Miscellany: Virtual Letterpress from Paperless Post

Here's a break from books for a brief detour to my other hobby, stationery. I love nice stationery -- boxed notes, letterpress cards, French and Italian paper, all of it. I have boxes and boxes and I still use stationery to send personal notes for any excuse I can think of.

And I love to send invitations to parties, small or large: family birthday dinners, brunch with friends, holiday cocktails, backyard bashes, pre-wedding festivities, anything. I used to make them myself, using the fancy stationery I have stashed away. But in the last few years since I started my own law firm, I just don't have time for many DIY projects. I've fallen out of the habit of sending invitations for most things.

So I was more than willing to take Paperless Post up on its offer to make a test run, including their new lines from kate spade new york, Oscar de la Renta, Jonathan Adler, and my favorite Rifle Paper Co., in exchange for a review here on Rose City Reader.

My law firm hosts an annual "clothes swap" event every fall, so I used my coins to make the most elaborate invitation I could come up with.

So what did my invitation look like?

I wanted something feminine, with sort of fall colors, that also looked fun, because this is a casual event. I love the invitation card itself, because the persimmon color is fresh and autumnal and the image is perfect for a clothes swap. The original design said "Put on Your Dancing Shoes," but it was easy to customize the words. You can also change the font itself, the size, or the spacing. And for no additional coins, you can add "letterpress" effect, which I did because I think it makes it look more like paper:

I chose a Rifle Paper Co. background to add flowers and more color:

There were a lot of envelope liners to chose from so I found one in the same persimmon shade with a mottled effect I like:

And, finally, I chose an autumnal stamp:

The design I picked cost "2 coins" and each add on -- fancy Rifle Paper Co. background, adding an envelope, coordinating envelope liner, fancy stamp -- cost an additional coin, for a total of "6 coins" per invitation. We sent the invitation to roughly 120 people, for just about 720 coins. Coins vary in cost, costing less per coin the more you buy. So a batch of 400 coins costs $50, 1,000 coins costs $90. I could send my fancy invitation to all of my guests for $90 and still have close to 300 coins left over to send thank you cards after the event. And, of course, I didn't pay $60 for postage stamps to mail 120 invitations.

I'm not ready to toss my stationery collection in the recycling bin. But I'll definitely be using Paperless Post for more invitations, especially for professional events or when the alternative is that I send no invitation at all.

And now, back to the books.