Moo and Gloves

Moo cards can be printed with as many images as you want for no additional cost.

My Moo cards are here! At the past Urban Sketchers symposiums I attended (Barcelona in 2013 and Paraty, Brazil, in 2014), I kept seeing other sketchers passing out Moo mini cards – tiny business cards with a variety of their sketches printed on them. I passed out my own DIY cards, which served the same purpose, and I liked the fact that I had made them myself. But although using a standard biz card template and printing them on my inkjet printer was a snap, cutting them all apart with a rotary cutter? Not so much. In fact, it was a pain, literally – in the arm.

Contemplating all that cutting again this year, I decided I would go for Moo cards instead. They actually took longer to produce than printing my own because finding sketches that would fit the tiny template format (half the size of a standard business card) wasn’t easy. But I made up for the time by not having to cut them! In fact, I even sprang for rounded corners (which make all paper things look better). And while I was at it, I got a set of regular-size biz cards, too (my sketches fit the format a little better).

Vista-Glove: a simple plastic sleeve
protecting my sketchbook signature.

In other news: Vista-Gloves

In my post a couple weeks ago about how sad I was that I wasn’t using my beautiful Stefano sketchbook cover anymore, a blog reader mentioned Vista-Gloves – thin, plastic sleeves used by libraries to protect book covers. Although I fill my four-sheet (eight-page) signatures quickly enough that general wear and tear hasn’t been an issue, I have been concerned about inadvertently setting it down on a wet surface or getting splashed by coffee. Plus there’s always the sketchbook “throw down” at the end of each sketch outing, when all our books get spread out on the pavement. Anyway, I’d never thought of using something like Vista-Gloves, but that seemed like a simple preventive solution.

I found them in a pack of 10 for $15.95 on Amazon. Available in many sizes, they are easy to slip on and off, fit snugly without wrinkling, and can be reused many times. (I bet I can reuse the same one for a year or more.) When I’m sketching on only one side of a spread, I can fold back the other side as I usually do without hindrance. Interestingly, that thin layer of plastic adds enough additional body to the signature that it feels just a little more sturdy. It’s a very simple, nearly weightless, non-bulky way to protect the signatures from everyday-carry spills and sidewalk grime. (Thanks for the suggestion, Wendi!)