Paper Swap 2010: What I Got

Please excuse my recent absence. I’ve been working on a new project that I’m really excited about, but it’s taking forever and a day to complete. I’m really bad at keeping secrets so I better stop there!

I finally rounded up all of my pictures from what I got in this years Paper Swap. What a great haul! I was really impressed with the overall quality and creativity of the items that I received. Great job to everyone who participated! I also posted these on the Paper Swap 2010 flickr group. Enjoy!

Gocco*Boom

La Familia Green

Hello Precious/Hot Mess

Paper Pastries

The Sweetie Pie Press

The Great Lakes

Crow and Canary

Lark Press

Bottle Rocket Designs

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.

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!

I Have the Greatest Sister Ever!

Look what came in the mail over the weekend!

The inside is even more beautiful! I looove Jane Austen style letters! The calligraphy is so delicate:

These gorgeous hand-written and illustrated valentines have been bouncing all over the web this past month, but I’d never thought I’d get one! Thanks Phe!

By the very talented ladies of Hello Handmade Paperie.

Castle In the Air

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! I celebrated the new year by visiting one of my favorite places ever: Castle in the Air in Berkeley. This time I remembered to ask if I could take some pictures and they said yes!

It took three people to decorate this tree:

I wanted everything.

Sparkly gnomes!

Where I get all my sealing wax:

If you’re ever in the Bay Area, this place is definitely worth stopping for.

Castle In the Air

8505 Hearst St.

Berkeley, CA 94710

Monthly Etsy Inspiration

Science journal letter set by Present and Correct

Blue ship stationery set by Squeedles

Mini flower note set by Ruby Press

Faux Bois letter set by Donovan Beeson

Wiley Valentine + Egg Press

Why is Wiley Valentine so good?!!! I stumbled across some of their 2009 holiday cards via one of my favorite blogs ever, Oh So Beautiful Paper. They used my same postcard idea but did it so much better!

I also love these:

By Egg Press

100th Post! + Renegade Round Up

I made to 100!! Woohooo!!!!!! It took two years, but it was worth it. And now on to the good stuff..

The Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco was this past weekend and I hope you got a chance to stop by and check it out. I was extremely impressed by the turnout, both in terms of the number of booths and people there. There was lots of good stuff and I spent quite a bit of my hard earned money. Here’s what I bought:

Some of these are gifts for friends who read this so guys: act surprised. Let’s start with some old favorites:

The bookplates are from 16 Sparrows who gave me a discount and a goodie bag for being a member of the LWA! Thanks guys! The little rude gift cards are from Sweetie Pie Press, who did the security envelope buttons and secret message envelopes. (I also bought one of the envelopes, they were too cute to resist).

The stationery set is also from 16 Sparrows and the card is from Dutch Door Press.

I also love discovering new brands, like Paper Parasol who did these cute aqua cards. The birthday card is from Sycamore Street Press.

Last but not least, I picked up this bacon card from Sweet Meats.

Painted Tongue Studios

I just bought one of their birthday cards on a trip to Maido (come back to Palo Alto!!!) and then I started doing “research” for the paper swap and I find their store on etsy! I love love LOVE all their cards, they’re so gorgeous. Judge for yourself:

/gush.