How to "picture-frame" e-mail correspondence as a gift?
December 17, 2015 7:39 AM Subscribe
Within my family, a professionally framed piece of paper, such as a diploma or an old 'artifactual' letter is sometimes given as a gift. In other words, framing a 'piece of paper' that has special meaning for the gift giver and recipient in a way that preserves it. This is straightforward for a single one-page piece of paper printed on reasonable quality paper. How can I do this with a set of really meaningful e-mails?
This year, I'm advised that the best possible gift I could give my mother is an e-mail correspondence in a commemorative 'framing'. This is not a single, one-page letter sent in the old fashioned post with letterhead and a nice signature, however. It's a back-and-forth among three parties.
I'm advised to "frame it" but I don't think that framing it will work very well. Are there other clever ideas for memorializing really meaningful e-mails? I can reasonably cut this down to three e-mails. To complicate this, I've got an accompanying paper letter on letterhead that would naturally go with the e-mails. I'm at a loss as to how to commemorate e-mails in a physical form, and how to combine 3 e-mails and one paper letter.
This year, I'm advised that the best possible gift I could give my mother is an e-mail correspondence in a commemorative 'framing'. This is not a single, one-page letter sent in the old fashioned post with letterhead and a nice signature, however. It's a back-and-forth among three parties.
I'm advised to "frame it" but I don't think that framing it will work very well. Are there other clever ideas for memorializing really meaningful e-mails? I can reasonably cut this down to three e-mails. To complicate this, I've got an accompanying paper letter on letterhead that would naturally go with the e-mails. I'm at a loss as to how to commemorate e-mails in a physical form, and how to combine 3 e-mails and one paper letter.
Go to shutterfly or a similar service and upload the emails and letter as images, then have them printed as a book. You could also include photos. Seems more practical than framing and the albums they produce are quite nice.
posted by Wretch729 at 7:52 AM on December 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Wretch729 at 7:52 AM on December 17, 2015 [5 favorites]
I'm thinking along similar lines to amaire. Send the e-mails to a calligrapher to hand-write. Perhaps in a fancy handmade blank book.
Having them printed on a letterpress will be disproportionately expensive.
posted by adamrice at 8:00 AM on December 17, 2015
Having them printed on a letterpress will be disproportionately expensive.
posted by adamrice at 8:00 AM on December 17, 2015
Yeah what the others said, think more album/book and not individual frames.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 8:07 AM on December 17, 2015
posted by CrazyLemonade at 8:07 AM on December 17, 2015
Digital frame with a slideshow seems appropriate for digital media. You could then maybe include pictures of the relevant parties as well as a scan of the letter.
Do they have to be in one frame? Four nicely framed pieces to hang in a group might also look nice.(the the emails and the letter).
posted by wwax at 8:10 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Do they have to be in one frame? Four nicely framed pieces to hang in a group might also look nice.(the the emails and the letter).
posted by wwax at 8:10 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Instead of letterpress, you can format them into an attractive image (or images) and then have the image printed on wood or glass. Unfortunately not sure you'll get them by Christmas day at this point.
Alternately you could use some sort of collage frame.
posted by mikepop at 8:10 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Alternately you could use some sort of collage frame.
posted by mikepop at 8:10 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
The thing is that your mother wants the content of the emails, not the gmail (or whatever) formatting commerated, right? Printing the emails from the email itself will give you some gmail (or whatever) logo/formatting/headers/footers all over the place. Pasting into something like notepad is blah.
I would go onto Elance (or whatever it's called now) and hire a designer who specializes in something at the intersection of document design and graphic design and get them to put the content (some portion of the headers + actual text of the email) into some really nicely designed document. I would then print that and frame it. You could even make it look like old-timey letter correspondence if you want, though I'm not sure that would fit well. Maybe stick in some very light graphic touches relevant to the content.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:11 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
I would go onto Elance (or whatever it's called now) and hire a designer who specializes in something at the intersection of document design and graphic design and get them to put the content (some portion of the headers + actual text of the email) into some really nicely designed document. I would then print that and frame it. You could even make it look like old-timey letter correspondence if you want, though I'm not sure that would fit well. Maybe stick in some very light graphic touches relevant to the content.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:11 AM on December 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Turn them into a collage poster and have that framed.
posted by joycehealy at 8:18 AM on December 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by joycehealy at 8:18 AM on December 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
This place has long scrolls that could be hung on a wall: http://www.scrollweddinginvitations.com I don't know if it would work, but it might be a starting place. (Just a google result for the idea, not a recommendation)
posted by Vaike at 8:30 AM on December 17, 2015
posted by Vaike at 8:30 AM on December 17, 2015
I like the idea of a book/album, especially if there are some nice photos you have of the people /events involved that you could include as well.
posted by rainbowbrite at 9:54 AM on December 17, 2015
posted by rainbowbrite at 9:54 AM on December 17, 2015
I would copy and paste the e-mail chain into the following format:
If you want to kick it up a notch, go to a printing place and see if you can get them to print it white-text-on-black.
posted by INFJ at 11:24 AM on December 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
From: BobInto Microsoft Word. Pick a serif font (such as Times New Roman), and fiddle with the font sizes until it all fits on one page. (if it's too small to read all on one page, then resize to fill up two pages) Print it out and get it framed like any other document.
To: Sally
Date: 12/17/2015
Content of the e-mail. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut convallis purus in tempus fringilla. Nullam ligula enim, consequat at dapibus in, hendrerit vel quam. Cras a purus nec ipsum aliquet vestibulum sit amet a nisl. Mauris dictum eleifend mauris sed semper. Curabitur at rutrum metus, et euismod nulla. Vestibulum eu enim a elit mattis ultrices. Nulla aliquam ac magna facilisis ornare. Mauris risus leo, cursus et magna ac, congue tempor lorem.
From: Sally
To: Jane
Date: 12/17/2015
Content of the e-mail. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut convallis purus in tempus fringilla. Nullam ligula enim, consequat at dapibus in, hendrerit vel quam. Cras a purus nec ipsum aliquet vestibulum sit amet a nisl. Mauris dictum eleifend mauris sed semper. Curabitur at rutrum metus, et euismod nulla. Vestibulum eu enim a elit mattis ultrices. Nulla aliquam ac magna facilisis ornare. Mauris risus leo, cursus et magna ac, congue tempor lorem.
From: Jane
To: Bob and Sally
Date: 12/17/2015
Content of the e-mail. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut convallis purus in tempus fringilla. Nullam ligula enim, consequat at dapibus in, hendrerit vel quam. Cras a purus nec ipsum aliquet vestibulum sit amet a nisl. Mauris dictum eleifend mauris sed semper. Curabitur at rutrum metus, et euismod nulla. Vestibulum eu enim a elit mattis ultrices. Nulla aliquam ac magna facilisis ornare. Mauris risus leo, cursus et magna ac, congue tempor lorem.
If you want to kick it up a notch, go to a printing place and see if you can get them to print it white-text-on-black.
posted by INFJ at 11:24 AM on December 17, 2015 [3 favorites]
I think if you can get the email of each individual text centered on a 5x7 (or print on a full sheet and use a 5x7 stencil if that's easier) you could line them up in a collage frame like this.
Something like this is a little trickier, but once you have the test formatted like INJF has suggested, you'll be able to better access what will fit where. Maybe you can even bring some rough drafts to your local frame store, target, ikea, etc to see how they'll fit together.
posted by rubster at 3:29 PM on December 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
Something like this is a little trickier, but once you have the test formatted like INJF has suggested, you'll be able to better access what will fit where. Maybe you can even bring some rough drafts to your local frame store, target, ikea, etc to see how they'll fit together.
posted by rubster at 3:29 PM on December 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
Personally, if the e-mails are still available on a Web Mail client (rather than Thunderbird or Outlook) I would use the "Clearly" extension for Firefox or Chrome. It really does a nice job of making a Web page look nice. It is meant for creation of a note in Evernote, but I've used it in other ways (the first step is the improvement of the appearance, then you can import into Evernote in the second step if you want).
Just a thought.
posted by forthright at 6:29 PM on December 17, 2015
Just a thought.
posted by forthright at 6:29 PM on December 17, 2015
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posted by amaire at 7:50 AM on December 17, 2015 [2 favorites]