The Girls Friday


Because packaging is the first impression, I spent my free time this week creating some attractive (and book-like) envelopes for my typewriter trading card sets. I wasn't sure what sort of packaging I wanted for them at first, so I did some looking around at different options. I settled on a template for an Artist Trading Card Envelope that I found on Mirkwood Designs (they have great templates for all sorts of paper-folding projects, including one for a Library Card Book Pocket). I had to adjust the measurements to fit my cards because I made them a little bit larger than the standard 2.5 x 3.5" trading cards.

I measured out the envelope template on a manila folder because it would give the envelope sturdiness, and then cut it out. Then, I glued the envelope to the back of some beautiful printed papers from Paper Mojo. After the envelope template was covered with the decorative paper, I folded the tabs down, creased them well with my bone folder, and glued them in place.

Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday (1940)
Then I had to pick out a sort of title for this trading card set. I decided on "The Girls Friday" after watching the 1940 Cary Grant film His Girl Friday with Rosalind Russell as reporter ace Hildegard "Hildy" Johnson. To be truthful, I first got the idea after reading this blog post from Uppercase Magazine. But I didn't feel I'd be truly qualified to use the name unless I at least watched the movie first (which I ended up enjoying very much). It just felt perfect. I wanted something that evoked the idea of office girls, secretaries, etc. I took the fact of the main character's name being identical to the name I gave to my first typewriter as a sign that this was definitely the right title for my project.

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