Forwarding Address

We've moved a lot over the last ten years: Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Washington, D.C. to Wellington, New Zealand, to Boston, and last month, back to Washington. And as much as we love sending and receiving letters, sometimes postal system has a hard time keeping up with us. Enter Mailbox Forwarding, a new service that Urban Daddy alerted us to this week.

They give you a street address (in Michigan - back to Michigan!) and then they take charge of opening your mail, scanning its contents, emailing it to you and keeping you up to date. And if you wish, they'll forward the original copies to wherever you are in the world.

The amazing part: scanning and sending takes about one day, which is so much better than waiting for traditional mail forwarding to kick in. The possibly creepy part: someone's rifling through your mail? We're not sure we'd ever sign up, but we appreciate that Mailbox Forwarding is working to keep snail mail moving forward.

Technique Talk - Letterpress

Letterpress is getting lots of love lately from graphic designers and artists - even big time paper producers are adding custom letterpress stationery and invitations to their lineups. The art form's renaissance began in the mid '90s when letterpress invitations started popping up in high-end bridal magazines like Martha Stewart Weddings. Soon, brides-to-be and paper buffs were hooked.
Letterpress involves locking reverse movable type into a printing press bed, slathering it with ink, and then pressing it into heavy paper to form an impression. The resulting image bears a relief map quality. The style was created by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century, and served as the primary form of printing for about 400 years, until it was made obsolete offset printing, which is faster and less expensive.


Now, thanks to online craft communities like Etsy and Little Paper Planes, hundreds of independent print shops are now able promote and sell their beautiful work online.

We like letterpress for its 3-D quality. Run your hand over a piece of letterpress stationery and you'll feel the grooves in the paper created by the press. And because letterpressing involves pressing a considerable amount of weight from the press onto the paper, the quality of the paper used in this type of printing is always so yummy to the touch.



But luxe letterpress printing doesn't come cheap. Custom made letterpress wedding invitations typically cost several thousands of dollars per 100. If you've created your own design and want to channel your inner Gutenberg, try this:

Last year, ReadyMade magazine taught us how to make our own tabletop letterpress. This has weekend project written all over it. Readers - if you're feeling ambitious, send us photos of your finished work!

Pattern People

We love when crafty designers make room for paper in their design catalog. Take Pattern People of Portland, Oregon. After conquering the print/pattern world with textile work for Nike, Vans and Stussy, designers Claudia Brown and Jessie Vickery teamed up to produce a line of wallpaper, note cards, and other printed goods with bold, kitchy patterns in mod color schemes.

Our favorite is the Cross Stitch card, a shout out to the booming craft movement.
The Stripes card reminds us of one of our favorite artists, Sol Lewitt.

(We took this at the Lewitt exhibit at MassMOCA last summer.)

Pattern People's cards are available online at Tenth and Grant.

Bond Street Birthday Luxuries

Last week was a pretty big birthday - #30. At first I had reservations about turning 30, but with so many good things on the horizon - a new city to explore, new friends to meet and old friends to reconnect with, (new business on the horizon?) this birthday has given me a chance to fall back in love with all of the possibilities our move from Boston to D.C. brings!

And to help me focus my Post Boutique ideas, my super wonderful sister- and soon-to-be-brother-in-law sent me this lovely little "Ideas and Inspirations" notebook from posh British paperie, Smythson.
Smythson opened its first shop on Bond Street in 1887. Clients over the years include fashion icons Queen Victoria, , Madonna....and now me! I'm totally hooked. Next I have my eyes on these Russian doll motif correspondence cards. Great mother's day present, yes?

Channeling Andy

We love the vibrant colors of silk screening on paper or fabric - very Warhol-esque.

This oversized silk screened octopus journal from Dewdrop Designs is hand stitched and made with 120 pound cover paper.

Inside, the pages are hand stitched to the cover using natural beeswaxed and linen bookbinding thread. A little inside surprise - he journal also opens flat so you can write or draw all the way into the margins.

Journal or photo album, yes, but we're thinking this would make a great guest book for a beach-y, tropical wedding?

Back from San Francisco

Back on the East Coast after a fabulous birthday weekend in San Francisco, sampling and California Zinfandels and paperies.

One of our favorite spots: Little Otsu Publishing on Valencia, across from Dave Eggers' pirate shop/writing center. Otsu is an old Japanese word with a million meanings: strange, quaint, stylish, chic, spicy, witty, tasty, romantic (to name a few). We think they should add charming to the list. The designers at Otsu create their own designs. We stocked up on their whimsical pocket planner:


They also carry some of our favorite designers, including needlepoints from SF's own Yellow Owl Workshop and beautiful foldover cards from Berlin water color artist Lart Cognac Berliner.
Can't make it to the west coast during business hours? Check out their fabulous online shop.

Boxing Days

We love Pancake and Franks' Everyday Box, which comes adorably wrapped up in twine in its own little crate, includes 30 cards to cover a year's worth of noteworthy events: 7 birthday cards, 4 thank you notes, 4 holiday cards, 2 Valentines, 2 wedding cards, 1 get well soon, 2 good luck notes, and 8 blank notes to get you through the slow days.

Mind your Manners

Do you address the Save the Date to your great aunt, "Ms. Hattie Rosenberg?

Mrs. John Rosenberg?

Aunt Hattie??

Is open bar at a wedding always a no-no? How long do you have after your wedding to wrap up your thank you notes?

There was a time when civilized ladies knew the answers to these questions - and no, you didn't have to go to Etiquette Avenue to get the answer. Lately we're thankful that we're still retrieving wedding invitations from our mailboxes rather than our inboxes.

Thankfully, Greer, a knock-your-socks-off paper shop in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, has pulled some of the best etiquette books out of the archives. Top on our list? Madeleine Vinton Dahlgren's "Etiquette of Social Life in Washington."

Think of Dahlgren as one of D.C.'s real housewives of the nineteenth century. Her father and her husband were both U.S. Congressmen. Party planning people, Dahlgren understands your pain. Take this expert on finalizing guests lists:

"Everything bade fair to make her dinner a success, except the dreadful fact that up to very last moment she remained uncertain as to the number of her guests. In reply to her written invitations came a score of verbal messages such as, "They hoped to come;" "Would come if they could;" "Could not tell exactly if their engagements would permit"...But in no case was a positive response received. So the banquet had to be prepared on this score...after a famishing delay which spoiled everything, four rueful people sat down to a superb dinner prepared for twenty."

Kate Spade and Crane Paper on Gilt

Today at noon, Gilt is offering up kate spade and Crane & Co. paper. If you're looking for luxe, don't miss this classic paper sell out.

Post It

Check your mail.

Bill...bill...catalogue for clothing you'd never buy...bill...catalog for modern furniture you only dream of buying...Bed Bath and Beyond coupon....

A peek in the mail box can be pretty dreary these days. If only more people would send us notes from Johnathan Wright. They give us a pre-read smile. Check out his creative take on postage.

Each pack of five flat cards on 120 lb. card stock includes matching envelopes adorned with 41 cent postage.

Round the World

We're paper people, but when it comes to maps, well, we'd rather fiddle with our Garmin Nuvi than try to figure out which way is north. Our motto with maps is, 'keep 'em in the car in case the pup chews the GPS to shreds.'

Leave it to Elisabeth Lecourt. She has something else in mind when it comes to using maps. Here's her take on Paris' city streets.


Maybe the question isn't whether the world is flat or round, but whether it's pleated?

Friendly Finds

Who says you need to receive in order to write? Thank you notes shouldn't be the only excuse to pull out your loveliest letterhead. Consider dropping a line to a friend, reminding her what a good buddy she is and how lucky you are to have her.

A handwritten hello runs laps around a Facebook shout out. And these note cards from Apak will make anyone smile.

Aaron and Ayumi Piland, a kooky collaborative art duo based in Portland, Oregon, create these whimsical little creatures and print them on 100% recycled paper using soy-based ink. Good for them, good for you, good for your buddy, good for the enviornment. And at $2 each, pretty good for your wallet, too.

Rotating Wallpaper?

If we could invent rotating wallpaper patterns, one would look like this, and we'd switch it on whenever we were feeling a bit blue, or striped, or flowery....

See more of artist Bella Foster's work here.

Pin Ups

Thinking of ways we could use these buttons on paper. Perhaps as an inner envelope seal for a woodsy wedding invite?

But really, they're so pretty on their own. Miss Brigette's Etsy site has lots of great art on hand.

Family Tree

We love this take on the Family Tree from Graceful Studio.

Dave's grandmother is celebrating her 95th birthday this weekend. This might be the perfect gift for the woman who has 95-years worth of things?

Liner Love

We first spotted this Linda and Harriett wedding invitation last May at the National Stationery Show and fell in love.
Such a fun liner/calligraphy combination. This is the kind of invitation that lets you know this party is going to rock.

So how can we add this pattern into our paper rotation? Zig zag gift tags?

Or a box of fold over notecards? It's papers like these that make us want to write more, blog less.

Cabin Fever

It's been a full week since snow started falling in D.C., and our street still hasn't been plowed! Today's sunshine helps to melt away some of the snow still caked on streets, but the big drifts that were plowed onto sidewalks over the last week remain and they're starting to turn brown and ick-y from exhaust fumes and salt. The pristine winter wonderland I captured last week is getting a little fuzzy. Here's the "then shot":


And what we have now:

With spotty Metro service and without 4-wheel drive, the once-gentle pangs of cabin fever are getting stronger. It's time for a little color.


Check out more of Rebecca Ward's work, currently on display at the Charlotte Street Foundation, in Kansas City, Mo., here.

Who Loves You, Baby?

Valentines Day is upon us which means lots of sugary quips on candy hearts, and if we're lucky a lovey posy from our favorite florist, Holly Heider Chapple in Leesburg.


Before the sugar coma sets in, check on this sweet Save the Date from Paperwink.
Right-side-up, up-side-down, you get the picture with this one. Paperwink creators Tara and Darcey first started working together at Knock Knock, a paper outfit known for its punchy products like paper voodoo pads and fill-in "thank you" sticky notes. But together, Tara and Darcey are kicking out some really clever products of their own.

Going Postal

It's time. We snooped around the internet, reached into the deepest bowls of blogrolls and Etsy and online style sections and decided it was time to start our own blog dedicated to paper in all of its very fine forms - wedding invitations, social stationery, birth announcements, calling cards, and more.

Brush thoughts of Dunder Mifflin out of your mind. We're here to talk about unique, creative, artistic trends in paper. And, luckily, during our online digging, we came across some really creative artists and beautiful products that we're excited to share with you.

Let's start up north in New England, where we first started our PostyPaper escapades. Parrott Design Studio blends contemporary and traditional designs to create fabulous letter press paper at their Providence, Rhode Island studio. Designer Sarah Parrott opened shop in 2007 after studying letterpress at RISD. She designs and prints everything by hand using a Golding Jobber No. 6 vintage letterpress. We love these custom printed informals - a prefect present for the newly wed?
And for yourself, peony prints are oh-so elegant.