Special Orders

Today was spent producing the second of my three bulk orders for Christmas cards. These ones were a different design because they’re for our vicar and his wife, and I always make sure they have a completely new design every year which isn’t available to anyone else. (The following year the design becomes one of those on sale in the Atrium.)

These cards are 14 cm square, and are printed 3-up on a sheet of A3, which means you have to be careful how you back up the wording on the inside, because it has to be typeset the opposite way round to the front. I then trim 1.7 cm off the long edge of the card, and guillotine the rest into three equal pieces. The second stage is to crease down the centre of the 28 cm side, giving a 14 cm square card. I pull the lever down on the bender/creaser, which presses the metal bar down into a groove below the card to create a crease. After that I fold it by hand, then press the crease with my bone folder to get a nice sharp edge. The last stage is packing them in alternate bundles of ten into a box with 100 envelopes. 

The final photo is another special order for an elderly customer of mine. She wanted cards with bird pictures on, so I’ve given her an assortment of birds. It probably won’t surprise you to know, however, that I’d rather just have ten wren cards in the box!