Shipping - Costs, Timing and Geography
World's Smallest Post Service (non-shipping related)
Leafcutter Designs and Our Goods
Privacy / Information Sharing
Returns

Shipping - Costs, Timing and Geography

Why does my PayPal payment confirmation show a shipping address that's different from what I submitted in the online form when ordering a tiny letter, card, or package?
No worries! The checkout and payment system via PayPal is totally separate from the form you submit with the content and addresses for your tiny letter, card, or package. We ignore the shipping address associated with your PayPal account or credit card and ship to whatever address you submitted in the online form. This allows you to send letters to multiple addresses in the same order.

Where will my order ship from?
Everything, including tiny letters, cards, and packages and other goods, ships from Oakland, CA.

Do you ship internationally?
Yes! We will ship to essentially any address anywhere in the world.

How are shipping and handling costs calculated?
US Destinations: $4.00 for the first tiny letter, card, or package, and $3.00 for each additional tiny letter, card, or package in the same order. Other goods incur shipping charges according to weight, with discounts given along a sliding scale as total order size increases.

International Destinations: $6.00 for the first tiny letter, card, or package, and $4.00 for each additional tiny letter, card, or package in the same order. Other goods incur shipping charges according to weight, with discounts given along a sliding scale as total order size increases.

How long will it take for my order to arrive?
All items including tiny letters, cards, and packages, as well as other goods ship within five (5) days via US Postal Service 1st class mail (we wish we could ship via hummingbird, but after looking into it, we realized it's just too complicated). Our experience has been that orders destined for US addresses arrive within an additional two (2) to five (5) days after the ship date. Delivery times for international orders are highly variable and depend in large part on the performance of the destination country's postal service. International orders, Canada excepted, may take a couple weeks or more to arrive.

Has my order shipped yet?
Maybe. All tiny letters, cards, and packages, as well as other goods are made to order in our studio in Oakland, CA. We do not have warehouses full of goods or robots walking around processing orders and tracking everything. Real people are doing all of this work by hand, which means you will not recieve an automated shipping notification. We're working on an online order status feature, but it won't be ready for a bit. If timing is extremely important to you or you feel that your order is well past due, you can reach out to us via email at lea@leafcutterdesigns.com. We'll figure out what's going on and get back to you.

Can I upgrade to a faster shipping speed?
Usually the answer is yes, but during peak seasons around the holidays and Valentine's Day we often cannot do rush orders. We are a small operation, everything is made by hand, and we have to batch our production and shipping in ways that makes rush requests difficult to handle. When available, and for US destinations, an upgrade to USPS Priority Mail is an additional $10 for each unique destination address. USPS Express Mail upgrades (1-2 day delivery) are an addtional $25 for each unique destination address. If you'd like to upgrade to faster shipping, please contact us at: lea@leafcutterdesigns.com and we'll let you know whether rush service is available.

My friend's birthday is on X date - can I order now and ask you to delay shipping so that it doesn't arrive too early?
We wish we could provide this extra service but we haven't yet figured out how to do it without driving ourselves crazy. And we don't want to mess up anyone's birthday! We cannot accept delayed-ship orders but would suggest two simple workarounds: 1) use the production time and shipping info above to estimate how long it will take your tiny letter, card, or package to arrive, and then work backwards to figure out when you should place your order, or 2) as the last line of the "To" address submission in the online order form, include something like "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL X DATE" to instruct your recipient to wait until the right day. If it's very important that it arrive before a particular date, please order plenty of time in advance!

World's Smallest Post Service (non-shipping related)

Can you transcribe tiny letters in languages other than English?
Yes! Mostly! Even other alphabets like Russian and Greek! Just make sure you type it into the online form exactly how you want it to appear in your tiny letter because we will have no clue what we're transcribing. One time we transcribed a letter in Italian and the only words we could understand were "little letter" and "love." Chinese and Japanese characters do not always come through smoothly, but we'll contact you if there's an issue and ask that you confirm your message. Please note, however, that emoticons and special symbols (hearts, thumbs up, etc.) will not flow through to the text of your tiny letter.

How come tiny letters ordered online are typed instead of hand-written?
While in-person tiny letters are transcribed by hand by Lea in her hand-sewn postal uniform, tiny letters ordered online are typed and printed in a "handwriting" font that is three times smaller than the hand-written letters! Why? This printed font is ridiculously small, which makes the magnifying glass all the more necessary and lets you write a much longer message. If you have your heart set on a handwritten letter, please email us at lea@leafcutterdesigns.com and we will reply with a quote. Keep in mind that this hand-written service is significantly more expensive.

How and when did the WSPS begin?
In the summer of 2008, the idea just popped into Lea's head and it was so hilarious that she had no choice but to materialize it. For the first "performance," Lea strapped her miniature desk to her back inside her grandmother's old wicker suitcase, filled the milk crate on her bicycle with tools and supplies, and coasted down to Sweet Adeline Bakeshop in Oakland, CA, nervous as all heck. Lea was delighted to find that there are lots of people out there that are equally charmed by these little curios.

Leafcutter Designs and Our Goods

Are your goods environmentally and socially sustainable?
We try to make things as close to home as possible with the most earth-friendly and people-friendly materials and processes we can. This can be tricky as a little company without much buying power, but you can see our philosophy reflected in our organic certified fabrics, recycled papers, and reused packaging materials. With so many tiny goods in our collection, we're certainly good at the first of the 3 "R"s: Reduce! All items are made by Lea, her friends and family, and a little hired help here in California. Everyone in our workshop makes a good wage and helps herself to tea with local honey and organic milk whenever she wishes. We converse about life and love and art while we work. Our worker bees like us so much that sometimes they show up with home-baked goods for everyone.

I am a retailer interested in selling Leafcutter Designs products - how do I get started?
Our products are available in a number of lovely stores around the world. If you'd like to bring our curious items to your community, please visit our retailer page and fill out the brief form. We'll get back to you right away with more information and details!

Privacy / Information Sharing

How will my personal information be used/stored? What is your privacy policy?
Leafcutter Designs does not collect any credit card or billing information. This is handled through PayPal and they have taken substantial measures to protect the confidentiality of your information. Regardless, the personal information that you do share with Leafcutter Designs (name, shipping address, email, etc.) is used only for order processing and our occasional newsletter, and remains confidential. We will never sell, share, give, leak, or distribute your personal information in any way.

Returns

What is your return policy?
We do our best to provide great photos online so you know exactly what you are getting. But if you must, you may return an item - in perfect, sparkly, original condition - for a full refund within 14 days of receiving it. The cost of return shipping is the buyer's responsibility. Of course, if your items arrived damaged (or never arrive at all) let us know and we will remedy the situation right away!