Friday, March 29, 2013

Friday Link Collective {Easter!}


Happy Friday, everyone!

We know Easter can be especially exciting when you have little ones, but with all the Cadbury eggs and Peeps to be eaten, let's be real, it's pretty exciting for all of us. Here are some quick Easter-themed links for your weekend:

  • Going egg hunting this weekend? This Etsy treasury has the right idea for an EGG-ceptional weekend!

  • We're loving this "Whimsical Easter Celebration for Little Ones" from The Pretty Blog! Such happy little faces!

  • Someone at the office is definitely going to have to try this recipe for Cadbury Creme Fudge from the blog Raising 4 Princesses. Because you can't go wrong with Cadbury anything.

  • It's always fascinating to see how people across the globe are spending their holidays. Read up on Easter customs from around the world!

  • If you get to play hostess (or host) this weekend, then you'll love this blog post on Easter brunch entertaining ideas from 100 Layer Cake. The menu sounds amazing and the colors and tablescapes are gorgeous.

  • It just wouldn't be Easter without some spring-colored Peeps! Read about how those squishy little birds came to be! (Do you know anyone who prefers their Peeps to be sort of stale?)

Have a great weekend & a beautiful Easter!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Join the Note Pad Party!

We've just rolled out a huge new selection of notepads, and we'd love for you to take a look. These note pads make great gifts for anyone: teachers, writers, busy moms, students... They're also great just to have around the house. We use them for grocery lists, lunchbox notes, to-do lists (we're big fans of to-do lists...), etc. And with the array of new designs we've introduced, we're sure you'll find something just for you (or whoever you still need a birthday gift for!).

Here's just one of our new note pads that we're very excited to introduce, perfect for the busy mom:


Babysitter Note Pad


The best part about this particular note pad (as well as many of our others) is that it's totally customizable. You can choose your background color from a selection of about 180 colors, and you can change the fonts as well.

So, what's not to love?

Oh, and hey! Don't forget: we're taking 30% off personalized note pads to celebrate these new additions. Check out the link above and use the code PSNP30 at checkout through April 8, 2013 to get your discount!

Happy Tuesday!

Friday, March 22, 2013

The Writing on the Wall

If you've been following our posts, you know that this past Wednesday we posted a sneak peek picture, and we've been waiting to reveal something we're all very excited about around the office! Thanks to some creativity and some elbow grease (thanks, Charles!), we've got a series of new chalkboard walls throughout the office! These fun additions are only the beginning of a new facelift for the PaperStyle office. In the near future, we'll be painting PaperStylist Land (home to our lovely PaperStylists) and TypeStylist Land (where all our wonderful typesetters live).

We're already taking advantage of these huge chalkboard canvases:

New Chalkboard Walls!




Just getting started on this wall!

Stay tuned for more pictures of our office's awesome transformation! Happy Friday!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Tuesday Team Pick: Janine!

In case you missed it two weeks ago, we're introducing a new Team Pick feature to our blog.

This week, we're highlighting a Save the Date magnet, chosen from our website by Janine, a member of our shipping department. She chose "Scrapbook Save the Date Magnets" by Elizabeth Victoria (PaperStyle Exclusive Design).


These adorable magnets feature a photo of you and your special someone, highlighted by blue washi tape strips to keep in the scrapbook theme. The faux-Polaroid and "sketched heart" accent bring the design together for a laid-back, folksy feel. Definitely a great choice (though I suppose we're a little biased)!

We'd love to hear about your favorite PaperStyle invites as well, so feel free to leave a comment below.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Happy Friday & The Luck of the Irish



Happy Friday, lovely readers! Some of us are about to head out of here to buy our Shamrock Shakes. Ahem, and maybe mix a little Bailey's in, too. But before we go on our merry way, we have some fun St. Patrick's Day-related links:

Still desperately searching for something to do this St. Patty's Day? Find a bar/pub crawl near you! Just enter your city for a list of great events on St. Patrick’s Day:
http://stpatricksday.barcrawls.com/atlanta/st-paddys-day

Love Irish Step Dance? Here's a scene from a great movie to watch with your kids on St. Patrick's Day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sva4R-lkxsw

We love this awesome "Lucky Rainbow St. Patrick’s Day Party” from Hostess with the Mostess. If you're planning a party for your kids, there are some great ideas in this post.

If you want to find a St. Patrick’s Day Parade near you, check out this list:
http://www.st-patricks-day.com/st_patricks_day_parades_home.html

Though St. Patty's Day is only two days away, if you're still looking for a little inspiration for your get-together, click on over to PaperStyle's St. Patrick's Day board on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/paperstyle/st-patrick-s-day/


Have a fun (and SAFE) weekend, everyone!

Monday, March 11, 2013

Hats Off to the Grad: A Few Words About Graduation Announcements

If you’re the parent of a child on any educational threshold, you know that graduation is rapidly approaching. Normally, a graduation announcement post on The PaperStyle Blog would entail a list of useful tips or some highlighted products from our website. But as a recent college graduate, I thought I might be able to give our readers some insights about graduation announcements based on my own personal experience (and that of my family).
 
I graduated from the University of California, Riverside in June of 2012 and my family purchased my graduation announcements through the university. They were absolutely beautiful: high-quality paper with feathered edges, inner and outer envelopes, envelope seals, and thank you notes of the same paper stock. Each announcement had an embossed image of the university’s seal on it. But even after ordering the smallest package of 25, the bundle still cost over eighty dollars. For some, this cost seems minimal for something as momentous as a graduation, especially if you’ve already spent tens of thousands of dollars on tuition. However, this obviously isn’t an option for everyone.  If you have an extended family or lots of friends, it’s going to cost you, but to announce something as remarkable as a graduation, it shouldn’t.

Similarly, when ordering through a school, or a school-sponsored printer, your options are typically limited. The announcements my family ordered had the option to include or omit a photo, but either way, they were going to turn out looking mostly the same. When you choose to buy from a stationer or order online, your choices will be much broader and you then have the option to include a bit more of your child’s personality. Or their school colors. Or recent photos.

You get the idea.

For the same price I paid for my 25 graduation announcements, through PaperStyle I could have gotten twice as many, and I would have had a huge selection of design options to choose from. Like this one:


Or this one:


Or this one:

 

You get the idea.

So that’s my testimonial. While ultimately, the decision is yours, it’s a good idea to weigh all of your options before you buy. I say this because I know so many students (and families of students) who weren’t aware of all the different options they had. They assumed their best bet was to buy their announcements in the same place they bought their cap and gown, their diploma frame, their class ring, etc. But of course, there are other options. (And as always, PaperStyle would love the opportunity to be your first choice.)

To see more Graduation Announcement Tips, check out this post!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

The First Ever PaperStyle Team Pick!

We're very excited to announce a new feature on our blog today: Team Picks! Every other week, we're going to feature a different PaperStyle team member by highlighting their favorite invitations from our website. We like to get everyone here at PaperStyle involved, and we think this is a great way to do it.

So, for the first ever Team Pick, we asked one of our fabulous PaperStylists, Karen, to choose her favorite invitation from the PaperStyle website. She chose William Arthur's Beach Shells Pearlized White Wedding Invitations, one of our many designer wedding invitations. The pearlized white cardstock adds an elegant touch to the starfish and sea shell accents, so we love this invitation for a beach or destination wedding (and considering how the weather has been here in Georgia, the thought of the beach is better than just about anything)!



And since we're on the subject, let's not forget about our 15% off sale on all wedding invitations (sale ends March 11, 2013)! Plus, we're currently offering FREE ground shipping within the US until March 11th as well. So, if you're looking for wedding invites, you might want to snap up something from PaperStyle!

We'd love to hear about your favorite PaperStyle invites as well, so feel free to leave a comment below.



Friday, March 1, 2013

Birth Announcements: Finding the Perfect Words

When it comes to Birth Announcements, we understand how important it is to get everything just right. This is your baby’s introduction to the world, after all! Of course, you want the announcement to suit the personality and style of your family, so there are lots of different ways to word the welcoming of your little one into the world.


The announcement:

Of course, there are the tried and true classics:
  • We are thrilled to announce the birth of (name)
  • Announcing our new addition... (name!)
  • Joyfully welcoming (name)
  • We proudly welcome (name)
  • It is with great amazement and joy that we welcome (name)

Or you can be a little more playful with it:
  • And then there were three!
  • Hello, baby! Goodbye, sleep.
  • Our little package has arrived!
  • There’s a new little man/lovely lady in town.
  • No more silent nights. (Perfect for a holiday baby!)
  • You might not know me, but I’m (name)
  • We’re proud to announce the arrival
    of our dapper little man / fabulous little lady.
  • Look who’s here!
  • There’s a new leaf on our family tree!
  • Dollies and hair bows and skirts that twirl,
    we’re proud to welcome our new baby girl.
  • Our family announces another few ounces!

But say you want to announce an adoption:
  • We welcome with joy (name)
  • Our bundle of joy has arrived!
  • We are proud to introduce our adopted son/daughter (name)
  • Love, joy and wonderful dreams,
    all the sweet things a child brings!
  • There’s a new little man/lovely lady in town.
  • Look who’s here!

Or you’re going to be blessed more than once:
  • We've been blessed…Twice!
  • Twins are twice as nice!
  • Yesterday, two…Today, five!
  • Double the trouble.
  • Twenty fingers, twenty toes,
    plenty of work, heaven knows!
  • Chubby cheeks and bouncing curls,
    say hello to our new baby girls!

And for the quote lovers:
  • “Sometimes the littlest things take up the most room in your heart.”
    – Winnie the Pooh
  • “I’ll eat you up I love you so.”
    – Maurice Sendak
  • “Every child begins the world again.”
    – Henry David Thoreau
  • “And though she but little, she is fierce.”
    – Shakespeare
  • “... and she loved a boy very, very much-- even more than she loved herself.”
    – Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree
  • “As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen.”
    – Winnie the Pooh
  • “If I have a monument in this world, it is my son.”
    – Maya Angelou


What's in a name?

Whether you’ve chosen to keep it a secret or have already revealed it, the most important part of a Birth Announcement is your baby’s name. This is the part of the announcement that you want to draw the most attention to, by choosing a different font, or making the font larger. The baby’s first and middle names are sort of a given on birth announcements, but if you already know that your child will have a nickname, or will go by something else, it can always be fun to include that as well (for example, Antoinette Nicole, “Toni” or “Theodore James, better known as Elizabeth's little brother ‘TJ’").

As for the details:

It is traditional to give certain details of the baby's birth on the announcement. You can include all of these, only a few, or more-whatever you want to share with others. The common details included on an announcement are the date and time of the birth, the birth weight and length, and the location of the birth. For example:

Samuel Ryan
Born November 1st at 5:25 p.m.
7 pounds, 6 ounces, 20 inches long
Denver, Colorado

Finally, don’t forget yourself! You’re the one with the big announcement, so make sure that you and your partner, and even older siblings are included too. It’s a family affair!

Have any other cute announcement suggestions? We’d love to hear them!