What is success exactly? That is the question Kristen Ley began asking herself following the meteoric rise of her paper and gift brand Thimblepress. Taking her creations from Etsy shop to Target shelves in a few short years was a dream come true, but at what cost?

Caught up in a mindset of "hurry rush do," Kristen became scattered. "I was spinning out, doing way too much, and not taking care of my mental and physical self," she wrote me. "I had put off doctor's appointments for years, I was cutting my own hair, and I was eating a very poor diet that kept me in a perpetual cycle of sickness. I was a mess."

So, Kristen decided to look inwards, slow down to an almost complete halt — including on social media! — and truly reevaluate what was actually going on in her business and heart.

As a result, she completely restructured her business — and mindset — so that Thimblepress serves her, not the other way around. These days you will find Kristen not only developing her own product range, but collaborating with others for a true design win-win. Whatever role you play in our community, you'll be inspired by this industry powerhouse's grace, strength and wisdom.

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Most of today's young stationery makers grew up swooning over our medium, but Libby Llanso of Seedlings literally grew up working in our trade. As the daughter of Legacy Publishing Group's Cathy and Carlos Llanso, her childhood was filled with packing orders, attending various markets and helping her mom select art for the next year's release. 

But rather than continuing the status quo, when Libby came on board, she was able to create the range she envisioned. Thus Seedlings sprouted from Legacy — much like wildflowers spring from every last Seedlings envelope. With its focus on vibrant color, authentic messaging and sustainability, this innovative range keeps the medium exciting, fresh and fun. 

This organic approach has distinguished Seedlings in a rather crowded maker market. The Louie Awards are the greeting card equivalent to the Academy Awards, and last April, Seedlings' gorgeous and heartfelt sympathy design snagged the stationery equivalent to Best Picture: Card of the Year, over $5. Then, last summer, Libby was named to the 2022 Gift + Stationery 40 under 40 class, another enormous honor. Not too shabby for a 26-year-old!

Tune in to hear Libby spill on the lessons learned from her upbringing, and what she seeks to originate. Her devotion to sustainability is not only passionate, it is practical, as Libby is helping bring necessary change and progress to the industry as she simultaneously keeps the medium mesmerizing to the next generation of paper nerds.  

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If you ever wanted to put your truth out there and hesitated due to the response you feared you’d get, hesitate no longer. Just ask Jocelyn + Roland Kirouac of Ümlaut Brooklyn. Although this range has a reputation for having the proverbial potty mouth, their product actually doesn't contain a lot of profanity. 

What it does have, however, is the couple's uncensored and occasionally shocking take on the world around them. Thus, while their stationery is practically guaranteed to make you laugh out loud — "outrageous times deserve outrageous cards" is their working mantra — their Instagram feed reflects their belief that it's impossible to separate your personal views and politics from your creativity. 

COVID-19 continues to color their approach to exhibiting in person at markets. For Jocelyn and Roland, the plague is not yet over. While they hope and plan to return to in-person market appearances — a notion I heartily endorse! — for now they're relying on those often-overlooked sales dynamos, road reps. They have so many, they can't name them all — and these "trade shows on wheels" literally drive their wholesale sales, even on Faire.

Finally, nearly every brand is expected to have a cause-related element, but Ümlaut Brooklyn carefully considered the inroads they wanted to pave before establishing their Young Artist Grant. Their philanthropic approach is as heartfelt as their cards are zany, and I'm hoping other makers in our community are inspired to similarly nurture the next generation of creatives! 

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If you've ever felt creatively restricted by your corporate job, move over! Brittany O’Brien of Brittany Paige Designs feels your pain, but better yet, she acted on it. She launched her namesake brand in 2017 with six greeting cards — all concerning break-ups — and although the release was small, it proved to be incredibly powerful. With it, Brittany was officially uncensored, untethering herself from how she was in her words "taught to be small." 

Unsurprisingly, her stationery and gift range struck a collective nerve, and this one-woman operation accordingly grew exponentially — just ask her 500+ stockists, or maybe one of her 20K+ TikTok followers.

When the Dobbs ruling dropped in late June, Brittany channeled her energy into not just representing and interpreting the collective frustration of many Americans, but infusing some financial muscle as well. 

First she pre-released a powerful "They Won't Stop at Roe' sticker June 24, with 100% of proceeds benefiting Arc Southeast. Then she got 29 other gift and stationery brands on board to donate all online sales for one day — July 12 — to The National Network of Abortion Funds. In all, over $15K was raised, with Brittany donating a cool grand.

Brittany opens up about her approach to infusing her beliefs into her merchandise, lessons learned from July 12 and a peek into what she's showcasing at NY NOW. Finally, her take on that "cringey app I was resistant to," TikTok, is not to be missed! 

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Do you want to unleash that creative powerhouse that resides within you? Then you absolutely cannot miss my chat with Stacie Bloomfield. This design dynamo was just named a 2022 40 Under 40 Honoree by Stationery Trends and Gift Shop Plus magazines, and it will become pretty apparent, pretty quickly, why I gave her a perfect score when I judged the entries.  

Stacie literally grew Gingiber, her Arkansas paper and home goods company, from her kitchen table to a seven-figure business now carried by over 1000 stores around the globe. Interestingly, her Gingiber journey began when she couldn't find nursery art she liked for her childrens' rooms, but as her children have grown, so too has her voice blossomed.

But Stacie didn't stop there. Genuinely wanting to encourage other makers, she founded The Creative Powerhouse Society. Stacie is as transparent as she is vulnerable, sharing every last pitfall and win, and ultimately freeing everyone in her powerful orbit to forge their own path, and completely customize it to their liking no less. 

From the potential hazards of sharing your personal views to the knowledge that your follower count does not dictate your income, Stacie drops bits of creative and entrepreneurial wisdom like proverbial crumbs in the forest for us all to follow. Miss this empowering episode at your own risk! 

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Hold onto your undated planners everyone, Rosanna is here, and my, does she have a lot to spill! When I last checked in with her, pre-pandemic, the founder of this letterpress brand and Los Angeles shop had just lost her husband and co-founder Joel to brain cancer, leaving their 18-month-old  daughter Judith behind as well.  Our stationery community is such that we rallied around Rosanna from around the nation however we could, but it was Rosanna's fortitude and mindset that enabled her to triumph. 

Not only has Rosanna survived, she and Shorthand have thrived, with the latter growing according to the traditional definition of a corporation — "work being done by a group of people that cannot be achieved by an individual" — and she proudly and stably employs an ever-growing team of LA gig-economy creatives. 

Shorthand also has a new official name as well as its largest release  ever this summer, exhibiting at the Dallas and Atlanta markets respectively in June and July and Shoppe Object in New York in August.  So just like the office goods and stationery Shorthand lovingly creates and curates, there is a lot more going on here than initially meets the eye. This episode takes a deep dive into life, love and letterpress, and as such is not to be missed!

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We all know that a life lived in letters is a far richer one, but what about the letter itself? Former university vice president, professor, policy advisor, attorney and poet Wendy Hind tackled this question, and you may be surprised at the results. 

The mission of her Tiny Poetry Project is to give, not receive, so for her poems printed on plantable paper, being stationery is just one step in its circle of life. After being read and digested, each notecard or postcard can be planted to yield wildflowers; any envelopes are 100% recycled and card sleeves are plant-based and compostable. Tiny Poetry cards are kind to our hearts and the environment, Wendy emphasizes.

The tagline of Tiny Poetry Project, medicine for the soul, alludes to Wendy's attachment to narrative medicine, which began after her own son was born with a life-threatening congenital heart condition. This medical approach utilizes patients' narratives in clinical practice, research, and education as a way to promote healing, and Wendy also conducts narrative medicine workshops and contributes to various poetry and medical humanities blogs and podcasts. 

So, although Wendy is brand new to the wholesale stationery game, her perspective may just leave you rethinking not just your approach, but the magical potential of the medium to connect and even heal. 

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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 American Express “Make Mine a $Million Business” contest for women entrepreneurs. 

Yet it only appeared easy from the outside; as Bonnie was building the Bonnie Marcus Collection of invitations, stationery, partyware and gifts, she was also raising three sons. For years at National Stationery Show, she would duck away from her booth while writing wholesale orders for baby shower invitations and announcements to nurse in the restroom next door. Such is the Mom-friendly spirit of our paper community that the booth space itself was implemented onto the show floor by management just to accommodate this new Mom's needs! 

Today, two of those sons are college age, and Bonnie has shifted much of her wholesale business to the licensing model, but she still brings her unmistakable sense of style — to say nothing of hard-won wisdom and a surprise or two — to The Paper Fold. 

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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 her own wedding — but soon realized she has a special affinity for one-liners. 

So, quicker than you can say "good thing you're hot because your farts are nasty," an award-winning range was born. Now this fellow INFJ and GenXer swings by to discuss building a range, quickly transforming pop culture trends into cutting-edge messaging, and turning life's challenges into the correspondence that connects us. 

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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 Studio was officially born. Since then, the lifestyle range has grown slowly and organically alongside Ken's other career, designing New York Times bestselling and Newbery Medal winning children’s books, and Rachel Lauren's, as an actor and producer.

The lovebirds drop into The Paper Fold to discuss how a personal connection to nostalgic childhood properties like Winnie the Pooh can be reinterpreted into a loveable cast of characters who feel simultaneously familiar and fresh. Best of all, mirroring the animal menagerie that appears on Lobster Studio merchandise, Ken and Rachel are part of a real-life Stationery Gang, populated with makers from several other growing stationery brands. Just like a card, this gang provides key support behind the scenes to help them all grow, thrive, and in turn connect others through their offerings.

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