no 23. designing tea card 2024

Well, one year into Windhoek and I finally pulled together a tea card for friends and family. Woohoo! Never heard of a tea card? It's a card that I make where I add a local tea and share an update and package it in a cute way so I can share a snail mail treat. You can head back to this post to learn more.

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To be honest, as soon as I wrote that blog post about my tea cards, I realized that I really missed putting them together and decided I would find a way. So I started doodling some ideas about a card, and definitely wanted to share some of the animals that we've been so lucky to see here. And then I saw a paper cut card and thought how it might be fun to show the layers of the savannah in a special way.

Folding the layers took some time to figure out. I bent and snipped and pasted a couple of different versions so I cold get a layer effect to happen. I did the first one by eyeball. But the measurements were so bizarre. Eventually, I cut the paper and measured everything to minimize the folding error when the thicker printed paper would inevitably cause some discrepancy. I didn't want to waste paper so I made an outline on A3 and put two letters on a page.

The easier part was drawing and designing some animals, placement and color. I lean towards a bit of playful pastel when I'm in my happy place, so I decided to paint the animals in candy-coated arrangements. The result is bizarre but fun, and adds a bit of whimsy to the already proposterous idea that I'm living in Africa.

Close-up on first draft design of safari animal folded tea card design by Smarti.

Illustrations of giraffe, impala and oryx by Smarti.

Close-up of final design of safari animal tea card design by Smarti.

left to right, 1) photo of first draft, 2) animal illustrations, 3) final design @smartigraphicdesign

When I went to the store, I couldn't find any tea that matched the whimsy. But I went with a basic rooibos tea - which is an herbal bush tea that's very popular here. I found a variety with some flavoring variations, and then taped them to a postcard in case people want to write me back a response, or just share it with someone else. I like giving people options.

I found a local printers that was able to make the designs come to life. (Thank you getgraphics!) But unfortunately, they don't have any speciality paper. So I had to go with a basic matte to get saturated colors and a 120g so it would be thin enough to fold. I brought the pages home and cut each one out by hand with a faulty exacto knife. Lesson learned in the morning when each page looked hacked and had paper bits still connecting the sheets. I went in by specialty scissors by hand to fix what I could.

Close-up of tea choice and illustrated safari animals by Smarti.

Close-up of master letter and cut-out fold by Smarti.

Visit to the post office in Windhoek by Smarti.

left to right, 1) roiboos tea packets/postcards, 2) editing a master letter, 3) post office visit @smartigraphicdesign

I wrote a master letter this year because there was too much to share and I knew I wasn't going to have enough time to share all the bits. But I personalized each one at the bottom and then stuffed in the tea to the envelope. For my family in Spain, I had to write out a completely different letter for each one since I know they will brag to each other and I wanted to give each of them something special to share. The personalized writing part took about 3 days to complete.

At the post office, I got a special attendant who helped me to address and stamp each one. One letter, no big deal. 60 letters to different countries? It gets a little complicated. He was flabberghasted at the price near the end, but I was ready for that. Each time I've done this, the cumulative cost is always more than I've anticipated. Thankfully, the postage prices here is incredibly low. But that also means that they might not pay their postal workers enough to care, so who knows if they will ever make it out to their destinations?

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I'm eagerly awaiting when the first news of the cards will start trickling in. I have a feeling it will take somewhere upwards of 3 months since I tested the mail out with one of my sisters last year. But who knows? My biggest worry is that someone's card will go missing and they'll think they were skipped on purpose. Thankfully, I've got backup cards at the ready.

cheers to receiving snail mail and here's to hoping your tea card arrives soon!

smarti