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

Ok, so maybe this is more of an item for kids. Still, it’s a good way to get them involved in the holiday spirit and give them something to do while you’re running around trying to get the house ready for guests. This is the Make Your Own Holiday Cards package from Made By Hands. It features 10 note cards with matching envelopes and a host of different pop-outs that you can affix using the glue stick provided.

The cards look colorful, and the pop-outs look decent - although the more creative little ones are going to want to skip the pop outs and make their own to glue on. Not sure about the recommended age range on these.

I think I already may have posted about Iota’s wrapping paper previously, but just a note that they have a selection of rolls on Amazon as well. This one comes as a set of six different colorful, retro-looking gift wrapping papers. The names are: Betty, Bullseye (I believe this is the one we featured earlier), Citrus, Groovy, Haywire and Offset. Each of the rolls has two sheets of 20″ x 29″ in that particular pattern - you might want to keep that in mind if you’re wrapping something unusually big. The sheets are not connected. I like these wrapping papers because they are different than the usual boring ones you find at Big Lots and you can use them for things other than the holidays.

Yes, we’re already coming up on the holidays - every year it seem to loom quicker and quicker. This year, if you’re looking for some extra special Xmas wrapping paper you might want to check out some of these designer pattern sheets depicting Tiffany Stained Glass. This might be a really nice touch for a gift meant for an antique collector, artist or someone who works with stained glass techniques.

The “patterns” include Wisteria, Dragonfly, Pointsettias, and Birds. At more than a dollar for 1 18×24 inch sheet, you probably want to make sure that your recipient will actually appreciate the paper! However, this is definitely gift wrap cut from a different cloth for those really special occasions. The sheets do come with gift cards that match each of the patterns.

I wandered into The Paper Princess website the other day which features the vintage inspired paper craft of Leslie Saito. There are quite a few cute paper products here to browse through, including nostalgic bookplates, folded and flat cards, gift tags, “petite pennants”, calenders, calling cards, and journals. Everything is beautifully designed, and a bit whimsical. If you’re looking for unique, vintage-looking stationery and paper goods, you might want to stock up on some supplies here.

Shown above are some really fun “Oh Dear!” notecards printed on glossy front 14pt. heavy stock. They have rounded corners and come with matching envelopes envelopes.

Some very nice general usage scrapbook paper is available at Scrapbook.com. I believe these “Doubletake” papers from Collage Press were on clearance for cheap the last time I looked. Double-sided papers like these are great for their multi-usage properties. Shown here are several examples of these muted yet colorful patterned papers in the cheery Citrus, Fresh and Seeds collections.

More great cards to show - this time from Foxy & Winston. Jane Buck is an illustrator who came to Brooklyn by way of England and creates various hand screen printed goods.

These blank cards are beautiful, single color animal prints made on 30% post consumer recycled paper and include corresponding envelopes. I like the designs because they are simple, yet playful and as cards they could be used for many occasions.

These are the screenshots from two of her colorful cards - the first is of a mom and little giraffe and the other is of a faun in a woodland setting.

Woodland Faun, Giraffes
4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ - $4.50 / card
available at Foxy & Winston

Sorry for the lack of posts on paper lately. I’m thinking of moving to a posting format that’s a bit shorter than the longer reviews and features on the site, but including more pics to look at.

I actually found these letterpress cards from Lizard Press featured on the Design Sponge blog which is great place to find out about different types of paper art, designer paper, cards and invitations.

Lizard Press makes individually designed, hand printed letterpress cards and posters using vintage wood and lead type on both recycled and cotton paper.

I liked the blue and white seascape letterpress designs which are shots of the Berkeley Marina and are printed on off-white Johannot mouldmade cotton paper.

These bright “Astral Notes” are also nice and are printed on recycled Confetti paper. Both cards come with matching envelopes.

Sea Notes - $4.50 / card
Astral Notes Sun - $3.75 / card
available at Lizard Press on Etsy

With June nearly on the horizon, wedding season has already started up. If you’re getting married this summer and you haven’t yet sent out your invites, you’re behind! But if you’re planning for NEXT year you’re in better shape.

I saw these nice non-traditional San Lori wedding invites over at Paperie & Co.. They have quite a few different invites that are more whimsical in design then old and stodgy. The invites are printed on plain flat paper, come with bulk envelopes and measure about 6 x 9 inches. Prices start at 10 for $14 for blank if you want to print them yourself, or about $5 each for color printed invites.

San Lori Invitations
available at Paperie & Co.

A great way to build up your supply of nice papers on hand is to watch for companies that sell “scrap packs“, which are just loose collections of different single sheets of paper. Often, the companies put color themed packs together from opened reams or stock that they are discontinuing. You will often find these at physical paper stores, but some online ones like Paper Mojo also sell them occasionally.

They currently are running a few specials on scrap packs with a potpourri of 7 different beautiful papers (with 2 of each sheet) in different color schemes. I picked out the blue-green “Caribbean Collection” paper pack to show above. As you can see, there is a good mix of textures and prints in each pack. Each paper sheet is approximately 10″ x 7″. They have a limited supply of each pack, I think they start with around 30 of each pack though many are selling out due to popularity.

Scrap Packs - $4.75 / 14 sheets
available at Paper Mojo.com

You may remember that Martha Stewart actually stopped selling items on their website awhile back. That was a bit of a bummer, because they had some rather nice things (A side note: some of the retired products she sold online currently command a pretty penny on Ebay).

Well, it turns out they’ve made somewhat of a comeback which actually dovetails nicely with our coverage of Paper Arts. The new online store is called Martha Stewart Crafts which has over 500 different crafting products to choose from. Categories you might be interested in include Paper & Stationery, which has everything from notecards to tissue paper, Scrapbooking & Albums, Tools & Adhesives, and Kits.

We’ll probably feature more products from their store in the future, but we just wanted to give you a head’s up in case you haven’t heard of the store. Here’s an example of some of the kind of cool things that they have available. I saw this fun Paper Bag Puppet Kit which includes materials and parts to create six great animal hand puppets. This might be a great rainy day activity for kids. There’s a lobster, pig, dog, lion, frog and a bird in the kit which runs about $20.