In grad school I fell in love with the rich colors and layered textures of mono-prints, so you can imagine my thrill when I discovered the Letterpress Machine Combo Kit can recreate these luscious prints. Using the components of the kit, plus a few extra ink colors, rubber stamp resists and accents, I printed on our wonderful collection of papers. It took only a few minutes to create dramatic results!

Learn some of these wonderful techniques at our upcoming workshop.

Mono-Print & Stitched Booklet Workshop
Thursday, August 4th
4 – 6 pm (local time)
Register online or contact your local store

You’ll love the results and the versatility this machine offers for artistic endeavors, not to mention the opportunity to learn how to stitch simple booklets.

–Linda
PS colors: paper bag & persimmon
Latest fave: Academic Great Big Calendar

What’s more fun than barrel of monkeys? Gigantic paper bag monkeys with Paper Source style.

Inspired by the Paper Source Halloween costume contest of 2010 (see image), our store teams started monkeying around with life-sized versions of our Monkey Puppet Kit, dressing windows with hilarious scenes of mischief and mayhem. It hass become a bit of a contest among our associates… so we’d like you to weigh in!

Head over to the Paper Source Facebook Page and check out the monkey business happening at each store location, then vote for your favorite photo using the “like” button. You can lead your favorite to victory by inviting friends and family to join in the fun – It’s a barrel of laughs for all ages!

Winners will be announced on Thursday, June 30th.

Winners update: Congratulations to Bethesda (97 likes), Walnut Street (93 likes) and Carlsbad (51 likes) – Thanks for inspiring us with your monkey business!

Looking for monkey business for the weekend? Check out Saturday’s Family Fun Workshop!

–Hayley, visual director
PS colors: chartreuse & beet
Latest fave: Yuzen Beet Flower Fine Paper

We’re counting down the days to our big DIY celebration (20 to be exact), and we hope to see you at one of our 43 store locations on June 4th. In fact, as a special treat to those who register, we’re giving away one FREE copy of Handmade Weddings – Register by Sunday, May 22nd to be included in our drawing (winner announced on Monday, May 23rd).

What’s even better is our Berkeley store will host Eunice and Sabrina Moyle, coauthors and founders of Hello!Lucky, and our Brooklyn store will be visited by coauthor and stylist Shana Faust. Treats and refreshments will be provided at each store location, along with two hours of inspiring crafts that will transform your special events and parties.

Here’s a peek…

DIY projects like these, and the 50 crafts featured in the pages of Handmade Weddings, will make this an affair to remember. Don’t miss out!

This month we created a class inspired entirely by color. After all, color is what we do so well here at Paper Source! We’ll share simple ideas and techniques to build your foundation, then let you take these ideas to another level through the creative use of color.

Color, Color, Color! Stationery & Favors Workshop
Thursday, May 5, 2011
6 – 8 pm
Click to register.

If you appreciate projects with plenty of room for your own creative voice the Color, Color, Color! Stationery & Favors Workshop is the perfect class for you! From rubber stamping to punching, eyelet setting to watercolor pencil techniques, we’ll make you think about color in a whole new way!

–Linda
PS colors: paper bag & persimmon
Latest fave: Academic Great Big Calendar

The press is going wild for our new gifts and spring crafts, and here’s a look at what’s HOT for Mother’s Day.

In the recent issue of People Magazine, Jessica Alba suggests creating a Mother’s Day scrapbook. According to Alba, “Receiving a keepsake from your child that’s filled with pictures, drawings and poems is priceless!”

To create your own, she recommends our Brown Fabric 12 x 12 Scrapbook or gorgeous Gold Mums Photo Album and our 12 x 12 papers to style the book. Alba listed Flora and Fauna Papaya Flower Circle Paper, Goldfish Paper and Pink Sweet Cupcakes Paper as her latest favs. Mom is sure to love this unique gift, especially if fellow mother Jessica Alba thinks it’s sweet.

Read the rest of this entry »

Video courtesy of Chronicle Books

Authors Eunice and Sabrina Moyle, founders of Hello!Lucky, along with stylist Shana Faust, combined their expertise to create one of our favorite DIY books, Handmade Weddings. To celebrate the bountiful inspiration of this new book and video, we are partnering with Chronicle Books for a special DIY event.

Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 4 from 1:00 – 3:00pm and join us for A Midsummer’s Eve Affair, happening at all Paper Source store locations. Sign up and enjoy making a wonderful collection of make and take projects, while enjoying refreshments and participating in raffles throughout the day.

While we continue to prepare for what will be our biggest event of the year, we wanted to kick start the DIY enthusiasm with a special giveaway. Comment to this post with your best hostess advice or favorite hostess gift and one lucky Paper Source fan will receive a free copy of Handmade Weddings.

The winner will be selected at random on Monday, April 25th.

With our special Earth Day event approaching, I felt inspired to write a blog about my love of unique gift wrapping. For me, half the fun of giving gifts is finding creative ways to present them!

During the holidays I was so crazy for our Great Big Desk Calendar that I decided to purchase two. One calendar was used for wrapping holiday packages and the second for the intended use – a calendar! The gifts received so many ooohs and ahhhs that I purchased a few more when they went on sale. After all, the desk version provides 18 months of 24 3/4″ x 19 1/4″ Paper Bag sheets. It’s a bargain at $7.49! Read the rest of this entry »

Many of us have been glued to the television and internet, getting snippets of the horror that has befallen Japan. Only two weeks in, and it is shocking to see news coverage shifting to Libya and Wisconsin, while the country of Japan faces an overwhelming restart on virtually every front, with even more dire survival conditions remaining for hundreds of thousands of citizens.

This isn’t the first tragedy triggering our compassion; however, Japan is very special to Paper Source – It is a treasured part of our heritage.

Sue Lindstrom, the founder of Paper Source, traveled to Japan almost 30 years ago to learn the craft of paper making, only to return entranced and committed to opening a store that would showcase the artistry. Over the decades, we have developed relationships with Japanese companies and small artisan workshops, in order to bring a full range of paper techniques and styles to enthusiasts across the United States.

Most of the workshops that create our papers have not been destroyed, but no Japanese citizen or business has been unaffected by the recent tragedy. We are currently working with several partners to see when shipping can resume, so that we are able to continue presenting their beautiful works of art, and they are able to sustain their livelihoods.

For the next six weeks, Paper Source will also donate 10% of Japanese paper sales to the American Red Cross Japan Relief Program, to help the many victims in Japan. While this contribution makes only a small dent in the endeavor ahead, it is an important signal of support to the many Japanese partners we have, furthering our founder’s hope to inspire people to discover the beauty and technique of Japanese papers.
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During a summer course in college I had the good fortune of getting to make my first book. From that point on, I was hooked! There are few things as satisfying as learning an artisan skill, and using it to create one of a kind projects. I find handmade books like handmade furniture, stained glass or painting, still offers the reward of completion, a feeling that is void in today’s electronic projects.

Thursday’s Handmade Journal Workshop will introduce you to the satisfaction of bookmaking. We’ve taken away the tedious cutting tasks, allowing you to focus on construction, and leaving you with basic instruction that will guide you through future DIY book projects. Register online to reserve a seat at your local store.

Trust me when I say, this will be the beginning of very long and rewarding relationship with bookmaking!

–Linda
PS colors: paper bag & persimmon
Latest fave: 2011 Paper Source Booklet Calendar