Wednesday, January 21, 2009

WFMW - Newspaper clipping

Welcome to another edition of Works for Me Wednesday. Shannon over at Rocks in my Dryer is talking about how to clean a pan that has burnt on food in it. Her remedy for this problem is one that I told my own mother about when I was in High School. I was a cleaning fanatic then, too. A few hundreds tips can be found at Shannon's so check out my tip, leave me a comment and then POP over and see what else is cookin' at Rocks in My Dryer.

I found a newspaper clipping the other day that I wanted to send to my mother. It was actually her brother's obituary from 1979. Her's had been pasted into one of those sticky albums at the time and trying to get it out of there would just tear it to pieces. The obit that I found in my stash of papers was still flat and pretty well preserved, amazingly. I decided to send it to her, since I had scanned it, I really didn't need to keep the actual clipping. To get this fragile piece of paper to her in as good condition that's possible through the postal service can be quite tricky...so here's what I came up with.

1. Newspaper clipping
2. Magazine
3. Post-It note
4. Tyvek mailer

Take the newspaper clipping and put it into the middle of a magazine that you think your recipient just might like to read. I found a fairly thin magazine here at my house about outdoor spaces. I live in a condo now, so I don't need this magazine anymore. Place a Post-It note on the page where you have placed the clipping. Make sure it sticks out over the top of the page, so it's easy to see. Place magazine, with the newspaper clipping into a tyvek mailer or any other flat mailer that won't get damaged if it gets a little damp from rain or snow. Address, stamp and send! Be sure to send this first class. You want to make sure it gets handled fairly gently...but the whole reason for putting the clipping in a magazine is that the magazine can be bent and rolled without doing any damage to the clipping. All those pages keep that paper nice and safe.

I know that they sell those photo mailers or you could put cardboard in an envelope, but I really think the magazine idea will work fabulously with very little additional cost if you don't have to purchase a new magazine.

Mom, the clipping will be on its way by the end of the week!

Have a great day!
Kristin

Edited to add...Mailed! I mailed it this afternoon.

6 comments:

Krisi and Adam said...

Great idea - and you get to rid your house of one more magazine!

Nikki said...

That is very smart! I always have magazines waiting to be read again by someone else. Now I can mail my stuff safely and recycle the magazine. Thanks :)

"J" said...

Great idea!!!!! =)

Anonymous said...

I'm going to use this idea to send photos! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

What a great idea! The only problem is I need to actually *read* the stack of magazines so they'll be ready to pass on! LOL!

Anonymous said...

Hi! I found your blog on the NaBloPoMo January 2009 Blogroll.

What an awesome idea! I'm going to send this article to my Mom since she is a genealogist and deals with fragile bits of paper all the time - this might be something she doesn't know!