Stationery Scoop, the blog for people who love stylish stationery and living green

Valentine's Day cards

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, my kids and I are getting the classroom Valentines cards ready to hand   out. This year, the new Fruit Friends cards will be perfect - fun fruit designs with cute fruit-related expressions. I'm more drawn to illustrations like these than to licensed designs like Disney Princesses or Transformers.

These berries are cute.

And the oranges:

I'm crazy for the orange (shown above) with the little twig and tooth. The cards were designed by our creative team and they did a great job. Many of our Valentine's Day cards have been featured in the press including Discover Paper and Paper Crave.

A day in the life of three people at a trade show - Part 1

Do you attend trade shows on behalf of your work or favorite charity? If yes, you'll know what I mean about the simultaneous thrill and grind of meeting new people, reconnecting with old friends, shlepping your stuff to the exhibit hall and the long days and nights that can be both exciting and tiring.

A couple of weeks ago, Amber, Toni and I were pleased to attend a trade show for promotional product professionals in Canada. Amber will be blogging about it soon on the Botanical PaperWorks blog, but I wanted to share some personal photos of the nitty gritty behind being at a trade show.

On this last day of the show, we got up early to get ready for the day. We needed to pack, have breakfast and check out before the trade show started. It was exciting to know that we'd be going home that evening, but there was a lot of work to be done before the day was over.

While we breakfasted at the hotel, our various Mac devices were getting a last-minute charge in our room. Amber and Toni were done before me so they left for the show, suitcases in tow, and I stayed behind to do a final check and pay up our bill. We were efficient and relaxed, so our time together was really enjoyable. 

Our hotel had a few nice touches - The Globe and Mail delivered to our room in the morning, free wifi and a free breakfast with a push-button capuccino machine (so fun!).

Once we got to the show, we were busy for the next six hours. Stay tuned for more photos in my next post...

For the love of orange plaid

I love this orange plaid that I made at PlaidMaker but I don't know what to do with it. Any suggestions?

Going on a trip? How to pack faster and better

Anyone else out there hate packing for a trip? It doesn't matter if it's business or pleasure, I dread the process of packing, sometimes almost enough to wish I weren't going. So because I'm highly motivated to reduce the pain of packing, I've developed a few tricks.

1) Always use a packing list - Using Evernote, I've written packing lists for every conceivable combination of packing requirements including: 

• Business Trip in Winter
• Business Trip in Summer
• Business Trip International
• Hot Vacation with No Kids
• Hot Vacation with Kids
• Car Trip with Kids

The lists are very specific, from the exact garment to types of socks like "running socks" and "cosy socks" (I like having a cosy pair to wear in the hotel room). Here's a clip from one of my lists: 

2) Use the same carry-on bag every time - By sticking to the same tried-and-true Lug bag for carry-on, I put my stuff in the same place every time. This is faster for packing and causes fewer panic moments of "Oh no, where'd I put my passport" because the passport goes in the passport pocket. The water bottle is in the water bottle pocket. Etc.

3) Collect free make-up bags - What to do with the free bags you get at Clinique bonus time? I use them to store specific stuff. The pink one holds all of my chargers and small electronics. The striped one holds my liquids that get packed in my checked luggage. And I use the same cosmetic bag for the same stuff every time, see point #2.

4) Label your bottles - After airlines changed the carry-on liquid rules, I bought a set of small bottles and transferred my creams and lotions into the pint-sized packages. Only problem was I couldn't remember which one was face cream and which one was hair product. And those are two white substances that I don't want to mix up! So I used my P-Touch labeler to label each bottle and never wondered again.

If you have a voyage coming up, I hope that these tips help make the process a little less painful for you. And if you have tricks of your own, please share in the comment section. I'd love to hear from you.

Artists "embroider" paper with fire

 

A friend sent me this article today from the National Post and I was blown away: Playing with fire new exhibit highlights delicate embroidery that is like 'drawing with thread.

The artists use flame and heat to pattern and embroider paper. If you're in Toronto, check out the exhibit at The Telephonebooth Gallery, but hurry because it's only on until January 30.