Ever wonder how a card is born? From its conception to holding it in your hand, find out below how an E. Frances card comes into this world, and how much TLC it gets and many people (a lot!) help it on its journey to you.

1. Conception. 
3 brains, 3 ice cream cones, 300 really bad ideas, 200 possible ideas, 100 ideas that we think are hilarious but nobody else will, and then, possibly, 1 strike of brilliance. 

2. Painting.
Ali is sent to her cave with coffee to draw and paint. (she is happy)

2B. More painting.
Many sketches, revisions, scanning, and a few digital hours later, file is ready to be sent to the offset printer in Maine. 

Bears with clothes are cute.                               Bears with no clothes are cuter.                           Tighty whities win!

2C. Editing.
Rarely the words we first think are still good when we look at it again. 

3. Computer time.
The artwork is digitally scanned and placed into printer-ready files which are then sent to an offset printer in Maine. 

4. Printing.
The card is grouped together with 15 of its siblings and delivered digitally to our amazing printer. There the cards are offset printed. Offset printing, also called offset lithography, is a method of printing in which the images that have been transferred onto metal plates are then transferred (offset) to rollers and then to the paper.

Before the job can be printed, the document must be converted to metal plates. The card images on those plates are transferred to inked rollers and then to the paper in the press. The printed paper is brought to a foil stamping press, where the foil is heat-stamped individually to the paper to create those beautiful touches of shiny foil. The paper is then cut to size, folded and shipped back to our studio in Newport, Rhode Island. 

5. Delivery Day!
The arrival of a card shipment is a big day!

Welcome to the world, our new baby card! We love you.
 

6. Organized.
Our brand new card is then carefully itemized and organized in our inventory system by Inventory Manager Extraordinaire Tabitha so that we can fulfill orders lickety-split. 

7. Protected.
New cards need to be protected! Our sweet little thing is carefully bundled in a cozy cello sleeve by lovely Pit Crew member Kate. 

8. Off to a new home.
What's that you say? You would like to own this card? Julie, Fulfillment Guru, creates a comfortable travel experience for our card and sends him off to his new home. 

9. We're all connected.
You have the pleasure of spreading good vibes into the world by sending a card to someone that has been created with love and worked on by so many awesome peeps. Congrats, we're all part of the same beautiful family. okloveyoubye xo