1. How-to: Back-to-school lunch labels

    treat bags

    Take treats for school in paper bags with adorable personalized labels. Run our large circle labels through the printer with our print template or write each name by hand. An adorable back-to-school design that is great for single lunches or an entire classroom!

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  2. Inside PS: Careers at Paper Source

    Customers often ask us what it’s like to work at a place that inspires people to Do Something Creative Every Day. The short answer: inspiring, challenging and rewarding.

    As you can imagine, most of us were customers first, just hitting up our favorite store for DIY projects, handmade gifts or the big one – wedding invitations! Few of us gave thought to the possibility of starting a career with our favorite paperie.

    paper source careers

    Courtney Market started her career at our Evanston store and now manages our Austin store. “I was a customer before I was an employee, and when I saw there was an opportunity to work in such a unique environment I jumped at it,” said Courtney. “It’s great to be part of a family of such creative people—from the buyers, to design team, to the associates in the stores!”

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  3. Crafting mishap? You’re not alone.

    Whenever I read crafting blogs, the first thing I think after seeing a project is, “Wow, that’s adorable!” Then I usually follow with, “Now how can I do that?” Often I am too intimidated to give it a try, opting to simply admire the crafter’s talent without attempting to re-create it myself.

    I’ve come to realize that blogs are just suggestions. They have an inadvertent tendency to deceive, making the process look simple and rarely showing the potential flaws.

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  4. Get wise with stylish new supplies

    Office Supplies

    If you’ve had time to flip through our latest catalog you probably found yourself having a hoot with our new line of office organization products.

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  5. Butterfly inspired baby shower invitations

    I am expecting my first baby in seven short weeks. It is a truly amazing time. I have loved sharing (possibly over-sharing) details with my family, friends and coworkers. A few weeks ago, family and friends threw me a butterfly-themed baby shower in my hometown.

    Because I’m a Paper Source employee and former invitation designer, my hostesses felt some stress when coming up with an invitation for the event but, after a bit of collaboration, we came up with the most darling idea using our die-cut butterfly cards. (Note: Layout was a little tricky, but we just kept testing on white printer paper until it was perfect. Then, we used removable double-stick tape to attach the butterflies to a full sheet and fed them one-by-one through the printer.) At the shower, there was a matching banner and little butterfly gift tags to tie the entire theme together.

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  6. Pasadena inspiration: Bridal shower style

    Paper Source Fan Jennifer W. shared her DIY projects from a shower she recently co-hosted. As a regular of our Pasadena store, Jennifer worked with our team to create a bridal shower theme that perfectly celebrated the couple’s wedding plans.

    Since the wedding colors were black and white with hits of red, I thought a theme of red with hints of black and white would be a nice twist.

    Jennifer paired our graphic Iron Scroll Wrapping Paper with Red and Eco-White solid papers and envelopes, using this palette for everything from invitations to menu cards to favors.

    Her DIY bridal shower creations were too pretty to pass up. Our only questions is: Did the cupcakes taste as good as the favor boxes look?

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  7. Festive pennant garland gift wrap

    I’m loving the pennant garlands I see online. Whether made from paper or fabric, strung inside or outside, and used for kids or adults, they are perfectly festive. And I especially love them when they are scaled down to a miniature version (take a look at the tiny birthday garland Annie made…adorable). For simple, yet incredibly festive gift wrap, I used our craft box and wrapped a strand of pennants around the box a few times.

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  8. Upcoming workshop: Mono-Print & Stitched Booklet

    diy_monoprints

    In grad school I fell in love with the rich colors and layered textures of mono-prints, so you can imagine my thrill when I discovered the Letterpress Machine Combo Kit can recreate these luscious prints. Using the components of the kit, plus a few extra ink colors, rubber stamp resists and accents, I printed on our wonderful collection of papers. It took only a few minutes to create dramatic results!

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  9. Chicagoland inspiration: Cantigny Park

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    cantigny gardens

    As Paper Source expands in Chicagoland I thought my weekend adventure to a destination near two of our newest suburban stores might interest artists and crafters who seek local inspiration.

    A good friend told The Mister and I about Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL. Read More

  10. How-to: Simple page markers

    DIY bookmark

    If you’re like me and haven’t gone completely digital… or you hate dog earring pages in your favorite books…then you’ll appreciate this simple how-to! These page savers are so FUNctional! Kids will enjoy making them and adding them to notebooks or text books.

    –Annie
    PS colors: peacock & paper bag
    Latest fave: Spritzer Rubber Stamp Cleaner and Rubber Stamp Cleaning Pad

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