So we love to recycle, and our latest product hits all the right notes by being made entirely of our paper waste product. Since we work with flowers and seeds, our paper waste is actually super nice looking. Embedded in our byproduct is a collection of live wildflower seeds and bits of pressed flowers. When we cut out our seed paper shapes, the off cuts are full of usable and beautiful botanicals, but they just fell outside of where the shape was cut from. Those off cuts are now being turned into our super cute Paw Print disks. These little guys are about 1/2″ thick and are 2″ in diameter. You can see below how well they sprout. The before and after photos below are separated by just a week. Here is where you can order yours: https://www.custompaper.com/Shop/paw_print.html
For 25 years we have been serving the wedding industry. 2020 was a year like no other in our lifetime. Our biggest lesson was not about how to pivot when events are cancelled. Unlike many of our industry partners, we thrived last year. Our greatest physical challenge was filling a record number of orders of our handmade goods, while our staff all stayed safe at home. What we learned last year was not about our work, or just how many consecutive hours and days we can work without a break (a lot more than you would think). What we learned was that we were not doing enough for our community.
While we marched for George Floyd, we kept cranking out our handmade goods, made paper late into the evenings, raised two high school students in a pandemic, built a backyard shelter for safe Covid gatherings, and knew we had to contribute more.
So we read So You Want To Talk About Race? and other resources to understand what, as privileged white middle class folks, we have not had to pay any attention to: more than simply nodding in agreement with and shaking our heads at the difficulties faced by people of color. It was very easy to be grateful that those struggles were not our struggles and know that we were not contributing to racism. Life is tough enough without adding someone else’s worries to our day. We never hurt anyone, so we are not guilty, right? Wrong.
The murder of George Floyd at the hands of our police was impossible to turn away from. It demanded action. We will never be able to do enough. What we will do, continues to evolve.
Since last summer we have included a token of support for the Black Lives Matter movement with every order that we ship out. Each invoice, receipt and packing slip contains a silver dollar sized seed paper heart with a printed message that shows our support for BLM. This small message, and the signs in the windows of our home and our factory store have helped us to grow, and reinforced our commitment to helping.
While we will now get back to posting and promoting our earth friendly products, we will continue to search for ways to help the black community; to have difficult conversations with people who call us to let us know that “All Lives Matter”; to demand equality for all.
We encourage you to join us. Our BLM hearts are available for sale here for $14. $12 from the sale of each 50 pack is directly donated to the NAACP. You can make your own donation here: https://naacp.org/.
Here at Of The Earth, we absolutely love DIY! We sell a variety of DIY kits and materials for crafty projects. Check out our newest addition – these seed paper card making kits. They’re perfect for a fun activity for kids!
These kits include four cards, four envelopes, planting instructions, and sixteen die cut shapes to mix and match.
Handmade Seed Paper with wildflower seeds, cards, envelopes, and die cut shapes
These kits are available in three colors – white, purple/blue larkspur, and pink larkspur. All of the paper contains our blend of wildflower seeds that will bloom if planted. Included in the kit are guides for planting the paper as well as a list of the seeds that you can include in each card.
Purple Larkspur recycled seed paper cards and leaf die cut shape
Here you can see the smooth inside surface of the seed paper card which allows for easy writing or drawing. We recommend gel roller pens for the easiest writing on our handmade paper.
Pink Larkspur Wildflower Seed Cards and Die Cut Shapes
We’d love to see what you make with these cards! Send us a picture or tag @ote_seattle on Instagram!
Here at Of The Earth, we love to celebrate makers, creators, and artists. The creativity and skill that our customers exhibit with our paper and silk products never ceases to amaze us.
I’d like to shine a spotlight on Allyson of Daily Magic. You can visit her shop at www.livedailymagic.com.
Allyson is using our seed paper tags as backing cards for her beautiful jewelry designs.
Here you can see our new 2″ square tags with pink watercolor. The Daily Magic logo was added with a stamp, which is a great and easy way to personalize our handmade seed paper goods.
These are our large, 2.5″ x 3.375″ handmade paper tags, embedded with wildflower seeds. These tags are gently dipped into surplus fabric dye from our hand dyed silk ribbons.
Here you can see our large seed paper hearts. These particular hearts are made of our #47s paper, which contains recycled lotka fibers and even pieces of junk mail!
Thanks again to Allyson for her beautiful photos and wonderful feedback.
One of the most common questions that we hear at Of The Earth is whether we can print a personal message on our handmade seed paper goods. We do accommodate all kinds of custom orders, and we love these requests.
We are introducing more products that help streamline these requests, by using customizable templates. This allows the favors to ship more quickly, within three days, and eliminates proofing costs.
These personalized seed paper circles have room for both the bride and groom’s name (or, of course, both brides or grooms!) as well as the wedding date.
For a simpler favor, we also have seed paper circles available in three colors with custom initials. These favors are also extremely affordable, starting at just $0.58 apiece.
Another option for personalized favors with initials are these cute 2″ seed paper squares with a frame of watercolor branches. These are printed on the back with planting instructions.
These customized seed paper hexagons pair our handmade seed paper with a modern calligraphy font. They can also be printed with a variety of font styles.
This is our newest customizable design for seed paper hearts. The botanical print has several options, as does the font used for the names of the bride and groom. These can be ordered with or without the planting instructions on the reverse side.
The best feature of all of these favors is that your guests can plant them afterward to sprout wildflowers, and watch your love grow and bloom.
Washington might be the Evergreen State, but we are definitely starting to see some autumn colors here in Seattle! Fall is one of the most beautiful times of the year in so much of the country. If you love autumn leaves as much as we do, here are some of our products that would be perfect for a fall wedding or event.
Pressed Japanese Maple Leaves
The crafting possibilities are endless with these pressed red Japanese Maple leaves. Attach them to paper goods for decorations or use them in resin art. We also offer custom invitations with pressed leaves added to create a unique and memorable invitation for your wedding or other event!
Custom invitation with Maple Leaves
Custom Lotka Invitation with Maple Leaf
We also have a whimsical leaf die cut shape, which is available in a variety of our seeded papers in printed and blank options. The leaf shown below is made of our handmade, #12S seeded paper which contains kenaf fibers.
Seed Paper Leaf Die Cut in #12S
You can also get creative this fall with our pressed oak leaves, available below:
Pressed Oak Leaves
Does autumn inspire you to stay in and get crafty as the weather gets cooler? Show us your projects or contact us with ideas for custom printed items!
It’s officially fall, and here in Seattle that means the rain and clouds are back after a warm, dry summer. Here at Of The Earth, we’re experiencing the rainy day blues in a more positive way – inspiration!
“Into each life some rain must fall.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This collection of our lotka paper, handmade in Nepal, fits right in with the mood and weather we’re having. This is a lightweight paper with many decorative and artistic uses, including wrapping gifts.
Seattle Blues Lotka paper collection
Any discussion of color and mood would be incomplete without mentioning our Earth Silk Ribbon. These hand dyed, rich colors pull me right into a relaxed, rainy-day attitude.
Earth Silk Ribbon 085
Grey Earth Silk Bouquet Cascade
Earth Silk Ribbon 531
Our seed paper cloud shapes are available in a variety of our seeded and petal papers, with or without printing. You can also create a custom design to be printed on them for your business or event.
Of The Earth customers had a busy summer. Here are some images that they shared recently of how they used our products. They include wedding invitations, delicate jewelry, custom art, seeded goods and more!
