Card: "Chalk You Very Much" [Thank You]

Front

Inside

Who: For my teacher's aid in the CCD program [Saturday morning Catholic education program in which I'm a 7th grade teacher teaching morality]. One of them, Andrea has been with me for 3 years and the other Jem for 2 years.

What: Outside reads "Thank you" written repeatedly. Found a typeface that mimics writing in one of those writing pads when you were a kid and it reads "Detention would suck. Being endlessly thankful isn't."

Why: We don't use chalk/blackboard anymore, but we use dry erase markers on the white boards. Yet, going old school is always cool.

Card: "RN+" [Congratulations]

Who: For my girlfriend's friend who just graduated from University of San Francisco's nursing program. Woo! I'm next!

What: A simple type card with a message within a message. In line with nursing, I made the "R" and "N" from "Congratulations" red. Her name too I replaced "t" with a "+". Caman, please tell me you get it. hahah

Why: White and Red? That has nursing all over it.

Business Cards Ordered

click to enlarge

Business cards ordered to be enclosed in every card to encourage people to visit my website or even drop an email. The design is taken from my banner design with jjasef's main color theme.

On next post I will show what else is included in every card/envelope!

Card: "mymommy" [Mother's Day]

Front

Inside

Who: For the women who have kids and has a holiday to her own on the second Sunday of May.

What: "Mom" repeated 3 times and rotated to create a [colorful] flower. Leaf created with the word "my."

Why: Obviously, it's for Mother's Day but the title "mymommy" ties in with how you would like to interpret it. It can be read as "My Mommy" or "Mommy."

'Stache It Away Please

From now on, stick-on 'staches will be sent in every card and it will be just a fun way to 1) sport a new moustache to give everyone a second look and 2) a way for you [the receiver] to have your pic and your 'stache posted here.

Here's the premise: you receive a card enclosed with one of these bad babies. You peel the backing, place above your precious lips, and take a snapshot. You'll definitely look good so send it to me [jjasef@gmail.com] and it will be posted here on the website.

Now what do you get out of this besides looking totally cool? A FREE greeting card [with postage included] to send to a friend and a chance for her or him to be posted here on the site.

The point of all this as well is to request you to please don't trash these cards made out of love [and cardstock paper and printer ink]. Keep em! So "stache" it away somewhere safe so you can bump into it again later in time and reminince the past.

Card: "Do Not. Wait For Me." [Hello]

Who: For my cousin "Beng" in the Philippines.

What: A clear typographic card reading "I owe you Krispy Kreme donuts and when I have them, we'll have coffee as well." Inside reads "And in between all that will be conversations."

Why: As M.M.'s card, we used to write each other letters when we were younger. My cousin Beng is actually the older than M.M. but we've all kept in touch over the years. She recently wrote me a letter saying that if I do come over to the Philippines, I should being over 1 dozen donuts so we can have a sugar rush. That would be sweet. [Pun intendend].

Card: "Emem" [Hello]

Who: For my cousin M.M. in the Philippines

What: Two oversized M.M.'s fill the cover of the 4x6 card.

Why: Well her nickname is M.M. so it is quite fitting. Before when we were younger, my cousins here and my cousins in the Philippines would send each other letters and it was always exciting to receive a large envelope with letters inside. Because of the digital age, much of that has been lost due to email. While it does make things easier and instant, nothing beats the old fashioned letter/greeting card.

Card: "Remember the Doors?" [Birthday]

Front

Inside

Full Spread [Front/Back]

Who: For my high school friend Maxine.

What: Illustration made and colored in Photoshop with Wacom Intuos 3 tablet. Card depicts double doors when the card is fully spread out. First card by the way that I printed full color on the front and back of card.

Why: In high school, I believe in our Junior or Senior year, Maxine and I were trying to go through the double doors in the 2nd floor. Surprisingly, we couldn't open the door and I exclaimed it was locked. She too tried opening it and couldn't. We figured this was odd enough so we remained stubborn and leaned our weight onto the doors and finally it opened. I'd agree that we probably looked like weaklings. Doors too signify new opportunities so however she'd like to interpret this, by all means do so. Nevertheless, Happy [Belated] Birthday! [April 30th].

Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

I recieved my custom wax stamp today from Old School Seals. It took me awhile to find a custom wax stamp company [online] but glad to come across this company based in Washington. Their service was great for the fact that they sent me a rendering of my seal in which I approved about 3 days after they received my custom order. About a week after, the final product came arrived at my doorstep.

Detailed shot of the custom seal's stamp imprint on the box containing the seal.

I'm sure you've seen unboxing pictures of hi-tech products. For something lo-tech, the product packaging is simple, elegent, and I'm pretty sure used with recycled materials. The seal itself has an aluminum handle which I've chosen over the wooden one. You can also unscrew the head and use different seals in the future [another reason why I chose the aluminum one].

The stamp's diameter is 0.75" round and they do offer larger diameters and even an orthodox rectangle/square custom seals.

Bringing it back to the old school days thanks to Old School Seals.

Wouldn't be complete without the wax and had to complete the look with the colors of jjasef. This here is Grass Green faux sealing wax to be used with an ordinary craft glue gun.

With the purple envelopes and now the green official stamp of jjasef, I think my packaging is sealed.

Stay tuned for my next update on how I will brand jjasef with a little creative marketing to include recipients on this blog. =)

P.S.
If you've stumbled across this and feel that you're not on my birthday/holiday address book, feel free to email me your address and I'll send you a card! Email: jjasef[at]gmail[dot]com