Fan Club

Spending time at the National Stationery Show with all of the amazing peeps who were exhibiting there was pretty inspiring. Everyone is so talented and interesting and attacking things from so many different angles, it really was fab to be all around a huge cloud of creativity that was just bursting at the seems. I'm still taking everything in and, though I know I have been inspired, I'm not exactly sure in which direction, but here are some of my faves. Consider me in your fan club:

Hello! Lucky has been a fave of mine for awhile. There is literally nothing about a single card of theirs that I do not love, love, love. The colors, the "updated retro" design (i.e. retro with a twist, not boring, been there done that retro). You ladies rock. If your collection was an apartment, I would want to live there.

For a gift giving, wrapping paper junkie like myself (yes, I will admit to an occassional incident during which I spent as much on the gift wrap as I did on the gift), Heidi is pretty much the holy grail. Her wrapping papers, in my opinon, are pretty enough to use as wallpaper and her notecards are quite lovely and divine in their own right. I'm most excited about her "gift wrap program" that is starting up in June. Forget wine of the month clubs; Heidi will send you all the makings for a fabulously wrapped gift either bi-monthly, quarterly or every 6 mos (NOTE: TO ANY FAMILY MEMBERS OR FRIENDS WHO MIGHT BE READING THIS AND LOOKING FOR A GREAT GIFT IDEA FOR ME, THIS IS IT).

I also really loved the Paper Dolls collection (and booth!). These ladies also have some fab wrapping paper and a group of seriously gorgeous notecards. Though most of the designs are super simple, their stuff manages to look really rich and beautiful. I think my fave are their Vintage cartoon place cards. So cute.

When I walked into the Javits Center to set up my booth, I nearly almost fainted. There were several early birds who had already succedded in making their booths look gorgeous and I was really overwhelmed and scared at the notion of competing with such superstars. After passing the Tallu-lah booth, I was absolutely seeing stars. It was the sweetest, prettiest little thing I had ever seen and had an adorable collection to match. Tallu-lah and Paper Bride might actually be distant, long lost cousins as, though our styles and approach are super different, we are both attempting to inject some uniqueness into the current meager offerings out there for hip, stylish brides. Anyway, Tallu-lah is terrific.

I honestly could go on for days about all of the wonderful things I saw. I said to my boyfriend that if the Javits Center were a store, we would seriously be bankrupt by now.