and so much fun. Since I always give a big Mardi Gras Party, I am always looking for that 'special' Mardi Gras party invitations. This year I not only found one place, but three great places to buy Mardi Gras Party Invitations that can be personalized, http://www.cardsshoppe.com/productlist.asp?catid=39 http://www.holiday-invitations.com/Mardi-Gras-Invitations-Cards/browse-26.htm and http://www.invitations-shoppe.com/Invitations_Cards/Mardi_Gras_Invitations_Cards-5-1.htm I added all three sites to my favorites and ordered from http://www.invitations-shoppe.com and was very pleased. I got lots of compliments, and was so happy. It made the holidays extra special!
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: Esti | November 02, 2006 at 04:27 AM