The Paper Arts site talks about everything related to paper including stationery, scrapbooking, and DIY paper projects.

I know we’ve covered Jill Bliss’s cards previously, but I saw this on Fred Flare and just had to post about it.

Continuing her popular undersea themes, her newest item is a collection of “necklace notecards” that can either be used as sample cards or actually cut out …

Back this past holiday season I received a 13W EasyFlex Craft Lamp from Ott-Lite. Needless to say, I’d been eyeing all of the Ott-Lite products for quite awhile but didn’t get one because it seems a bit pricey as far as lamps go.

But recently, I saw that Joann.com is having a sale exclusively on their entire stock of Ott-Lites. All of the lamps are 30% off which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it actually is when you consider that the
OTT-LITE 13W Flexible Craft/Table Lamp usually goes for $70 or so.

In addition, they are running some sort of deal where if you buy two or more lamps you can get an ADDITIONAL 15% off. That’s pretty darn good, and it might be reason enough to team up with a crafty friend and get one each to activate that 15% savings.

I got a note from John Petersen from Inkogneato. He has a studio/retail store in Washington state that specializes in an interesting crafting technique called “altered scrapbooking” and I thought that was a sort of neat thing to feature here.

Although the store also sells more straightforward items like handmade paper and spiral bound books, their main focus is on this combination of bookmaking and scrapbooking. They hold classes and demonstrate the techniques at their physical store, but you can also buy the kits to make various projects.

The project kits themselves often focus on unconventional items like the Pocket Tag Book which features actual shipping tags and is meant to be used for travel related scrapbooking. Or the Bag It! Kit, which is actually a scrapbook based upon an ordinary shopping bag.

Here’s some history about inkogNEATo, from their website:

inkogNEATo began creating greeting cards with photographs in 1997, selling at local markets and in select retail stores. By the following year, we were creating journals and albums, and launched our first website (without a .com address). By 1999, we expanded into spiral book binding and personalized guest books and invitations. Our retail store and classroom has been open in historic Downtown Kent, Washington for three years.

I never thought it would be possible to create a true career that revolved around Origami (besides becoming a teacher, of course). But that is apparently what Cindy Ng of Finger Magic decided to do. On her website, she features some amazingly colorful and cute origami. The focus is often on animals, though she also has hearts, flowers and mini-clothes patterns.

But although she does sell the origami itself, the most interesting items for sale are her “Origami Kits” which provide all the materials needed for folding that particular origami shape. She has kits for both the complete beginner as well as those origami sensei’s out there. This is really fun idea and would make a great gift for craft-loving friends and relatives out there who complain that there aren’t any more interesting paper projects left to try. As an origami novice myself, this seems like a very interesting alternative to just buying an instructional origami book.

A little bit from her website:

Reflecting my passion for origami and my background in business, I have refined traditional origami paper, designed a line of whimiscal origami kits, and brought a novel twist of distinct life, character, and personality to origami. Furthermore, those who have struggled with origami can finally enjoy this favorite pastime as these kits are designed to enable any novice to achieve expert results.

If you like pop-up books and you don’t know about Robert Sabuda, you should immediately head over to his website and get to know his work. I’ve found a few references to him as the “king of pop-ups” and that title is well-deserved. I can’t believe the detail of the mechanisms on some of the books he makes.

Drawing on his early love of pop-up books as a child, New York’s Sabuda utilizes his skills as a children’s book illustrator to create amazing works of art. Stunning and complex, his pop-ups challenge the boundaries between books for children and paper art. One of his most popular works is the Encyclopedia Prehistorica. I’ve shown a page from the “Dinosaurs” book in the series here. The footprint for the book is only 7 and a half by 9 and a half inches, but the popups that spring out when you turn the page are often so large that they make you wonder how it’s possible they’re contained in such a small package.

There is also an intriguing Encylopedia Prehistorica Series book coming out on April 30 called Prehistoric Sharks that I may have to get a hold of…

I saw this interesting item called The Cardmaking Kit on amazon the other day. It’s basically a small kit with instructions for making homemade cards. The kit was created by Carey Jones and is published by Chronicle Books.

There are 10 project guide instructions included which …

Hm… so you’re looking for some unique invitations for your latest and greatest shindig get-together. Well, how about this: a company actually named Shindig! I found this company once again through random paper-related web surfing.

Located in Hoboken, New Jersey, this invitiation and stationery outfit takes a very nice approach to coming up with different invitations. You don’t spend hours looking through their books; each invitation is custom fit exclusively for every client. The process is not unlike your typical rounds of graphic design. After meeting up with you (through email, phone or in person) and discussing your invitiation needs, they’ll come up with two mockup design proofs. From these, they’ll narrow it down to just one and then tweak as needed.

Here’s some more information, from their website:

At Shindig we believe in more than ivory card stock and ebony type. We believe that your invitations should be as unique as your event. And, we will work with you to create one-of-a-kind, truly unique invitations that will make you (and your guests) truly party inspired!

Here’s an example of one of their customized invitations, a pretty pink party card with a dye-cut window to the inside along with a nicely tied ribbon. Lest you think that this is their typical design, you should take a look at the site to see the wide variety of invites that they’ve done before.

One of the other wedding invites that I haven’t shown here (because it seems to have been shown in so many other places) actually utilized recyled brown paper along with pinkish paper and green ribbon and was produced for an environmentally aware couple.

As a rule, we try not to focus TOO much attention on big name retail paper stores. However, for this post we decided to mention Papyrus Stores only because they are a good alternative to the usual mallrat (Hallmark, etc.) card companies.

Make no mistake about it, this is a fairly large paper company and you WILL find them at your local mall. But that’s actually a nice thing about Papyrus, because assuming you need some paper supplies in a hurry and the mall is the only option, there’s a chance you might be able to pick up something nice without feeling like you’re in the supermarket card aisle.

A bit ‘o history about the company, which has been around for over 50 years. It’s of course named after the papyrus plant which is said to have contributed the fiber for the earliest form of paper ever. It was started by Marcel and Margrit Schurman (notable for Schurman Fine Papers) and continues to be run today by their daughter Dominique.

Papyrus Stores are known for their presentation of paper goods as much as the actual product itself. The nice thing is that whenever I walk into a Papyrus, it feels like you’re in a museum store or something, instead of a mall store. Clean, well-lighted and with a set up similar to an art gallery, the stores also offer a fairly wide array of paper products from announcements, standard greeting cards, gift bags, stationery and journals.

If you’re mostly used to aisles and aisles of “funny” cards like at Hallmark, you probably won’t dig Papyrus as much. The card selection isn’t as huge as those type of stores, but there is definitely some nicer sets of cards for a select type of paper shopper.

Yet more cards to show you, this time featuring designs from Atlanta, GA graphic designer Laurie Forehand. She has a nice little online shop called 1201am and offers really nice, clean lined notecards and other paper products featuring birds, flowers and plants.

So why’s the site called 1201am? Here’s a little blurb from her website FAQ:

1201am represents the time, 12:01am. Also known as “the first minute of the day”; a notion of freshness, or an awakening of innovation and ideas. With most creative minds being more nocturnal creatures, the name also reflects a familiar time of day, or night, when most ideas hit.

One of her nicest card designs involve the classy yet cute “Chirps!” birds. Pictured here is the Chirps! Magenta notecard set which feature the affable little birds letterpressed onto white cardstock. This stylish set is also available in Avocado (but sold out!) and in Mango (with a smaller Chirps! motif).

Each $12/set set has 6 notes that measure 3 1/2 by 5 inches and is packaged nicely in a chocolate-brown box. This looks like a great gift for your favorite letter writers, or maybe just a treat for yourself.