National Stationery Show Preparation

This week I will be attending my fifth National StationeryShow. I am just as excited this year as I have been every year I’ve gone. For the pen and paper lover, this is the trade show to attend.

It’ s great to walk the show aisles and see eye candy and functional, whimsical, practical, colorful stationery, cards, notebooks and office supplies and much more.

I’ve met some great people at the NSS including some of the original sponsors of the Letters & Journals monthly giveaway:

Peter at Crane Stationery

Christy at Regreet

Julia at Flying Wish Paper

Karen at Exaclair

 Currently I’m working on the print magazine of the premiere edition of Letters & Journals and will be looking for potential advertisers. Soon I will have pricing information posted on the website.  Print advertising rates will start at $200. More info to come on that!

Natonal Stationery Show 2011

I have been busy making plans to attend the National Stationery Show (NSS) in New York May 15-18, 2011. This will be the fourth time I've attended and I'm just as excited as ever.

 I'm already made up the outline of an itinerary with some highlights of events that I know I will be attending. These include:

• Going to the Opening Night Party at Battery Park on Saturday night.
• Attending the Future Conference on Sunday morning where I will get to hear Seth Godin. The theme for this year's conference is 'Put it on Paper: The Importance of Pen and Ink in the Digital Age.'
• Meeting other Twitter friends at the Tweet n’ Greet that NSS is hosting this year. Twitter has been great to meet other show goers 

Last year I met some of the first sponsors to the monthly stationery giveaway at Letters & Journals. They had no idea what kind of return they would get for their investment, yet they took a chance. These include:

Christy at Regreet

Mark at Ecojot

 

 Julie at Flying Wish Paper

January Stationery Winner

The lucky winner for the January Stationery Giveaway is Linda D from California! Congratulations, Linda. I have sent you an email requesting your mailing address and will get the package off to you as soon as I know where to send it.

Thanks to our lovely sponsors for January:  

Journal  (Crane)

Cards/Bookmarks (In My Book)

Flying Wish Paper (Flying Wish Paper)

Pen ( Jac Zagoory)

Poodle Note Cards (Haley’s Handmades)

Note Cards (Hello Lucky)

January Stationery Giveaway

Welcome to the January Stationery Giveaway at Letters & Journals! Everyone who is signed up to receive the monthly e-newsletter is automatically entered into the drawing. If you don't want to sign up for the newsletter, but still want to be eligible to win, I can add you to the second list (email me here), which still has you eligible for the drawing, but the only email you will get are the updates on the status of the print magazine which is scheduled for later in 2011.

New this month is this awesome Soar Pen from Jac Zoogery Designs. 

"The warmth of the sun. Migrating birds in flight. Joy is simple. Reach for inspiration!"

Jac's site has the most unique stationery items I have ever seen. This picture does not do the pen justice. If you have time visit the site and it check out. While you're there check out some of Jac's other pens and office supplies. He was generous enough to offer a couple items for individual giveaways that will take place sometime during January.

Another new contributor is Hello Lucky who has donated these 3 cards below. Check out the colorful website and blog for whimsical letterpress designs and inspiration.

Flying Wish Paper offers their large wishing kit for some lucky person to make 50 wishes.

"Write it. Light it. Watch it fly."

The cute poodle cards by Haley are back! Haley's Handmades offer 4 greeting cards with her trademark poodle sketches. Haley's site also offers notepads, calendars, bookmarks as well as hand sewn items.

Robin at In My Book has offered 3 of her cards/bookmarks with the wonderful pencil drawings depicting some genial scene. You're going to want these. When I first saw them at the Bookstore at Fitgers (Duluth, MN), I couldn't decide which design to purchase, so I bought one of each!

And what would a stationery giveaway be without a nice journal? This month Crane offers a ribbon journal for writing down your private thoughts and lofty aspirations.

Good Luck!

December Stationery Giveaway

Lots of goodies in store for one lucky winner for the December Stationery Giveaway at Letters & Journals. This month we have a stationery set and note cards from Craftgasm. Check out these awesome upcycled stationery from vintage maps!

Also, new this month is a selection of card/bookmarks from In My Book. These can be sent as cards and then kept as bookmarks. Each card has a wonderful illustration such as the one featured below.

Regreet has a handy greeting card organizer that lets you keep your cards sorted by month and also has a place to write in people's birthdays and anniversaries. If you're interested and being green and helping your budget at the same time, be sure to check out Regreet products.

Crane is known for the high quality of their note cards and this month they have donated a set of 20 hand bordered note cards. Wouldn't you love to sit by a cozy fire with a fine ballpoint pen or a bottle of ink and fountain pen and write some wonderfully thoughtful and touching notes?

Ecojot has whimsical and colorful illustrations on a variety of their notebooks. This month they have donated a softcover 2 pack of lined journals in pink.

Haley's Handmades has donated a selection of Poodle cards like the one shown below. These fun note cards are humorous and unique.

Flying Wish Paper could be the jump start you need to make your wishes come true. This Purple Snow design is just in time for the December holidays.

The Sakura Gelly Roll pens come in a 3-pack of white pens. These are great for crafts or for writing on dark or colored paper. I love the effect of white pens writing on black paper. It's like your conjuring the words out of thin air and watching them magically appear. Very cool.

Pennant magazine has offered a copy of one of their collectible magazines for Pen Collector's of America. You can also view a sample issue of one of their magazines online if you'd like to check it out.

There are just two ways you can win this luxurious stationery giveaway: 
1. You are signed up for the free Letters & Journals monthly e-newsletter
2. You are put on the mailing list for information regarding the premiere edition when that information is available (No subscriptions yet- just a heads up on the status of the print edition) Send info here.

November Stationery Giveaway Winner

Elizabeth G (who signed up on 11/27/10) is the winner! She wins 2 sets of cards (Haley's Handmades and Archelaus),a Crane journal, an Ecojot notebook, a perpetual calendar (Rock Scissor Paper), Flying Wish Paper and a pen.

Prizes in the December Stationery Giveaway will be announced by Dec 7. Stay tuned. 

There are two ways you can win the monthly stationery giveaway: 
1. You are signed up for the free Letters & Journals monthly e-newsletter
2. You are put on the mailing list for information regarding the premiere edition when that information is available (No subscriptions yet- just a heads up on the status of the print edition) Send info here.

The November Stationery Giveaway

The November Stationery Giveaway at Letters & Journals offers a prize basket with 7 different items- cards, journals, pen, birthday calendar, flying wish paper and a notebook.

First up, we have a new contributor who features cute poodles on much of her designs.  On these cards from Haley's Handmades there are poodles in all kinds of poses and settings. There is an assortment of 5 cards in the November giveaway.

Next we have a second new donor, Rock Scissor Paper who I found by winning something on their blog in September. If you have 20 seconds, you should check out the cute video that announced the winner. They contributed a birthday calendar that can be reused year after year.

Archelaus Cards has sent in a set of four different greeting cards such as the one shown below. Their cards offer a unique selection of quotes and wonderful drawings.

Ecojot continues to support the monthly giveaway and has sent in one of their hard bound spiral notebooks to be offered in this month's drawing. If you visit the Ecojot blog you will see that sometimes they publish pages of journal pages that people have sent in such as this colorful entry.

Flying Wish Paper donated another large wishing kit. These have been popular as people write to tell me they have never heard of it but are happy and excited to try it. I hope you will be too.

Next we have another hardbound ribbon journal from Crane. This blue journal is the perfect place to write your goals and dreams and ideas for your life. If you're on Facebook, you may want to check out the new BlueBook app that Crane has developed. The BlueBook app makes etiquette fun by allowing you to reward good behavior and correct behavior that needs correcting.

Finally, Letters & Journals is offering a Write Dudes pen that was purchased at Target for $1.94. This pen was featured in a recent blog along with some other stationery purchases made that day.

There are just two ways you can win this luxurious stationery giveaway: 
1. You are signed up for the free Letters & Journals monthly e-newsletter
2. You are put on the mailing list for information regarding the premiere edition when that information is available (No subscriptions yet- just a heads up on the status of the print edition) Send info here.

Good Luck!

October Stationery Giveaway

The Letters & Journals October Stationery Giveaway has some new and awesome stationery goodness to offer. There are two journals (Crane and Elum), a 3-pack of Ecojot notebooks, 1 Regreet greeting kit, Bella Ink stationery set, J. Herbin Violette Pensee (Exaclair), 3 Sakura Gelly Roll pens (metallic), and Flying Wish Paper (large). Thanks to the generous sponsors for their wonderful donations!

Such confections of stationery bliss can be yours in one of two ways:

1. You are signed up for the free Letters & Journals monthly e-newsletter
2. You are put on the mailing list for information regarding the premiere edition when that information is available (No subscriptions yet- just a heads up on the status of the print edition) Send info here.

September Stationery Giveaway Winner

The Missive Maven is the winner of the September Stationery Giveaway! Congratulations, Ilona! Hope you enjoy (or can share) all of the goodies headed your way!

September's generous sponsors were:
Flying Wish Paper
Crane Notecards
Regreet Card Organizer
Regreet Starter Kit
2 Gelly Roll Pens (Sakura)
Quo Vadis Blue Journal
Pennant Magazine

Win Your Own Flying Wish Paper

I met Julia, the owner and founder of Flying Wish Paper, at the National Stationery Show (NSS) in May of this year. Part of the fun of attending the show is seeing all of the new products and meeting the owners and passionate founders who started their own business. Julia had a booth and was handing out samples of her Flying Wish Paper. It wasn't until later, when I  returned home from my trip, that I took out my sample and gave it a try. The instructions are simple: "Write it. Light it. Watch it fly."

The magic of Flying Wish Paper comes from the belief that writing down your dreams and sending them forth into the world on the whisper of a flame can make your dream come true. This is not to say that belief or ritual is ALL that is needed to make your dreams come true. Dreams also require action, hard work and perseverance.

A lot of studies show that the act of writing down your dreams and goals helps them become reality. Henriette Anne Klauser, author of 'Write it Down, Make it Happen' explains the physiological effects of writing down dreams and goals in simple no-nonsense language. "Writing down your dreams and aspirations is like hanging up a sign that says, "Open for Business."

Working with Flying Wish Paper to write your wish/dream/goal down and then proceeding with the ceremony of crumpling the paper, smoothing it out, rolling it into a tube and lighting it on fire all combine to make a powerful statement to the universe. Click here to watch a video of how it works.

While I know that this is not for everyone, I believe there is some truth and magic in the power of ritual and of writing things down.

If you would like to try this for yourself, leave a comment to be entered into a drawing for one of these packets. They come in two package sizes- the large and the mini. You can see them both on the Flying Wish Paper website where you can also order them. I will send out a LARGE packet to one lucky winner.

This same packet is also part of the September Stationery Giveaway. If you are signed up for the monthly e-newsletter at L&J then you are already entered for that monthly drawing.