Mapnotes

I’m loving these luggage tag note cards. I just wish you could customize them in case you don’t live in one of these fantastic cities. (Like me! )

Available from Maptotes

NYC Paper Delights

On a quick side note, I have to say you guys are knocking it out of the park on the paper swap. I’m extremely impressed. I just uploaded a few shots of some of the great stuff I’ve received to my flickr page and if you’re thinking about particapating next year, you should definitely check it out.

Anyway, this past weekend I finally returned to NYC and spent WAY too much on cute cards and stationery. I’m definitely not buying anything else til Renegade in July.

Greenwich Letterpress is my new fav store ever. Here’s a sampling of what I picked up:

I loove Austin Press! This is the first time that I’ve seen their stuff anywhere else but Anthropologie. What a treat!

Perhapys my favorite card ever from Dude and Chick.

Some of the loveliest things in the shop are made in house.

The Regional Assembly of Text. The bird card is of a similar design to this card: there is a wheel you can rotate to change the greeting to say “hello there”, “thinking of you often”, “miss you dearly”, or “wish you were here”.

After Greenwich Letterpress exceeded all of my expectations, I stumbled upon Jonthan Adler’s shop. I looove his designs and he makes gorgeous stationery:

Finally, after a somewhat disappointing trip to the New Museum, I found these shadow puppet cards that I have been drooling over FOREVER:

Technically, they aren’t cards because they don’t come with envelopes, but I don’t care. Besides, who doesn’t want a card that doubles as a toy? You can buy them online at Cog and Pearl.

All in all, it was a fabulous trip! I can’t wait to go back again.

Would You Like to Buy a Vowel?

Finally! I think I’ve waited long enough for my packages to reach their destinations. Here’s my little project for this year’s paper swap with a school theme:

Ta da! I made a  letter set highlighting vowels for all of my lovely swap partners. I thought a little outside the box on the theme and I’m happy with how it turned out! Each set comes with 4 sheets (2 designs of each) and 4 envelopes. I wanted to make a set for everyone who participated, but I just didn’t have the time! All the envelopes are hand-stamped by yours truly:

It was quite an undertaking. This is only half the stack:

I used my VERY modest design skills to make the stationery. 26 letters=2 sheets 6” x 7”:

If you look closely, you’ll notice that the lines are actually made up of the letters themselves. Those are some tiny a’s!

I also hand stamped the packaging (made out of a grocery bag). One of my fav parts of the project!

I even stamped the addresses!

It was so fun! Thank you to everyone who participated. My packages are starting to trickle in and so far I’m very impressed with what I’ve gotten. Great job guys!

T-Table

Remember the Red String Secret letter set I blogged about from Wonderland Room? The designer is a Korean company called T-Table and they have an entire line of beautiful cards and mobiles.

I had a bit of a hard time tracking all of these down. Luckily, Australia is an awesome country and there’s an online shop called Pigeonhole that carries most of the line. The Merry-Go-Round card is from Upon a Fold, another amazing Australian shop I encourage you to check out. The prism card is from Lemon Tree77 and the Red String Letter Secret Letter set is from Wonderland Room.

The first five images are by DMotion. The rest of the images are by their respective owners.

A Very Crafty Saturday

I took these weeks ago, but I’ve gotten so behind with everything that’s going on right now that I’m just glad I get to post these at all.

Saturday’s when both my sister and I can get together and craft are rare, so a few weeks ago we took the opportunity to embark on two projects that had been waiting in the wings.

My love for calligraphy is well documented, (here, here, and right here) but I can barely write in a straight line. So my trusty scribe took a shot at it:

It’s hard. (Or so I’m told).

But produces gorgeous results!

And that was only the beginning! Martha Project number two was printing cards using bits of lace. Neither of us had ever printed in any way shape or form so it was a learning process.

Inking the lace:

We used some very architectural lace. This one reminds me of cathedral windows:

The hardest part of this project was applying enough pressure (and paint) to the lace without moving it while it was on the paper. (I actually did help even though it looks like I just took pictures).

This lace was my favorite:

Not too bad for a first try!

Some excellent spring/Easter cards:

Check out the tutorial here. Thanks Martha!

Monthly Etsy Inspiration

Color!

From the top:

Spring card by Essimar

Red/Blue Pencil note set by Zoe Tropa

Juicy note card by Juniperberry

Feminists series oversized post cards by Anagram Press

Dance Cards Part I

Lately I’m feeling very inspired by vintage dance cards. Our good friends at Wikipedia tell me that dance cards were used by women starting in the 18th century to record the names of gentlemen she intended to dance with at a formal ball. An actual dance card is typically a booklet with a decorative cover, listing dance titles, composers, and the person with whom the woman intended to dance. Typically, it would have a cover indicating the sponsoring organization of the ball and a decorative cord by which it could be attached to a lady’s wrist or ball gown.

I’ve found a few from around the web for your viewing pleasure (image credits listed at the bottom of this post):

From the top:

19030s Australian dance card via A Stitch in Time..(This Vintage Life)

1941 Fan dance card via of Lulu’s Vintage

1934 University of South Carolina dance card via The South Caroliniana Archives

1930s School dance cards via Vintagephotosrus

1894 dance card via U.S. Naval Academy Band History

Victorian dance card 1881 Caledonian Club dance card copyright bt  Whimzy Treasures

1902 Icelandic dance card via  Borgarskjalasafn

All imaged by their respective owners.

Wonderland Room and Uguisu

I want everything from these two shops.

Wonderland Room:

Uguisu:

All images by their respective owners.

School Inspired

I’m feeling very inspired by school ever since I announced the paper swap. Here are a few things that I’m loving:

From the top:

Old School Tools print by Jesse Hora Dot Com

Library Birthday card by Papermash

Geometry Set Jotter notebook by Present and Correct

Primary School Thank You cards by Cutie Pie Company

Cafeteria Tray print by Mrs.Loaf

I Hate Cursive button by Zomb

Paper Swap 2010

I’m very happy to announce the third annual paper swap hosted by yours truly!:) I’m doing things a little bit differently this year so please read carefully:

Spread the word! Here are a few buttons for your blog or website and feel free to take the directions and resize them as you need it. Please link back to this post, thanks!