The Paper Fold

Every last woman stationery maker you see today is building her brand upon the shoulders of the women who forged their paths before them — and the younger generation may not even know it. Bonnie Marcus has been a prominent figure in the stationery and gift industry for 20 years, counting celebrities like Cindy Crawford and Kathryn Heigl among her custom clientele and snagging the prestigious Ameri...

So, you think you can write a clever card, the kind that makes you laugh uncontrollably and that you just HAVE to send your friend, who will totally get it? Maybe you should think again — it's not nearly as easy as it looks.  Just ask Michelle of 417 Press, who has been letterpressing her signature blend of wit and wisdom since 2015. The graphic designer first discovered letterpress while planning...

If you can make it in NYC, you can make it anywhere ... and that truism definitely applies to The Lobster Studio. This brand first came to life organically, as a hand-drawn, homemade Valentine from Ken Crossland to his wife Rachel Lauren James. It depicted the tails of the cats in their newly blended households forming a heart. That one card became a small collection, and in 2018, The Lobster Stud...

Like many stationery brands, Tiny and Snail is a family operation.  Sisters Leah Nixon & Grace Nixon Peterson launched this brand in 2017, with both designing their initial 13-card signature collection, paint stroke by keystroke.  But everything flipped upside down in an instant when Leah, AKA Tiny, was crushed under a telehandler at her day job, building homes for Habitat for Humanity. Leah's rig...

Letterpress is to stationery what couture is to clothes. In capable hands, this printing process, which literally took us out of the dark ages, transforms cotton paper into bespoke missives that effortlessly elevate whatever message they convey. But the craft requires a savvy blend of experience and instinct; it's said letterpress takes 10 minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master. Lovers of lett...

Every maker has a great backstory, but for Lana Effron of Lana's Shop, the juggle is real. For a decade now, this Colorado artist and mom has been creating paintings of "love and kindness" for her upscale stationery range. While capturing the sweeter side of life and the stillness of nature comes organically to her, finding a path to balance raising two very small children and running her home-bas...

You probably didn't know it, but the letter-writing resource for the 21st century just dropped. Meet How to Write a Letter: Find the Right Words for Every Occasion, the newest entry in Penguin Random House's über-polished How To series. Co-author Chelsea Shukov visits The Paper Fold to show you how not to just add polish to your correspondence, but to truly and authentically connect with those you...

Many of us talk for our dog, but for Kate Smith, voicing the thoughts of her French Bulldog Frank became the essence of her wildly popular From Frank range of greeting cards and gifts. She introduced it in 2012, and very quickly she had 11 licensing partnerships, including one with Recycled Greetings, who placed some cards in Target's vaunted card aisles, as well as a book deal. But Kate would lea...

I often talk about makers who run their businesses with key support or partnerships with relatives, but for Keli Spanier of Colette Paperie, her Mom nurtured her business in a completely different way. While Keli was caring for her Mom as she was battling cancer, Keli saw the cards her Mom was receiving and realized she could do a lot better. Why send a sad card to a sad person? she wondered, and...

Stationery businesses are uniquely suited to the family operation. Over the years, I've become acquainted with brands comprised of mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, several generations, and, in the case of ilootpaperie, sisters. The lovely & talented design duo that is Alice and Doris Lieu launched their pun-a-rific brand in 2010, and these days you'll find this sister act living together...

If you think you know stationery, stand the F back, because my guest today will turn all that on its ear. Victoria Venturi has been raising eyebrows since 2014, when Paper Epiphanies was born in 30 square feet of her LA apartment. At that time, people were shocked to see swear words exquisitely letterpressed onto greeting cards — but over time it became crystal clear that this publicist and aspiri...

Chances are, you are already smitten with Molly Hatch's work, you may just not know it. Over the past decade or so, the charming wares of this prolific potter have graced over 500 home and gift items created exclusively for Anthropologie. As a result, her distinctive brand — defined by the tagline 'modern heirlooms with everyday charm' —has received star billing on an exquisite retail stage most m...

So, you've created an amazing product, but if you've ever wrestled with how to style it, you should have a quick word with my guest today. Erika Firm describes herself as an "artist, surface designer, graphic designer, brand builder, magazine hoarder, kitty squisher, wife, and mother," but that doesn't begin to scratch the broad scope of her experience and expertise. Erika's stationery range, Delp...

Succeeding as a small stationery maker is not easy, but over the last eleven years or so, Lindsay Henry has definitely made it appear that way! She founded Inklings Paperie with the understanding that the bests moments in life happen offscreen, and her tactile, tangible keepsakes surprise and delight as they celebrate life with those we cherish. As such, you never know what unexpected element will...

Creatives have traditionally been told to avoid working with animals and children, but apparently family photographer Sarah Sloboda never heard that! For over 25 years, she has been capturing moments and relationships and distilling them into photographs for posterity. Mary Ellen Mark described her work as "very joyous," but what goes into preserving these moments in film, and then distilling them...

Lucia Saisse of Lucy Loves Paper is living the stationery version of the American dream. The Rio do Janeiro native opened her Etsy shop in 2013 after her corporate graphic design job went South. Lucia's first personalized offering was wedding invitations bearing the couple's faces, but it was her charming custom portraits that distinguished her talent for capturing likenesses on the sprawling site...

A brand doesn't always evolve in a straight line. Just ask Emma James and Bailey Rivera, co-founders of Antiquaria. Over the last decade or so, these two stationery It Girls have maneuvered their brand down a path that from the outside may have appeared somewhat circuitous — but each step was as carefully considered as the charming calligraphy curlicues that are a signature of this exquisite range...

Stationery is filled with makers who have taken a risk and started their own brands. Catherine Hildner launched Kitty Meow Boutique with the idea that every glam offering she puts out into the world, be it card, coaster or pencil, should make others feel special. Divided into witty and sweet offerings, the look is posh and the vibe is smart in every sense of the word. Unlike most makers, Catherine...

If you create any conceivable item using paper, and are not yet taking advantage of Parse & Parcel, you're not accessing the "super power of print design." For years now, Jill DiNicolantonio has worked with clients to elevate creations from acceptable to awesome at Millcraft, a paper merchant not unlike Dunder Mifflin — except instead of being in Scranton, it's in Cleveland. Drawing on those exper...

If you're anything like me, most of your visual stimulation these days is limited to your house, your neighborhood and whatever it is you're looking at on various screens. Hopefully Instagram figures in there somewhere, but if you are not following @amy.atnynow, the riveting feed of my guest today, Amy Loewenberg, Relations & Partnership Development Manager for NY NOW, you are not doing that platf...

For every Mary Engelbreit or Anna Bond, there are hundreds of smaller makers who are not only sustaining themselves by staying small, but wearing it as a badge of honor — no household name required. Joanna Alberti of PhiloSophie's got a huge boost early in her career, in 2005, when she was named one of Business Week's Top Five Entrepreneurs Under 25. That same year, she and her cards literally put...

Most retailers have had a difficult 2020, but for Suzanne Loesch, owner of Mockingbird Paperie in Ithaca, New York, her summer of 2019 featured a terrifying, headline-grabbing troll attack that plunged her life and business into a waking nightmare. It all began when a customer took a photograph of a few of Suzanne's greeting card offerings, a series of Sapling Press letterpress cards designed to p...

While you may not immediately recognize the name of my guest today — Leslie Moak Murray — you've likely laughed at her cartoons.  Leslie is the creator of Murray's Law, and over the past several decades, her award-winning and prolific body of work has appeared on cards, napkins, note pads, paper plates, newspapers, books — really, anywhere cartoons and jokes can be placed. Leslie's zany humor has...

Every once in a while, a card maker comes along who strikes a cultural chord at exactly the moment it needs to be struck. If I'm lucky enough to spot the range early on, sitting back and watching the world fall in love with it is truly a wonder to behold. I saw this when Emily McDowell and her magnificent empathy cards came on the scene several years back. And now, although 2020 has completely suc...

Closing a store is incredibly painful, but my guest today, Liz Scott, is here to share that that difficult decision may just be a badge of honor in disguise. Liz was the proud proprietress of the paper & gift shop Lovely Somethings in Bath, Ohio, for several years before closing its doors at the end of 2019. But, her industry story doesn't end there. Freed from a costly lease, she reimagined and r...