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Bordered fold-over note - which side to use?


flnu

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I am very new to this. I have Crane's hand-bordered fold-over notes. I don't what orientation I'm supposed to write on. On the bordered side? On the inside? If you're supposed to write on the inside (border not visible), do you put the words to the right of the fold (so it opens and reads like a book) or below the fold (writing on the bottom half of the paper) Thank you.

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I am hardly an example of appropriate behavior, but I say do whatever you damn well please. That's what I do.

:clap1: I'm so glad that you said that :roflmho: I would be inclinded to not write on the bordered outside of the note and then skip to the inside right or bottom quadrant. I don't know WHY I'd do that as it wastes all that paper... I just would. :headsmack:

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I second that. Drop the nib where the mood strikes you. There are no rules, really.

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

- Douglas Adams

 

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Customarily, one writes inside the fold, either on the bottom half or the right-hand side, depending on orientation. Which way such a note card is customarily oriented depends on the shape of the card and the border, but the majority of them have been balanced so that one writes on the bottom, inside part.

 

Please notice the uses of the word "customarily." My post is intended as general information, not an instruction. ;)

I came here for the pictures and stayed for the conversation.

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Customarily, one writes inside the fold, either on the bottom half or the right-hand side, depending on orientation. Which way such a note card is customarily oriented depends on the shape of the card and the border, but the majority of them have been balanced so that one writes on the bottom, inside part...

 

Wendy is, as usual, quite correct.

 

Bordered top-fold note cards are traditionally feminine, and the border is the outside of the top-fold card. The border was intended to frame a centered custom engraved monogram.

 

The common exception to bordered cards being feminine is Mourning Stationery, which is trimmed in a thin black border. Mourning Stationery is more commonly full sheets or flat note cards, but when printed as top-fold cards the black border is printed on both sides of the card - inside and outside. The black border was usually replicated around the edge of the envelope as well. Mourning Stationery is properly used by both men and women. Unfortunately a number of contemporary retailers are marketing black edged stationery as a masculine social stationery, without an explanation of the design's more traditional and more solemn purpose.

Ray

Atlanta, Georgia

 

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For shorter messages (where only one page is needed) you would write on the inside/bottom half. If you need more room (plan in advance ;)) you may use the first, bordered page as well.

 

If the folded note has a centered monogram or initials you would not use the first page, though if the engraving is at the top it is fine to write below it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I sometimes use folded sheets which have a right-hand deckled edge only on the front page (when oriented as a book). I'm not sure if the conventions for a bordered front are different, but the standard etiquette for those is to write on the front page, even if you don't need to continue past that page. This convention will seem strange to most people, who have grown up writing inside a card.

 

If your note is longer, it may be continued on the right-hand side of the inside; for even longer messages, you then move to the left-hand side, and finally to the back. Although I have also encountered half-size pages inserted loosely into the fold, for further space, my own take is that this is no longer a note and would have been better written on regular-size letter stationery.

 

It is very important to consider ahead of time the length of what you will write, and the most pleasing page layout that you can achieve.

 

I myself am so adept at planning that I find myself frequently writing up and down the margins I've left, thereby probably violating every standard of etiquette and aesthetics ever devised.

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Figure out how you want them to pull it out of the envelope and then open it. Then write accordingly. If the border would enhance the appearance of your writing then use it that way. If the border makes the card nicer on initial sight then use it that way. Just take a moment and think how you want it to make its impression.

 

As for all this silliness of masculine and feminine foldover cards. I have a tendency to write love notes to my wife. I get a very blank foldover card and create a picture on the front and then write inside. Is it masculine? I am a man. I don't need to be told how to be one, I am one. Stick with what works and think about how you are making it happen. It is a good question you ask, I just changed it slightly in my first paragraph. Thus my answer.

 

Rick

Need money for pens, must make good notebooks. :)

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I almost always end up with more to write than I thought, and I end up writing on both sides of the card, both sides of the fold. Oh well. No one's complained yet... ;-) I would probably be more careful with something actually formal, but anyway...

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  • 3 years later...

I"m using a top fold note also; where should I start a note that that will require two "sides?" Should I start the note on the inside but OVER the fold and continue under the fold? Or should I start on the inside, under the fold and continue to the back?

 

I'm using rather formal stationery, so I'd like to obey the etiquette, whatever that may be. Thank you in advance.

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Whenever I have used a folded note, some bordered (got a heck of a deal on some bordered ones) and some not, I open it up so it looks like an unfolded sheet of writing paper. If I have to say a little, I start below the fold, if more I start above and as some have pointed out, using the back if needed.

 

I would be hard-pressed to name someone whose 'etiquette' will override my own rules for how I want to write on my own paper...just saying. I can agree or disagree, but letting someone else decided I cannot write above the fold or wherever? Pish and tosh.

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  • 2 years later...

The proper way is to use the section under the fold when opened (page 3). If you have more than will fit, you should use different stationary. That's the formal use, but if it's just a friend or whatever, I suppose anywhere, but I'd continue above the fold (page 2).

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