Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Paper Obsession

For as long as I can remember, I've always had a bit of an obsession with all things color and all things paper. Especially wrapping paper. There's just something about cool patterns and bright colors that always draws me in. Hell, I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to this love. ;) That brings me to my point. As I was browsing around on Facebook today, one of my friends shared a status from a business called Ginger P Designs. She's from Minnesota and has a cute little shop with some cards, invitations, etc. As I found my way to her Etsy site, I was drawn to many of the simple cards, and all of a sudden, I thought to myself, "I feel like I could do this!" Now, no, I'm not going to go all rogue and try to make a life out of creating cool cards and such, but I just felt like it was neat and that I wanted to look into it because I love making little cards for people. I currently own these blank cards from Target, as well as the same style in brighter colors. They are perfect for making just little personalized notes, and they're definitely a money saver as opposed to buying a store bought card every time. That being said, they can be slightly boring at the same time. I like a little extra color here and there, or even a fun little design, and these cards don't have that. I started digging around a little bit, and I ran across the site for the store Paper Source. Ever heard of it? If not, and you love paper, beware. You may not come out of this experience with any money left. ;) While looking through the site, I saw you could buy all sorts of blank cards, envelopes, everything. But then, just as I was getting deep into that stuff, I found out that they have templates to make your own envelopes and envelope liners. What?!
(These pictures are not the templates, but they're examples of what you can make with the templates. LOVE!)
(The liner is obviously the inner cool design.)

Okay, am I the only one that didn't know these things existed?! I've gotten cool envelopes before and thought, "Man, those are cool!" but never really thought about how they were made or how I could do it too. The templates are traceable, and there are videos on the website to show you how to make the envelopes and liners. Again, the pictures above are examples of what I could make with these templates. You can use all sorts of paper, and obviously there is such a variety in the types of designs you can make. The templates range in a variety of different envelope sizes too, so that's kinda fun. I am just super pumped about this! Since I used to be so big into scrapbooking, I do have some spare designed paper lying around. I figured before I went crazy and bought all sorts of paper (which I almost did - check out a few of the designs I'm interested in here and here - wouldn't they make cool envelopes and liners?), I should try the stuff out and see if it's really as easy and cool as I think it's going to be. If I like it, I may invest in more, and you all may be receiving more random cards from me! ;) I often talk to L about how I should and want to have more hobbies in my life. I'm kind of a boring person overall, and I always feel like I want to find that 'thing' that's totally me. Whether this is it or not, I don't know. But I'm willing to find out. :) Wish me luck. I'll keep ya'll posted!

4 comments:

rlzimmerman said...

First off "Shame on you for calling yourself boring!!!" You are defintely NOT boring! And love these, I'm afraid I'm not a craft person but I do appreciate all that good stuff! I watch Courtney and am amazed at stuff she thinks of doing! She tried to get me into a store in MOA that was all paper and scrap booking! I ran the other way! Sorry! But you would really love it! Love reading your posts too!

Unknown said...

Mallory and I completely obsess about the same thing...paper, pens, notebooks, journals, ANYthing office supply related basically. It's a sickness ;) I'm just going to apologize right now. I didn't know you had no idea about PaperSource. I've been ordering envelopes and paper and goodies from there for quite some time now. Go ahead and sign yourself up for their newsletters and catalog. You shall not regret it! ;)

Renee said...

Haha! Thanks for the vote of confidence in my non-boring life! ;) I think a lot of people either love or hate those types of stores and products, but man, I could go crazy over the stuff! I'm glad you like my posts! Sometimes I wonder if people even read my stuff or like it, but this helps. Thank you! :)

Renee said...

That's exactly how I am too! I used to love going school shopping so I could pick out notebooks, and don't even get me started on journals. Ha! I just love it all. I think Aunt B mentioned Paper Source to me once, but definitely new to me! It's probably best that you didn't tell me. ;) I will likely sign up, thanks for the tip! I'll let you know how my new project goes!