Christmas Card Traditions and Memories December 28, 2011
This morning was the first day of post-Christmas clean-up here at my house. You know the feeling; the past few days of gift wrapping (and unwrapping) have added up to a wee bit of a mess.
But amidst the tidying this morning, I couldn't help but stop, smile, and take in this scene: A shelf FULL of Christmas cards. I just had to share.
Even though I've lived on my own for several years now, seeing this vision in my very own house brought me right back to my childhood. As soon as December hit, I would rush to check the mail as soon as it came through our door. Any greeting card envelopes addressed to the family were mine to open, and I loved doing just that. It was such a treat, getting to open such special mail, and reading the thoughtful greetings from near and far.
As an adult, it's no different. December comes, and I make sure to set aside an evening to write greetings for everyone on my list (for the record, yes - they received plantable cards...I used the Mittens Plantable Cards Set, and Love The Earth Plantable Cards Set this year). And of course, there's still that wonderful feeling when I see those special envelopes in my mailbox too. In the days of e-greetings and quick-to-send messages, I'm so happy to have so many people in my life that are still wanting and willing to participate in such a classic tradition.
Sending a greeting in the mail is a simple gesture, but one that goes a long way in letting people know that you're thinking of them. I can't even begin to say just how appreciative I am of every note, photo, and card that I receive any time of the year, not just during the holidays.
I know I work for a company that makes plantable cards and stationery, but that love for a personal greeting is what makes us so passionate about what we do here. We were genuinely excited to tell you about all of our new green Christmas cards this year, and to see your enthusiasm for them too. And when we started sending out weekly cards for 52 Weeks of Mail, seeing your encouraging responses made it so much more fun.
I'm going to get back to cleaning now (and eating some leftover holiday chocolate of course!). I hope all of you out there had a fantastic holiday as well, I'd love to see some of your favorite memories and thoughts left in the comments!
-Amber
Bring Spring to Your Home with these Plantable Paper Bouquets March 28, 2011
For many of us, this week is Spring Break. This means kids of all ages will be home and looking for fun-filled activities to do during their week long holiday. Crafts are a great way for the family to get together and make something beautiful. We at Botanical PaperWorks want to show you an eco-friendly way to bring spring to your home!
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Flowers are a classic sign of Spring. Why not make paper flowers for your home that will actually bloom when the weather is warmer? This craft, adapted from HowDoesShe.com and instead uses plantable paper, a handmade paper infused with wildflower seeds that when planted in soil bloom into beautiful pink, yellow, and purple petalled flowers for all to enjoy. This craft is quite simple and you can customize it however you want.
What You'll Need:
- Pastel Plantable Seed Paper Sheets
- Chenille Stems or Wires
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Spoon
- Flour and Water
How to Make It:
- Cut plantable seed paper into large circles ranging in sizes. You can also take sheets of paper and cut them into 5 petal flower shapes too.
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Cut a spiral around the circle, ensuring that you maintain the spiral thickness around the paper
- Mix some flour and water together until it forms a medium thick paste and using a spoon gently spread ontop of the spiral paper shape. This will act as the glue.
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Starting from the inside to the outside of the spiral, start rolling the paper so it makes a rose like shape. Keep rolling until the spiral is completely wrapped up.
- Cut a small hole at the base of the flower and use thread through the wire or chenille stem and ensure the excess wire or stem is bent around the stem so it is secure.
- Put in a vase until the weather is warm and then plant the seed paper and watch the real wildflowers bloom
Not only is this craft fun, but the plantable paper is made from post-consumer waste so it leaves no waste! It's an eco-friendly way to bring the family together and make some creative crafts this Spring Break.
*Photo Credit: HowDoesShe.com
Invitations and Favors made in Winnipeg, Manitoba February 24, 2011
Botanical PaperWorks came to be over 12 years ago and has sinced bloomed into a thriving company. Company President Heidi Reimer-Epp always had a love for paper growing up and started making her own with many different colors and textures. She then felt the world needed to know about how plantable paper works and how eco it really is and thus Botanical PaperWorks was born in Winnipeg, MB Canda. Our headquarters are still here today and if you live in the area, come by for a visit!
We are a company that manufactures and designs seed paper for Promotional Products and for Special Occasions, but we also specialize in plantable wedding invitations and plantable wedding favors. We have even had our products featured at the Winnipeg Wonderful Wedding Show, which is a trade show for brides-to-be to come and look at the current wedding trends and products they can use for their Big Day.
Our seed wedding invitations are made with post-consumer waste and are embedded with seeds so when the wedding guest plants it in soil, it blooms beautiful wildflowers. With over 13 designs to choose from and multiple color sets, these seed invites will be a perfect fit for your wedding theme. Our most popular seed wedding invitations are our Song Plantable Wedding invitation and our Embrace Plantable Wedding Invitation.
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Another great unique idea is to give your guests the gift of flowers with seed wedding favors tags. These favor tags correspond with our seed wedding invitation collection so you can complete your stationery suite. For more colors and creative shapes, look at our seed wedding favors. From dove and dragonfly shapes to wedding cakes and dress shapes. Each favor allows you to add the happy couple's names, their wedding date and add a personal message for all your guests to see.
These products are not only eco-friendly but turn into blooming momentos of your Big Day. So when planning your wedding, have your invitations and favors stand out from them all by using seed paper to wow your wedding guests.
These Valentine's Day Cards are Eco-Fabulous February 15, 2011
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No need to search websites for fun and eco valentines, Ecofabulous has put together a fantastic list of websites offering green valentine's for you to send to your sweethearts. In this article of "Be My Eco-Valentine: 12 Top Cards for Your Love" we see funny to sweet cards made from recycled or post-consumer waste, making your Valentine's green and beautiful. On this fabulous list is our " Love is All Around Us" card. Made from 100% post-consumer waste, this handmade card is embedded with wildflower seeds that will bloom when planted in soil. Click here to see all of our eco Valentine's Day offerings. Give a card and a bouquet all in one thoughtful and unique gift, and the lucky recipient will surely never forget it!
The True Meaning of Eco-Friendly February 11, 2011
So many companies out there claim they are eco-friendly and take part in sustainable practices, but the definition has become so loose, how does one know if the claim actually proves true?
At Botanical PaperWorks, we describe our plantable seed paper as eco-friendly, but we have the facts to back it up! It all starts with the very first process of our paper making. We go to various local businesses and collect their recycled paper and haul it over to our warehouse where we then shred it and from there, we create something old, new again.
This handmade paper is not only made with post-consumer waste, our practices allow it to completely recycle itself leaving no waste and only producing gorgeous wildflowers from the plantable paper. This adds beauty to our environment and creates new homes for bees that are important pollinators for our earth.
These eco practices have bigger impacts than people think, but as a small company we do the following every year and these numbers increase as we continue to grow as a company too!
- Save over 85 trees
- Conserve enough oxygen for 43 people
- Save 36,138 gallons of water
- Reduce CO2 emissions by 7,835 lbs!
These numbers may sound difficult to exceed but it can be as easy as shopping with reusable bags or using tupperware instead of Ziploc bags. Walk that extra block to find a blue bin and don't just throw away something that can be turned new again into a trash bin. What are you doing in your every day life that is eco? We would love to hear it!
A Blooming Business - The Botanical PaperWorks Story February 8, 2011
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Entrepreneurs are like gardeners. A gardener can plant a seed of a creative idea and over time a seedling begins to sprout and reaches toward the sun. With the proper mix of a green thumb, ample sweat of the brow, and fertilizer, a gardener can turn that little seed into a thriving flowers patch and enjoy the fruits of her labour for many years to come. Despite our frosty climate, Winnipeg is a city of gardeners that have planted and grown many successful businesses over the years. I’d like to share a story about one such gardener whose business is literally blooming.
In 2000 Heidi Reimer-Epp, a graduate of the I. H. Asper School of Business and an international businesswoman in the pharmaceutical industry, and her mother Mary Reimer, an elementary school Language Arts teacher, started with the seed of an idea. Both women were entrepreneurial, eco-conscious, paper experts and were in the middle of writing a book entitled “300 Papermaking Recipes” that described methods for embedding flower petals and stalks in the paper itself. The question arose whether seeds could be embedded in paper products and actually be planted and grown. There was only one way to find out. The two planted an experimental batch of “seeded” paper and waited. A handful of days later the paper began to sprout! Heidi and Mary had created plantable paper. The seed of the idea had sprouted and the gardeners decided to grow their new business, Botanical PaperWorks.
Market acceptance of their product came quickly as five local retailers placed orders for their unique plantable paper. The Internet was just beginning to take hold in 1997 and through Botanical PaperWorks simple website consisting of only three pages, they began to export to the United States. E-Commerce and international expansion has been a key element of Botanical PaperWorks strategy ever since.
Design and manufacturing began in the home basement, but as demand rapidly outstripped production the operation was moved to an office at Portage Avenue and Smith Street in downtown Winnipeg, and later to the Exchange District where the company exists today. The game was always one of catch-up. As demand increased, production capacity was upgraded to fill the demand and then marketing had to be increased to drive demand to fill the excess capacity created by the production upgrade. Through their use of post-consumer waste from school and businesses Botanical PaperWorks prevents over 10 tonnes of waste from going to the landfill every year.
Today, Botanical PaperWorks is the world-leading producer of eco-friendly paper products that grow into flowers or culinary herbs when planted. With the help of their 30 employees, the company exports its diverse product line, from wedding invitations to calendars, to 30 countries across the globe. Their client list is a who’s who of Fortune 500 companies including Starbucks, Sony and Toyota and they have also produced paper for Brad Pitt, Martha Stewart and the Whitehouse. Botanical PaperWorks is regularly featured in Martha Stewart, Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal and the Huffington Post. And, if that weren’t enough, both Heidi and Mary are published authors with 3 books on paper making to their credit.
Heidi and Mary, thank you for planting the Botanical PaperWorks seed in the often frost covered ground of Winnipeg and showing the community that with passion, hardwork and the right resources you grow that seed into a garden that spans the globe!
For more information on Botanical PaperWorks, please visit www.botanicalpaperworks.com
Scott McCulloch is the Community and Alumni Relations Manager at the University of Manitoba and a member of the Yes! Winnipeg volunteer team. If you are interested in becoming a Yes! Winnipeg volunteer, please fill out the volunteer survey.
This posting was written by a member of the Yes! Winnipeg volunteer team. For more information on how you can get involved with the Yes! Winnipeg initiative, please contact our volunteer coordinator at volunteercoordinator@yeswinnipeg.com
Creating Unique Wedding Favors, Guestbooks, and Wedding Programs January 2, 2011
Want to add an eco touch to your Wedding while satisfying your wallet? Seed paper is perfect for making unique wedding favors, guestbooks and wedding programs.
Make your Wedding Guest book memorable with handmade sheets of seed paper for those to write happy messages of love and support. Read our post on how to make an Easy Fold Guestbook.
Make Wedding Programs with ease by purchasing our Seed Paper Package for $17.95. It includes 10 8.5x11 inch trimmed sheets in assorted or all white. This plantable paper is perfect for popping in the printer and will gorgeously display the fonts and text you have chosen for the program of your Big Day. Also choose our various sizes of seed paper with feathered edges to give a more classic look.
Seed wedding favors are fun to make and add elegance to your guest's tables. Give them the gift of flowers with these tokens of thanks. Our Buckets of Love Plantable Wedding favors include petalled pieces with a tag of a special message from the happy couple. These handmade pieces become blooming memento's of your wedding when they are planted in soil. See more plantable wedding favors for you to make, personalize, and share.
Promo Brochure Online December 16, 2010
In past years, we have sent out a Promo Brochure to many businesses showing our promo plantable products from bookmarks to wine tags. Today, our newly designed website features our complete collection for you to see and even order.
Not only are these promo products made with plantable paper, we offer many unique items to wow your clients or colleagues with. Some popular promo products include plantable business cards, and our plantable eco calendars featuring your company logo.
Handmade and infused with seeds, our paper is from 100% post consumer waste so when planted it recycles itself and blooms into beautiful wildflowers. So this year, bring your business to Botanical PaperWorks and be wowed with our flowering paper.
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