Naked Cards

In a previous post, I told you all about the bamboo card that we are now offering on some of our stationery items.  I also mentioned that I would tell you more about Naked Cards. What on earth are Naked Cards? It’s nothing rude, I promise you.

This is another environmental initiative we are going to be testing out on road this Christmas. At all our shows like Spirit of Christmas we have spinners full of packs of postcards and individual greetings cards. Until now, all of these have been carefully dressed in little plastic cello pockets. They look great and the cards were protected both as we hauled them around the country and when they made their journeys back with you to their forever homes.

Similarly, when we sent out cards from here, they would leave perfectly encased in their cello bags to arrive looking beautiful through your letterbox.

BUT and it is a big but, this has a huge environmental cost and we really felt that this was one of the most obvious places to start. We had spotted the Naked Cards movement on Instagram and so we looked a little deeper into what they were up to and realised that this was something that we could get on board with. The Naked Pioneers – the collective of makers who started the movement – put it rather succinctly: “A brainwave moment triggered Naked Cards… why on earth are so many small online card sellers putting little plastic sleeves around pieces of cardboard that are then being put into envelopes?”

“A brainwave moment triggered Naked Cards… why on earth are so many small online card sellers putting little plastic sleeves around pieces of cardboard that are then being put into envelopes?”
naked cards

I have to confess that I have been one of these, and as a small business owner, I am aware that the “buck stops here” in terms of all things green. So whenever I’ve started lamenting the state of the world, I need to realise that I can at least take baby steps in my corner of it.

Much discussion and experimentation has gone on here to find ways to send cards without plastic. We have alighted on paper “belly bands” which make the cards look very smart and then acid-free tissue paper to stop the cards feeling totally exposed. With Christmas card orders of 40+, we send them out creased but unfolded which makes them easier to store and easier to write. It’s also worth mentioning that we have really lovely foil-blocked boxes that you can add to any stationery order to keep your cards and writing paper in which can be used again and again.

**UPDATE: 8th November 2019 – we have been sending out stacks of “Naked” Christmas cards, and the feedback is all positive! We are super careful about how we package these up, and they are arriving at their destinations in the pristine condition we aim for. Also, we have spoken to loads of customers at live events in the last few weeks who have been buying cards and postcards from the spinners who have been amazingly supportive of our reasons for making our stationery naked.

It’s so encouraging to see the tide turning in even this tiny way and people realising that we all need to change our expectations and the way we think. The only downside is that we are getting a tiny amount of spoiled stock which is getting damaged (by us) when we move it from A to B. Probably means you can keep an eye out for a seconds sale in the new year though!**

You can find out more about the Naked Cards movement here.