Showing posts with label Address Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Address Books. Show all posts

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Working on- Address Books and Stamps

Yesterday I finally got to a good place with some new address books as shown below.  Since most of the address subscription cards have all the address blanks in different places each page has to be cut individually.  For more details, check out this spotlight here.

I was hoping to shoot off a post yesterday, but it was such a wonderfully busy day and the time just got away from me :(  I love productive days! I feel like this week has been refreshing and rewarding- Halleluiah!!! Best of all the weather has been amazing too :)

Today I got sucked into doing a task that had to be done eventually but was definitely not helping lighten my to-do list.  I am so thankful for all the great stamps people collect for me! Sometimes I let them pile up so I tidied them up  for what seemed like eternity today.  I sorted a whole bunch of stamps with cool postal marks and awesome pictures  to scan soon.  A good portion of the rest I trimmed down and put in a jar. 

Why does collections of things look so good in glass jars??? 

Since it takes a good bit of time to soak the stamps I need everything to look super sleek and contained.  Fingers crossed for gift certificates to the container store for my birthday- But, if not/ my advice is just collect awesome jars from pickles and olives :) Back to the point with the stamps, I love them! And I am super pumped to get some projects using my lovely bounty soon.  Here is a past post with more stories on stamps...

Hmm... Oh yeah, I set up the PC finally yesterday!!! Yippee! I am so excited for the technology overload :) Hopefully everyone is having as much progress and success as I am so far this week!!!

XOXO,
KC

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Unique LA Highlights and Pictures

We had such a fantastic time at Unique LA this past weekend! Thanks to everyone who came out and visited our booth!!! We had a terrific turnout and found a ton of great items to buy too.
Above: Pictures from our booth.  Check out items you may have missed in our Etsy store here.
Bellow: Great finds from DUST and Co., Sabo, Monstertrocity, Careful, It Bites and UNIQUE LA Pencils I got from checking in on Foursquare.
On Left: I scored this amazing "C" from a Monte Carlo made by my friend Jill of DUST and Co. the glasses pin is by sabo. Right: Kevin picked out this amazing monster from Monster Kat of Monstertrocity, and I am so glad to have 'Robert Sargent' as a new addition to our family.  Kat also makes the amazing unicorn finger puppet in the above picture- LOVEs it!

Kevin ran the show most of Saturday so I could scope out the show and he had the pleasure to chat with Travis from Blogging LA.  He did a great post on the show that includes our Record Accessory Stands, plus more details and pictures of Jill and Kat's goods. Check it out here.

We had a wonderful customer talk to me about the magazine subscription cards and I thought I would pass along some weird trivia.  When I go to stores to collect the cards that clutter the store and fall to the floor are "Blow-Ins" or Blow-in cards.  The difference between the blow-in and the bind-in cards is that they are loosely tucked into a magazine so that it will fall out and attract attention.  They want those things to fall out?!?!!! Crazy! For other interesting magazine facts The Association of Magazine has an interesting page with more details.

This show we attracted some attention with our take on the blow-in subscription cards.  Check out this great post from The Matcha Box on how we charmed a sale out of her with our Metro Card Address Books!  Thanks for your support Alissa :)

I ran into our friend Klara who along with Tyson, her soon to be husband, had an amazing booth as usual! They have an amazing apparel and accessory line that has amazing pillows too (as seen left) Maiden Voyage.  There is a great post that they are featured in here by LA Weekly!!! Great job guys!  Klara told me when we got to speak her and Tyson are getting married this summer in Poland- how amazing! I can't wait to see pictures.  If it is anything like how they design Maiden Voyage it is definitely going to be a wedding to remember :)


(Kevin and his new friend from Careful, It Bites)
It is always so inspiring to see all the great artists and designers at Unique LA.  We feel so honored to be a vendor at the show.  It is so great to be a part of such an amazing event and to get to see all of you lovelies in person!!! 
Thanks again to everyone who came by and said hi to us :)

XOXO,
KC & Kevin

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Product Spotlight: Address Books

Magazine Subscription Cards Upcycled into Address Books

Have you ever just stepped over the magazine subscription cards at the store? 
Take a second and think of how many of these cards are discarded as "trash" to everyone at the store... 
Or all the ones that clutter your home and recycling bin since every magazine seems to need at least 8 of them...

We have put these cards to good use in a mini address books. :)

Now every time we go to the grocery store I get super excited to "clean-up" the magazines some.  In fact, the silver lining to my ridiculously long appointment last week was that I got a ton of magazine subscription cards once I ransacked all of the magazines and organized everything in boredom.  It is a really fun instant gratification item to collect!!!

These pocket size address books pack plenty of space to keep all your addresses in this ever expanding digital world where some still like snail mail. Each address book is made inside either a discarded metro/transit card or gift card. Inside the card and a thicker back cover there is a range of (20)magazine subscription cards from a variety of magazines. In the back there are some "blank" pages for notes that are made with recycled paper from either previously printed paper or alternative recycled paper products.  
Address book measures: 2.5"X3.5"  The NYC metro card address books  can be seen 
(super tiny and fast -lol) on this Sprint Video Here. Or our Etsy Shop Here.
Each page is cut one at a time due to the individuality of the address fields and sizing on the card.  The process takes some extra time, but is well worth it considering it is only this amount of time no extra fossil fuels or energy are utilized in the making of this project because it is made from pure human power!!! I laugh to myself about these shirts with my human power slogan I am mulling over... Let's see if it sticks. Back to the topic- Once all the pages are individually cut they are punched and spiral bound all together in small batches.

When you use a gift card do you know what happens to your old gift cards? If the store doesn't recycle them you can always save them for us ;) If for whatever reason sending us your  cards and junk is out of the question - I discovered this awesome new station at Bust Buy the other day.  I went looking for this special version of Tron for Kevin, and they had this awesome recycling receptacle in front. It has so many recycling varieties including gift cards, plastic bags, rechargeable batteries, cd's and jewel cases, old cables ink cartridges and more. I had no idea of just how much tech stuff Best Buy Recycles until I read this great article here.

When we started these address books the collecting became an anthropological study of consumerism to me. These cards encapsulate a flawed idea in currency from a  zero-waste stand point when you think of how frequently we waste a vast variety of gift cards, transit cards, and hotel keys. At Make Shop Live, we take these accumulating scraps of plastic and turn them into the sturdy covers to the pocket size address books, seen in the below picture.  We collect and accept all kinds of plastic cards rescuing them from the trash and re purposing them.  They are great for traveling and we have many families of soldiers who purchase them for their convenient small size.
Wanna purchase one? Here they are in Our Etsy Shop.

Want to wholesale these address books in your store?  
 Shoot us an inquiry here for wholesale details on an assortment with a stand like above.
























Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Yesterday, I had an exciting trip to Biola University to meet with a group of students who will be working with us on some ways to help us spread the word and get more donations of "trash" to help with growing demands.  We are super pumped to be chosen to participate with the class and it will be really awesome to hear the ideas the students come up with for us!  We are always on the hunt for materials and if you have any items on our "Wish List" (there is a tab on the top of this blog) we will gladly take any items off your hands :)

Currently, we are aggressively collecting magazine subscription cards and used gift cards for our address books.

Between juggling some new opportunities, prepping our taxes, and preparing our inventory for the upcoming spring shows we have been super busy.  At the end of the day making things is my number 1 priority and I hope y'all understand why to elevate the quality of our tutorials we will be featuring a larger project on the 1st Tuesday of every month.  If you have any suggestions or items you'd like to see featured on our tutorials please let us know on our Facebook site.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

After you spend that Gift Card this Holiday

 After you spend that Gift Card this Holiday please send them to us!  We are always in need of anything card size or shape for our Address Books.  We have been getting a great response on Etsy to the Address Books, and now after UNIQUE LA we have been contacted by Skylight Books to sell our address books in their store!  


Now more than ever, we really need magazine subscription cards and gift cards to make enough books for the demand.  If you happen to clean up this Holidays, check your magazines before you recycle them. Or, maybe you have an aunt that has a million issues of National Geographic and she would be cool with you taking the cards out while the family takes a break from delicious eats ;)


Wednesday, April 14, 2010

2010 Heart of Green Awards

We just found out we are in the Running for The Daily Green's Trash-to-Craft Challenge

 


Here is the Address Book Details Below-

NOW, All we need to do is win... And then maybe we will get the opportunity 
to walk the "Green Carpet" ;)
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