plastic free Archives - Cards and Gift Wrap

Posted on May 24, 2023May 24, 2023 by janet — Leave a comment

Are these Chelsea Flower Show Worthy?

Sustainable and plastic free at the Chelsea Flower Show and close to home

Lindum's Wildflower Turf at the Chelsea Flower Show — Lindum’s Wildflower Turf – Winner of the **RHS Chelsea Sustainable Gardening Product of the Year 2023**

This is not my garden! The photo above is actually of Lindum Wildflower Turf at the Chelsea Flower Show, which is the first to be grown without plastic matting earning it the prize of RHS Chelsea Sustainable Gardening Product of the Year 2023.

At Cards and Gift Wrap we are all for sustainability and plastic free, which is why we have our own range of plastic free paper tape…and we also love flowers!

Browse Floral Cards

So this week, while we’re all in awe of the blooms at Chelsea I thought I’d do a little focus on some of our favourite floral artists.

Claire Henley

Claire is well known for her coastal and floral designs, has been a firm favourite throughout Phoenix Trading and Flamingo Paperie and I am delighted to find her cards are available through the Eco-friendly Card Company too so her cards will be available to you for years to come at Cards and Gift Wrap.

See Claire Henley cards

Nicola Evans

Nicola doesn’t just do flowers and she’s one of those illustrators who is so versatile that sometimes her work isn’t instantly recognisable, if you know what I mean.

But her flower bouquets and patterns are always popular.

See Nicola Evans designs

Jane Morgan

Jane Morgan is new to Cards and Gift Wrap but we instantly fell in love with her wildflower canvases of beauty.

Jane’s cards are available with words on the front or usually with a blank alternative – I’d love to know which you prefer?

See Jane Morgan cards

Sally Rich

Also new to Cards and Gift Wrap is Sally Rich. Her cards are all without words but full to bursting with bright and cheerful colours.

Floral cards are so versatile and are great to keep in your card box as they can be used for so many occasions and for anyone.

See Sally Rich designs

Winging their way through the postal system to me right now are some of my own floral designs with Gaelic words on them – I was even featured recently in an article for PGBuzz (the greetings card industry magazine). You can read more about that here.

Growing your own!

Meanwhile I potter about in my ‘crub. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you’ll already have seen my strawberry (yes singular – so far!)…is there anything more satisfying than growing your own?

Happy gardening and may the wonders of the Chelsea Flower Show inspire you!

Posted on March 19, 2019August 12, 2023 by janet — 1 Comment

What’s Special about Flamingo Paperie

**UPDATE** As of June 2023 Flamingo Paperie has now closed. We are very sad at the loss of this fabulous company with its range of fabulous artists but we still have a good level of Flamingo Papaerie stock available on this website and will always try and find what you are looking for if you want to locate an old favourite. We are very lucky to be stocking products from many of the same artists via other suppliers.

Other than the quality and affordability, which Flamingo cards and gift wrap has in abundance, what makes them any different to other greeting cards on the market? In short – what’s special about Flamingo Paperie?

Recyclable

All Flamingo gift wrap and gift tags are recyclable, 100%! That’s quite something in a day where there is still a myth spread on social media that only brown paper can be recycled. The gift tags all have jute string ties and jute is totally biodegradable and therefore compostable.

If you’re still not convinced whether you can have pretty wrapping paper without harming the environment then read my guide Is gift wrapping paper recyclable

What about the cards? Good question! All the greeting cards without effects added are 100% recyclable. Until now the glitter on some of the cards wasn’t environmentally friendly but Flamingo have just launched the first cards with eco-friendly vegetable based glitter.

‘Happy Anniversary’

now with eco-friendly, vegetable based glitter!

It’s unclear whether foiled cards are recyclable or not. Many recycling plants won’t accept them but there is some research done by interested parties to suggest that this might be unnecessary.

Charity

ALL Flamingo Christmas cards, including the advent calendar cards are charity cards. If you want to know more about that then I wrote about it in a bit more depth here.

Woodman’s House

charity advent calendar card

shop advent calendar cards

Flamingo Partners, like myself, got to choose which charities would benefit in 2018 and we chose Macmillan Cancer Support, Together for Short Lives and the Alzheimers Society for UK donations.

Artists

Have you ever seen or bought a greeting card after liking the image on the front only to wonder who created it? You turn over the card and all you see is ‘Made in China’. Not so with Flamingo!

Flamingo are proud to promote each and every one of the artists who design for them. And if you read their profiles the artists are pretty pleased to supply Flamingo with their designs.

Flamingo Paperie are a design led company and are always looking for new artists. If you have something to offer, it could be your name on the back of the next new Flamingo greeting card.

You could be part of a very special Flamingo too!

Are you:

Running your own business and need to compliment your products with cards and gift wrap?
Needing a little extra income?
Looking for something flexible that you can shape to fit your lifestyle?
Someone who loves cards, gift wrap, stationery, Christmas and all things glittery!?

If you’d just like to get your hands on these charitable, ethical and desing led cards and gift wrap then you can buy them from my Flamingo shop. Shop now and find our what’s special about Flamingo Paperie.

Posted on May 31, 2018May 31, 2018 by janet — Leave a comment

Going Naked!

You’ve seen Blue Planet, right? We all know that we shouldn’t be using plastic straws and disposable plastic cups. I’m sure we’re all trying to do a bit here and there to make a difference. Well here at cardsandgiftwrap.co.uk we’re going one step further and going naked!

Should you avert your eyes if I’m going naked?!

It’s ok, no censorship required. Here at Cards and Gift Wrap we have been trying to cut down on plastic for a few years now. It’s a long time since I sent out any greeting card orders in cellos. There is just no need. When you buy a box of cards I will wrap them in reused bubble wrap where they do need some protection. But the Naked Cards challenged has made me think bigger. Even now, I’m looking at how to send the cards in cardboard instead. Most of my orders now go out in a cardboard box. This protects the cards but sometimes there does need to be something wrapped round the cards to stop them being damaged in the post as they shoogle about in the box. (I do love the word ‘shoogle’, don’t you?!).

Packaging is something I’m still working on. I’ll continue to use bubble wrap as long as I receive it with deliveries. However, I will never buy bubble wrap for packaging.

What about cards in baskets and at events?

Another aspect of my selling is through baskets in workplaces. I would love to go cello free here too but I know from experience that baskets get dropped. There have been a few times I’ve collected baskets with the entire contents in disarray and upside down, clearly after someone dropped everything out of it. Accidents happen. That’s fine, I’m not complaining. But because accidents happen the cards need to be protected. However, I would be quite happy if people took cards out of the baskets and left the cellos for reuse. Where I use celloed cards to fulfil an order I remove them from the cellos and reuse the cellos where possible. If you’ve ever had one of my baskets in your work place you will probably have seen the odd dog eared cello on a card. It doesn’t always look good but know that it’s because I’m trying to do my bit for the environment; the turtles and the whales, and reduce my use of plastic.

We have just launched a new range of pocket notebooks. These will not go in cellos. If people buy packs of notebooks I’ll wrap them in a paper sleeve.

I would love to hear more suggestions of what I can do to save our beautiful blue planet. Comment below or contact me with your ideas.