Ever so wonderful paper!

Ever is a paper produced by Gmund a papermill out of Germany. They make unique and spectacular papers. Ever comes in various text and cover weights. I love the San Francisco 54lb text weight because of it's textural qualities and the way the light plays with it. It's almost like a thick onion skin. You can buy small quantities online at the Paper Mill Store. It's not cheap, but it's worth it. It comes in 8 colors, Aomori, San Francisco, Salzburg, Lyon, Waikiki, Sverige, Anchorage and Lanzarote.

I've never used this for a project yet, so if you have, please share your experience. I'd love to know how it prints.

Oh, and have a happy Ground Hog Day! Phil really let us down, 6 more weeks of winter! I'm ready for some warmth.

Take care,
Jill

Crane Paper in Blue

I had a visit from Karla, my favorite paper rep on Monday and she brought me a ton of swatch books. It was like Christmas. I picked some of my favorite blue shades from Crane's Palette swatch book to share with you. I think the book isn't the most current, but she brought it because it has larger sheets so that I could get a feel for the paper's weight and texture. I checked Crane's site and these colors are all currently stocked. That is one thing to look out for, make sure your swatch books are current and the paper is still stocked. There is nothing like getting burnt when you've designed a piece around a certain paper stock, only to find out it isn't made any more. It's not so bad if it's for yourself, but if it's something you've shown to a client. Ouch!

I'm really excited to use some of this paper with my new letterpress printer. Oh the possibilities! They have an a mazing raspberry too, but hey this is blue week. Go Colts!

To find out more on Crane Paper go to there site, cranepaper.com

Colors shown left to right: Cambridge Blue, Azure Blue, Navy and Aqua

If you have a favorite blue paper, I'd love for you to share it. There are some amazing papers out there. And of course, I'll be sharing some of the other amazing paper swatch books she brought.

Take care,
Jill

Paper Love

DALI DORÉ by Gruppo Cordenons is a felt-marked text and cover with an infused gold shimmer. The shimmer is achieved by millions of natural, tiny mica crystals in the coating. This sheet is acid-free and archival in quality. It has a thin, lined texture that runs parallel with the grain. It comes in 4 colors: Blumarino (dark blue), Rosso (red), Candiddo (cream), and Nero (black). The sparkle is amazing and even more dramatic on the darker colors. Love it and looking for an excuse to use it.

Passion for paper

While exhibiting at the National Stationery Show last year, I picked up some amazing swatch books from GMUND. My particular favorite is Savanna, a collection of paper inspired by Africa. It comes in eight shades, four with wood embossing and the rest are either a matt or structured surface. All are beautiful, however, my pick is Bubinga. I love the dark rich brown and the texture of the wood is fantastic.

Love is Sticky

I must confess my love for sticky-notes! My husband and I are pretty much obsessed with office supplies. It's strange, I know, but there it is. I use these little guys all the time. They work great for brainstorming new ideas. I've heard you need to generate a lot of trash to get to the treasure. So you can easily jot down each idea on tiny sticky notes and toss individual ideas out and rearrange the rest. A large sheet of paper can be intimidating, so this takes care of that issue as well.