Monthly Archives: February 2012

Writer revives lost art of writing letters

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We love it when we find people who treasure letter writing as much as we do. Check out this story on CBS This Morning about Stephen Elliot, founder of Letters in the Mail, a subscription service for people who love to receive handwritten letters. Each week you get a letter in the mail, handwritten by a well-known author, including Dave Eggers, Marc Maron, Stephen Elliott, Janet Fitch, Nick Flynn, Margaret Cho, Cheryl Strayed, Wendy MacNaughton, Emily Gould, Tao Lin, and Jonathan Ames. Simpatico!

One is a Hoot

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Note from Pear Tree Greetings: We heard that our Owl Invitations were recently featured on a blog called Little for a Little While and we asked the author, Amy Slavik, to share her son’s 1st birthday party ideas as our Guest Blogger.

I have several creative outlets that I like to lose myself in. On any given day they include photography, sewing, scrapbooking and blogging. When an opportunity presents itself to mesh all of my talents into one, my brain starts spinning and the ideas come pouring out of me. My son’s first birthday party was no exception to the creative madness. He wasn’t even born yet, and I found myself mentally planning his party. I knew I wanted an owl theme, as I had discovered my love for them when I began decorating his nursery. In my mind, an owl sort of became a symbol for my baby boy, and to have it the focus of his first birthday party just brought it back around full circle for me.

As his big day neared and it was actually time to put my thoughts and ideas into fruition, I began looking for owl-themed party invitations. I have found it best to start here, and let the ideas branch out around it. After all, the invitation is the first clue to your guests as to what your party is going to be about. (Other than the baby of course!)

One quick search for “owls” on Pear Tree Greetings’ website led me to many fun options. I didn’t limit myself to searching under birthday parties, because the one I ultimately chose was shown as a baby shower invite. A personalization of the wording quickly made it my own.

Owl decorationsUsing the owl and the colors, green and orange, my party prep was on, and I was in full-on crafting mode. I emailed a link of the invite to a vendor on Etsy, and she created coordinating owls for me. I used them to make hair clips for some of our younger guests, and sewed one on a bib I made for my little guy. I also found an owl rubber stamp and made my own party napkins.

My three year old daughter shares the crafting gene with me, and wanted a special project of her own. We used fun coordinating owl stickers to make party hats for our guests.

Those stickers were too cute to pass up, so I ordered a second set, this time omitting the personalization on them. I cut them into circles, added writing of my own, and turned them into a photo timeline of baby’s first year. My guests absolutely adored this sweet touch, and oohed and ahhed over how much my little man had grown and changed in just one short year.

Memory Lane and Gift BagsSweet parting gifts for the guests are owls with gummy worms in their tummies. Cause, you know, owls eat worms.

When it was time to put it all together, I stood back and admired my work, and I couldn’t hide my smile. This very special first birthday party was surely going to be a hoot.

My daughter’s birthday is only six months away, and you better believe that I’ve already been scoping out Pear Tree Greetings for my next party planning adventure!

Calling All Superheroes!

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We asked our Facebook fans to come up with a name for this awesome new kids birthday invitation and they rocked it! The winning entry is “Calling All Superheroes” by Miranda Morrison de Jreige.

As the winner of our Name This Card Contest, Miranda gets $50 to spend on anything at peartreegreetings.com. She says she is “super” excited! We hope she has a birthday in the family because our kids’ birthday invitations are pretty amazing this year!Calling All Superheroes!

5 ways to use 1 note card

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Note cardsWe’re letting you in on a little secret. Our thank you notes aren’t just for thank you’s. You don’t have to be a grad or a bride to use the cards in our graduation or wedding collections. And our personalized note cards can be personalized with your name, a friend’s name, or left completely blank. It’s totally up to you!

Maybe you already knew that the text on most of Pear Tree’s note cards and invitations was editable. But just in case you didn’t, this little tip opens up hundreds of possibilities. Now that you know, if you see a design you like in our bridal shower collection, you can use it for a birthday party invitation. And the same note card can be used to say, “I’m sorry,” “I miss you,” “You’re awesome” or none of the above.

Have fun finding a design you like from any of our collections and coming up with stationery ideas that work for you. That’s the true meaning of personalized stationery.

Letters provide inspiration in Biggest Loser

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Biggest LoserDid you happen to watch the Valentine’s Day episode of The Biggest Loser? We loved the way letters from home (and, later, letters from teammates) played a huge roll in this episode.

In the team challenge, letters from home were the reward for the winning team. Contestants had to dig their way through several obstacles in the sand, and the thought of getting to read those letters after being away from home for 6 weeks was a huge incentive to the teams. When the winning team members sat down on the beach to read their letters, they were visibly moved by the words of encouragement they held in their hands. Many cried. All said that the letters helped them tremendously and gave them the emotional boost they needed to continue.

Later in the same episode, two contestants who had been separated from their teams received encouraging letters from their teammates. Both received the letters at a particularly difficult time during the week, and both said the letters gave them the strength to keep going, and that they could feel the support from their team.

We’ve said it a thousand times, but this mega-hit television show proved it in front of 6.4 million viewers. Never underestimate the power of the pen!