• Shop Talk

    2015 SAJ Calendar is in my shop!

    SAJ-calendar-completed1

    It’s here! It’s edited. It can haz ALL holidays.  Although the kids seemed to think it was missing April Fool’s Day. How did you guys miss that? Just kidding. I know what you were up to. No warnings for people who might be April Fool’s pranked, right?!!

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    So click, pay (two bucks!), print and write in all your dates! And if you’re under nine, go ahead and draw mustaches on all the SAJ characters. Go ahead. Make my day.

  • elsewhere!,  mettaprints,  Shop Talk,  Tis the Season

    Cardboard Christmas!

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    I know what you are thinking. Why are you putting up Christmas photos when it’s not even Halloween yet, you annoying goober! Just get out of my face already and let me enjoy my pumpkin spice latte now that it’s not 300 degrees of summer anymore!!  Right?!! Sheesh.

    Well, when you work in the business of creating Christmas decorations (and other holiday things) you have to get started early. In fact, at Metta Prints (my little cardboard company that I’m a partner in) we talk about Christmas all year long! Teri, my boss, (she doesn’t like being called my boss but I need her to boss me so that’s that) LOVES Christmas. She could decorate swags of garland all year long and never get tired of it. Me, on the other hand, I can’t wait until the clean sweep of January.

    Anyway, we’ve been making trees and snowflakes and deer and all kinds of cute little woodland creatures for stores lately. It’s fun! Yesterday, we scaled down our humongous trees to pint-size trees but still biggish. Perfect for your spatially-challenged home or apartment. Of if you are an elf.

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    And of course I had to take pictures with my favorite side-kick, aka the evil smurf elf.  What am I going to do when she grows up and doesn’t want to model for me anymore? She’s such a natural in front of the camera but then…it’s kind of in her blood with her parents both being photographers and I’ve been training her how to act in front of the camera since she was ZERO.

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    She keeps it real though. It’s not all smiles and cooperation.

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    Have tree, will travel? Hah! Just kidding. You don’t need to travel with your cardboard, Metta Prints ships everywhere! We’ve shipped to Spain, Australia, Canada, Trinidad, Ireland…the UK…It’s pretty cool. We pack everything up in pizza-like box (except much bigger and sometimes more rectangle) and off it goes. I’m currently working on some cool stickers and other branded packaging. I’m sure I’ll share that once I get it all out of my head and onto paper. My head is so much more busy than my hands.

    In other news, guess where Metta Prints has a full page feature? Woo hoo!

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    It’s our deer!  Of course the magazine is showing how you can make them yourself at home with giant pieces of cardboard but I say skip all that headache and let our giant machines do it for you! We have super fast razor cutters that get it done fast and perfectly. (Man, I was skinny in the movie, what happened?!!)

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    Yep, you guessed it. Better Homes and Gardens special Holiday Crafts edition. I’m still aiming for Dwell magazine and maybe some designery magazines but this ain’t too shabby. I know if my Grandma were alive, she’d be proud. She was always cutting out craft articles just like this for me. Makes me miss her.

    So, check us out next time you’re standing around in line at the grocery store. Page 56!  And tell all your friends, especially those shop-owners and photographers who need some last minute props for their displays and photo shoots! You know we’ll take care of you like only cardboard whisperers can.