Sending the gift of flowers from seeded paper since 1995
Earlier this year we mentioned our involvement with Sachaco, a Kirkland, Washington small business that uses our hand dyed Earth Silk line of ribbon to create stunning silk flowers used as pins and hair decorations. This great shot was from the Seattle Bride magazine where you can see our silk on the model’s hip.
Soon we will have images from Sashaco’s newest design – a Seattle Seahawks inspired flower so you can show your team spirit at work without a bulky sweatshirt.
We were thrilled to receive news of our inclusion in the latest book by the talented Elaine Schmidt: How to Make 100 Ribbon Embellishments: Trims, rosettes, sculptures, and baubles for fashion, decor, and crafts.
“Create amazing trims, butterflies, flowers and more with How to Make 100 Ribbon Embellishments. With clever techniques and a huge selection of ribbon styles to choose from, the timeless art of making ribbon embellishments is better than ever. Let author Elaine Schmidt take you through 100 ribbon designs, offering helpful hints and tips to help you make beautiful accessories to place anywhere.”
This is the second time Elaine has used our products, the first was in her second book The Complete Photo Guide To Ribbon Crafts. The tutorial using our silk ribbon is featured below.
This is actually not our first foray into the publishing world. Our products have also been included in Green Wedding, It’s Easy Being Green and The Everything Green Wedding Book.
Thank you, Elaine – and congrats on yet another lovely publication!
We just returned from a whirlwind adventure to attend the New York Stationery Show where we launched many new items (including show favorite – our hand dipped cards which are remnant pieces that soak up the remaining dye bath from our silk work). It was a long awaited trip, as this is the largest wholesale trade show in the United States.
“Now in its 68th year, the National Stationery Show® is the world’s most comprehensive marketplace for greeting cards, stationery and related lifestyle products. No other trade fair in the U.S. matches the depth and caliber of stationery selection at the NSS—or serves as the launching pad for so many young, creative businesses each year.”
It is always a pleasure to connect and draw inspiration from other creatives in our market. In the past we have been intimidated by the quality of art and artist on display at this show which prevented our exhibiting, there are just stunning levels of creativity and craftsmanship on display. We have since realized that while we may not be at the top of the pack or offering the latest trends, we have unique and creative art to contribute and in turn have our place among industry leaders.
A fun highlight was seeing our Seattle neighbor and sometimes silk collaborator Real Card Company at the show, and finally meeting the principals in our other longtime Seattle stationer Silberman/Brown. It was a fantastic (albeit exhausting) trip and we are already looking forward to attending next year!
A close friend of mine just had one of the worst weeks a small business owner can have. There are many challenges we face and overcome from every angle you can imagine but one of the toughest is from difficult people. He had to fire an employee this week that may end up dragging out into much drama over the next several months (or even years if it goes all courtroom). I think the hardest part for him were the very personal attacks that this employee threw around like so many dangerous, virulent seeds. These squeaky wheels get so much more attention than they deserve and as the one under attack, we often feel that there must be some truth to their accusations, otherwise they wouldn’t be saying those hurtful things right? Not so. Some people are only happy when they are stepping on other people. We need to be able to filter those people out.
With that in mind I have found a way to address an unhappy individual that I dealt with last November. I wanted to respond to her Yelp review, I wanted to find her own Yelp business page and leave her a few choice comments, I wanted to scream and throw a tantrum, but I chose to not dignify her comments with a response. And then today we received a lovely email from a customer and this is how I have decided to address the issue; by speaking about it here on our own blog.
Thanks for reading and understand that in our very connected world your every action has the ability to ripple into far greater lengths than ever before, so be nice!
Hi Kevin!
I happened to go on Yelp today and noticed that you have two Of The Earth pages on Yelp…and the more current one has only one review, a repeat of the one negative review from your original page. I wrote my own review with five stars, but combined with that other one you still only have a 3-star average.
If you didn’t create that Yelp page you can probably claim it and delete it — it’s better not to have two, so you should be able to just update the address on your original one, I’m not sure about that though. Let me know if you do delete that one and I’ll be happy to put my review on your other page.
Thanks again for the invitations — they are amazing!
Anna
Anna,
Thank you for your message. I am very glad that you are happy with your invitations.
Thanks for the gift of your time in leaving a public review for us. We really do appreciate it. I think Yelp can be a helpful tool (I have used it to find out about yoga studios close to home) but I have a bit of a beef with them (as you might guess) for more than just the Of The Earth listing but also from our many business owner friends who have spoken of their feelings of extortion when dealing with Yelp sales people.
We moved our business last July (and five years prior to that move). When we moved in 2008, our one five star review (at the time) moved with us. When we moved in 2013 to our dismay we discovered that our Yelp page was not going to move with us. Yelp had changed their policies and we had to rebuild, with new images and data our Yelp page for our new location. None of our reviews moved with us.
In December of last year we received our first review on Yelp in our new location. In Yelp’s business plan it made sense to them to ensure that that review was posted on both locations. You see, if we pay Yelp $1000 a month (no joke I talked to them at length) they ensure that any bad reviews are pushed to the bottom of the stack, perhaps even get lost on a back page, as long as the payments keep coming.
In life you have to take a few lumps, so we have put pictures and data and our hours of operation on Yelp but we don’t have to pay them or support them in any way. We also don’t have to tolerate extortion from potential customers, even if that means facing an unpleasant public statement of questionable veracity.
I am excited to read your review and again thank you for taking your time to let folks (on the interwebs) know that you were happy with your experience with us.
Wishing you the best,
Kevin
Kevin Graham
kevin@custompaper.com
www.custompaper.com
Of The Earth
7706 Aurora Avenue North
Seattle WA 98103
1.888.294.1526
We are smitten with this DIY jewelry tutorial (featuring our hand dyed silk ribbon) from Brittany and Carrie of lifestyle blog, That’s Pretty Ace.
You can find the complete tutorial here, but for now we will leave you with a sneak peek of the finished product:
Thanks to Brittany and Carrie for including our ribbon in your lovely project!
Natalie Pirveysian blogger at Crème de la Craft contacted us looking for flower stickers for her garden themed bridal shower invitations. Our purple larkspur botanical stickers were the perfect addition to her special event. Congratulations Natalie on your upcoming wedding!
Check out the entire DIY tutorial here
http://www.cremedelacraft.com/2014/04/DIY-Bridal-Shower-Invitations.html
Of The Earth offers a variety of botanical stickers in various sizes.
They can be found by following the link below.
http://www.custompaper.com/Shop/Stickers/flowerstickers.html
We are excited to announce our involvement in a fantastic new project! A few months ago PlanToys asked if we would be interested in collaborating with them on a new product in development for Earth Day. A long-time fan of their toys, we were eager to partner with them on their Earth Kit campaign!
Every year, PlanToys holds a national contest for the best Earth Day Window Display at its participating retailers. Stores in over 30 states submit display entries, with a grand prize winner receiving $500 worth of Plan Toys merchandise and two runner up winners receiving $300 in merchandise.
This year however, PlanToys has partnered with Eco-Kids USA, Of The Earth LLC and Action Print Center Inc., to create the best Earth Day kit yet! From Missouri to North Carolina, retailers embraced the importance of sustainability and eco-mindedness with colorful window displays, games and fun activities for the whole family.
For this year’s contest, participating stores will receive a PlanToys® Earth Day kit for their customers that will include a sheet of seed paper with a choice of 4 different designs to choose from and color, a multi-colored eco-crayon, a souvenir pencil made of rubber wood, and a fact card about Earth Day, neatly packed in a PlanToys® folder. Once the child colors the picture printed on the seed paper with the eco-crayon they can then take it home, and with a the help and supervision of their parent, plant the colored seed paper and watch it grow! We hope that this can be a fun and exciting activity kids can do with their parents and instill a deeper appreciation for the earth.
Today is the one month mark from Earth Day and a fitting time to share the video launching this unique and innovative educational campaign. Spread the word, share with your community, and most importantly: educate your children on the importance Earth Day!
I just wanted to drop a quick note to those folks considering using seed paper for their wedding or promotional items. When was the last time you bought a seed packet and started a garden? For some of us the answer was just last season we pushed our seeds into the soil for our garden veggies. For many of us, we have not held a seed for years. When we wanted to add flowers to our window box we bought starts from the grocery store, when we wanted that indoor plant we bought a mature plant from the big box home store. Many of us have had sunflower seeds at a baseball game or pumpkin seeds from our Jack-o-Lantern but have not touched a live seed nor potting soil since elementary school.
As papermakers who embed our paper with seeds, we often are asked about how our paper grows. The easy answer is “that depends on the gardener”. We test our seed paper extensively as we understand that people need to know that when they tell their family there invitation will bloom – it has to bloom! The problem with this situation is not the viability of the seeds but rather the inexperience of the gardener. We would love to offer a guarantee that you will have a beautiful garden of flowers when you plant our paper goods however there are just too many factors out of our control to offer such a guarantee. We can guarantee that our papers contain viable seeds that have the potential to grow but as you supply the conditions under which those plants are starting their tender lives, we cannot guarantee your success.
Our seed papers do have live seeds that can sprout if you properly care for them. If you cut the paper into escort cards or business cards; you will find enough viable seeds in the trimmed pieces that have the potential to sprout. That being said we have heard from people over the years who stopped watering their seeds in frustration after just three weeks when nothing pushed through the soil. With our paper there are seeds that can take six weeks to germinate. These people who expect immediate results and tire of caring for the seeds, letting them dry out; effectively killing them before they have the opportunity to sprout are more often then not disappointed with the paper (rather than their gardening). For this reason we do not offer a guarantee. We would be happy to mail you a free sample that you can carefully test under your own gardening conditions before you decide to use seed paper for your wedding or business event. Most people these days are very removed from soil and seeds. Most of us buy our plants (and vegetables) that have been started (or fully grown) by professionals under optimal conditions. If you are considering offering your guest or client the opportunity to start a flower from the seeds you send them keep in mind the challenges they will face.
The bulk of our seed paper contains the following seeds:
Perennial
English Daisy
Perennial
Tussock Bellflower
Annual
Lilac Godetia
Annual
Monkeyflower
Biennial/Perennial
Foxglove
Annual
Dwarf Spurred Snapdragon
Perennial
Showy Evening Primrose
Annual
Red Corn Poppy
Biennial/Annual
Catchfly
Perennial
Creeping Thyme
Well we did it! We battled Super Bowl hotel prices, a slushy snow storm that shut down parts of the city and empty propane tanks (burrrrr!) in our efforts to put our Earth Silk ribbon line in front of an East Coast audience.
Here is our latest effort at creative film making (video #3)
http://www.custompaper.com/Files/OfTheEarthEntersNY.wmv
We would love to hear your thoughts.
Kevin