Exciting News! Artisanal LA Collaboration

Dear Friends,

I am so thrilled to announce that my application to show with Artisanal LA at the Las Vegas Market come Summer has been approved!

This will be my first ever wholesale trade show so I'm a ball of emotions at the moment. But I will be joining fellow stationer pals and vets in the industry so I rest easy I will not be completely alone in this exciting adventure!

Save the dates on July 30th thru August 2nd! More details soon to follow!

Love & Letters,

My Favorite Things: Round-up for Mom

Middle image | 
Clockwise from top: Multi-language Mother's Day Note Card | Anthropologie Bee Watch | Cactus Concrete Planter and Plant Combo | Stay Majestic Art Print | Tory Burch Flats | Italian Soft Leather Crossbody Tote | Plamplune Grapefruit and Peach Wine | Nars 'Cruising' Lipstick | Mother's Day Monogram Note Card | Deep Green Cardigan


Dear friends,

I've put together this mood board with mothers in mind, filling it with carefully selected pieces of gifts that I'd love to gift my mother. Works for mother's day (that's fast approaching), holidays, her birthday or just to simply say 'I love you'.

Each item will give you an idea of how my mother is: lowbrow yet tasteful and ever so practical. My Mah turns casual into trendy but always goes for the comfortable as well as timeless. So if splurging a little means you'll get your money's worth in the end, well then, it's a no-brainer.

We don't come from money. We're middle class as middle class go. My Mah taught me expensive brands don't mean anything if you don't know how to wear it in a way that flatters you. So we find the good with the cheap, and trust me, we always do! The one best lesson when shopping that she imparted to me that is somewhat of a double-edged sword is: "Buy it now or spend time thinking about it later only to find it's already gone when you go back for it. Anyway, you can always return it if you change your mind. This way, there are less regrets in life." 

Then off we go to the clearance section.

Now, I feel like I really have to explain the addition of the cactus planter on here, well, maybe most moms prefer a bouquet of flowers. Feel free to switch it up. I just know that my Mah, being the green thumb that she is - prefers to have something that lasts longer with as little fuss as possible. So there you have it.

The Letter Parade products featured above are:

 Mother's Day Monogram Note Card, $5.00 Click here to shop.

 Multi-Language Mom Note Card, $4.50 Click here to shop.

Stay Majestic 11" x 14" Art Print, $34.00
Click here to shop. Also available in 8"x10" size art print as well as single and boxed set of 8 note cards.

What other gift ideas for mom do you recommend? 

Love & Letters,

My Favorite Things Round-up: SPRING EDITION

Middle image: Late Afternoon blog | 
Clockwise from top: 
When Life Throws You Lemons 8x10 Art Print
Lemon Basil Soy CandleThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Lemons Letter Set
Dress Jacket by Le3No
When Life Throws You Lemons Note Card
Tufted Armchair by One Kings Lane
Lemon Drops Note Card
Gold accented Round Sunglasses

Who doesn't love yellow? If there could be a more endearing shade in the color palette it's only another version of yellow. The happy color; the sight of yellow generally invokes pleasant feelings.

My idea of spring is yellow with gray - just a subtle touch of elegance like this outfit by Late Afternoon blog. A simple casual yellow shirt dressed up by metallic tones ready for warmer nights out.

If it isn't obvious until now, I'm crazy about the color gray. It's such a beautiful neutral shade that goes with just about every color of the rainbow. So when I designed a more Spring-inspired line, adding yellow to the mix was a natural choice.

When Life Throws You Lemons 8x10 Art Print (frame not included); Pre-order here.

Lemons Letter Set comes with 8 8.5"x5.5" writing sheets, 4 lined envelopes and 4 envelope sealers.
Pre-order here.

When Life Throws You Lemons Note Card. Get this here.

 Lemon Drops Note Card available single or boxed set of 8. Get this here.

 

 The Lemon Drops design also inspired the March desktop printable calendar and printable stationery (below)  that I share exclusively to newsletter subscribers. Sign-up now to get new designs every month delivered straight to your inbox!

After putting together this mood board, a story has revealed itself to me: a woman getting ready to go out for cocktails and dinner decided to kick off her strappy shoes, picks up The Great Gatsby, lights up the candle and proceeds to get comfortable in the light gray tufted chair to read all night long. Yes, I believe those are my kind of nights these days but with a more casual attire, like say, sweatpants and t-shirt. Ha!


What's your color story?


Love & Letters,

LETTER PARADE: Blog Overhaul

Blogs are here to stay and are like multivitamins to any brand in this day and age. And if it can't be done consistently, why even bother? And if the content is next to garbage, I say stick to the diary. So here's me resurrecting my blog feeling like it's New Year's day and so full of resolutions.

Introducing,

I will be posting my blogs under five categories broken up into...

California Love   |   Paper Crush   |   Behind the Brand   |   Letter Parade   |   Art & Music

...because the above are what matters to me and will serve as a manual so I won't be writing about science in the near future unless it directly relates to paper or Letter Parade for that matter.

These are the blogs that have served and continue to be strong sources of inspiration for me. The ladies behind these blogs are tour de force and epitomize the true meaning of Girl Boss. I look up to each and every one of them and follow in their foot steps. They are doing what they love, make money doing so and live very fulfilling lives. What won't I find inspiring in that?

No. 1


OSBP is a household name in the stationery industry. The blog that a hopeful stationer like myself can only dream of being featured. This is run by Nole Garey and she hosts Paper Parties in New York in conjunction to the yearly National Stationery Show. This party is the real deal and prestigious AF and it's by invitation only exclusive to big names in the industry. A girl can dream, right?


No. 2

The Paper Chronicles penned by Sarah Schwartz who is only the editor-in-chief of the highly regarded and well-designed trade magazine Stationery Trends. Her love for stationery and her achievements play a big role in the continued success stationers like myself enjoy in this crazy whirlwind consumer-driven world.

No. 3

In every industry you'll be lucky to come across gems like Eva Jorgensen who, not only make it their mission to give back to the community but aid the ones following along their footsteps like myself. Surely they didn't need to do that but they did anyway and thank goodness for their genuine kindness because I've learned so much taking her webinars Stationery Biz 100: Start Strong and Stationery Biz 200: Wholesale. Her blog reflects the authenticity of her brand which is unmistakably her and it flows so well to her other social media platforms. Sycamore Street Press is a perfect example of a successful brand.

There's more to add but I'll save those for another post. In the mean time, follow me on Instagram @letterparade 
Here are some of my recent posts:

Love and Letters,

Framed & Lovely

Hello friends!

My blog entry "Free Stuff Monday" last month had subscriber Marinette suggesting that I should post the free stuff here instead of posting on my face book page where I've shared ten stationery designs that are free to be downloaded and printed for personal correspondence. Though I only have 32 followers here and 272 (and counting!) on face book, I know it's wrong and unfair to neglect sharing with my faithful subscribers here. So, to Marinette and you my faithful reader, I am making up for it starting with these three new stationery designs I call 'Framed & Lovely.'

Design No.1 - "Black Flowers"
I was looking into my old designs and dug up one of the Paris-inspired note cards I did way back at the urging of my mother-in-law, Donna. The pink frame accent struck a creative chord that lead to the creation of all three in this series. I may want to create more in the same style, or create a completely different design. 

Design No. 2 - "Sea Creatures"
So far, all the ten stationery designs I've shared through my face book page had nothing on summer, and it's terrible because it's my favorite season! So, here's to summer and the countless fun memories I've had at the beach growing up as an island girl.

Design No. 3 - "Tribal"
This one uses elements that I've previously used on an earlier stationery design. I love these characters so you'll definitely be seeing more of them here!

I am seriously considering getting these printed and sell as notepads on my shop only if they're worth putting on the shelf. What do you think?

Free Stuff Monday

Hello friends!

I hope you all had a fun July 4th celebration! The long weekend for me was filled with pounds of meat and grilled veggies, thanks to the company of good friends! Now, easing back to work isn't at all that bad.

Now let's talk about 'print-at-home' stationery. Have you purchased a downloadable file or two from Etsy or any other online source? There are lots of them and some have really amazing designs! For a few $, you can store many images ready to print at your disposal the next time you write someone a letter. What a wonderful idea! Alas, instead of selling my own, I decided to give it away! I've recently uploaded two designs that you can find via Letter Parade face book page delivered fresh every Monday. So if you are tired of the same boring lined paper, add a stylish touch by printing my designs over! It's that easy!

Here are the two previously shared designs:
"Peacock Stationery" and "Pink Roses and Butterflies" by Letter Parade.
Download high resolution here.

Once downloaded and you are ready to print, open file and hit CTRL + P to view print options, make sure to adjust printer settings to "FIT TO SCREEN / PAGE" and select NORMAL for print quality. You may print front and back and as many copies as you like! Works with any letter paper (8.5" x 11"). Now remember, the print will not completely bleed, or cover the entire paper as is common for at home printers. You will find a few centimeters of gap on the edges of the paper not printed. If you want a "full bleed" look, simply cut the sides as shown on the guide below.

More designs to follow! You are free to print unlimited number of copies for personal use only. All I ask in return is please DO NOT RESELL OR SHARE this file regardless of format (electronic or printed). If you like these copyrighted designs and know someone who will, too, just have them visit this blog or my face book page where they can download these files and enjoy more designs delivered every Monday!

Happy writing!

Cindy Gonzales - Kujat

Letter Parade -UPDATE

Hello friends!

Happy 4th of July to all you Americans and to my husband who has yet to wake up and decide what to do today to celebrate his freedom and love for his country. To those of you who are wondering why I'm going to have to sit this one out or be a wallflower, that's because I am not American. I do love America, don't get me wrong. And very soon I, too will be American citizen, until then I will pour damn good wine and give a toast to you America!

I know it's been a while since my last post, this seems to be the norm with me nowadays! I am currently juggling several projects here and there but I'm happy to say, letter-writing and postcard-sending have not been put on hold. Nobody can possibly deny me the joy of this hobby!

I must admit, I have been tempted many times to close my Etsy shop, but alas, the SAD QUEEN rescued me and though struggling with time, I pressed on. To those who have no clue what my Sad Queen project is all about, read my previous entry here. It's a fun monthly design commitment for me and have gotten lots of wonderful feedback from my friends at Postcard Exchange and the folks at Postcrossing!

Here are some of the new products you can find on my shop:

The Pin-up Floral Envelope Sealers. 
I love the pin-up girls, they are one of the wonderful reminders of how fun my last creative job was despite how brief the contract ended. These girls are forever embedded on my creative genes and you will see them in a lot of my works and paper goods at Letter Parade.

 The Sad Queen postcard - JUNE 

This has been posted late, for which I had not found the time to blog about.

Sober - a love quote postcard.

From my 'Old Musings' archive way back that I finally was able to recreate with a new design for a postcard. Again, I think postcard is such a versatile medium in sharing art. It makes me happy thinking this little darling is gracing somebody's mailbox and greeted with a smile. What a heart-warming transaction!

Missing - a love quote postcard

Another one from my 'Old Musings' archive. Writing short quotes is a fun skill I've gotten from my grandma 'Vencia who was exceptionally talented and an amazing music teacher who then passed it on to my Dad. It was fun to tell their writings apart growing up as they both had very different styles.

So these are what's new and up about Letter Parade. I hope you like the new stuff! If you have more time to kill today, and are in the mood for reading more about paper products, I suggest you head over to Missive Maven's blog who did a wonderful stationery compilation yesterday.

Have an amazing JULY everybody!

Happy writing!

Cindy Gonzales - Kujat

The Sad Queen Postcard Series

Hi friends!

Whoa! I got sidetracked there for a while. But yes, oh yes my 2011 is going great, thank you! I hope the same goes for you!

Much apologies for the long absence. What? Three months it's been. Let's see, my day job well, I can't complain and music continues to play, louder it seems... my Etsy shop, however, I would quote a good friend and fellow Etsyian Jessica of A Cup of Green Ginger that "you get out of it what you put into it." Though it hasn't been too much effort put in for mine, recently, I've added a new series of Postcards called 'The Sad Queen' and have circulated a handful of the February and March series to newfound friends via this awesome facebook group Postcard Exchange, and of course via Postcrossing. I am happy to report I've had several requests for swaps (postcards) along with "favorite" clicks and have sold some, too.

Let me explain the concept behind the Sad Queen postcard series. I have to admit, I am all over postcards now, I used to be just crazy about letters but little did I know then that these two come hand-in-hand. Well, throw in stamps, too, but I'm still getting there. And of course, I've slowly been exposed to different types of postcards, and to my surprise, there are hundreds and hundreds! No wonder they bring so much joy to postcard enthusiasts and collectors alike. So, I was particularly fond of postcard books, literally, a book a size of a postcard that contains pages and pages of postcards that you can tear and mail out. What a wonderful idea! I married that to an excuse to create something at the start of the year, and what products would spring up to mind but calendars? Though too late to come up with one now, I decided to produce one postcard every month until I have a full twelve enough to compile into a postcard book that will also serve as a calendar. So this is my task at hand.

The story of the Sad Queen herself is an ongoing one. I progress into the story as I go from month to month and what better way to start but the month of Love, February, when the sad Queen hits her all-time low.

Well, with all that being said, I present to you The Sad Queen February, March and April.

These, along with lots of new stuff since my last blog entry can be found at my Etsy shop. And the 10% discount offer exclusive for you still stands just use this code upon checkout LPARADEFRNDS10!

Thanks for reading and happy writing!!!

Cindy Gonzales-Kujat

Letter Parade Opens Shop on Etsy!!

Hi friends!

I'm happy to announce that the Letter Parade online shop is finally open! You can visit it here. After unsuccessfully running GKkards with poor product shots that didn't do justice and just wasted posting fees, I vowed to do things differently with Letter Parade. It seems like with the coming new year, it's just a perfect timing to get this thing up and running!

So today, with a borrowed pro camera, I tried my hand on product styling using my "flower series" thank you cards and came up with these:

 

 

 

I must be doing things right that in just a few hours after uploading these and more photos to my online shop, another member featured one of my 'thank you' cards in her treasury! Thank you DoodleBugFramesEtc !

So come check out the shop! I will be filling it with more products and yes it's going to be all about letters, stationery, paper goods, postcards, etc. to get you corresponding in style! 

And maybe you have some ideas on designs that you'd like me to create for you? I can do that, too!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LetterParade

Happy writing and browsing/shopping!

Cindy Gonzales-Kujat

Shopping for Some (unique) Writing Stuff

From time to time, I like to surprise my pen friends across the globe or at the next state over little stuff like odd postcards, cute stationery, or envelopes made out of torn magazine pages (yes, fashion pages make wonderful sturdy envelopes!). Opting for a colored paper can do so much to add pizazz to an already interesting letter. Every letter writer knows this!

The neighborhood Michael's offers cheap and cute stationery, they have a section where you can dig up colorful and beautifully designed writing pads for under a buck! Or sign-up for their newsletter and get discount coupons as often as once a week. Jo-Ann is also another arts and crafts store that supposedly offers more for a lot less than Michael's, but we'll leave that to whoever runs the 'smart shopping' blog.

But today, I'm going to let you in on an amazing online store that I have been buying cool items from, not just for this hobby, it's also my go-to site for buying unique gifts. It's called Uncommongoods.com and it stands by its name! Here are the items I've been eye-ing lately that I'm sure my pen friends would love to see in their mailbox:

1) Memo Postcard (ceramic $15)
    Like a dry-erase board only a lot chic-er

2) Postcardens (available in 'City', 'City' "Greetings" packaging, 'Botanical Garden', and 'Botanical Garden' packaging "Thinking of You" $12.50)
    A postcard for the gardener or Architectural enthusiast in you or a pal

 3) Stitching Postcard (set of two $10)
     Now this is just ingenious! You can actually map out your routes using the thread and needle included in the kit. If you find yourself backpacking throughout Europe, what a great way to send this one out instead of having multiple postcards! You can choose between USA, Europe or the world.

4) Blackmail Cards (set of two postcards $8)
    Uncommongoods.com has endless list of very unique and quirky stuff like this one. The postcards come in blank so you can stick the lettered fonts to make it look like a ransom note. Imagine how much fun this would be for you and whoever you're sending it to!

5) Postcard Mug (one cup comes with a special Pebeo marker with ink especially made for ceramic - $40)
    Unlike those other mugs that you can write on, this one you can seal it permanently so the ink won't rub off when you wash it, simply bake it in the oven for 35 mins at 300F!

6) Saw Letter Opener ($15)
    I have always been opening my letters the only way I know how, by trailing my fingers through the folded edges and I personally love the look of a ruggedly opened letter, but I suppose you can also find joy in using this saw if you're used to doing things right and clean.

7) Shoe Letter Opener ($15)
    A more feminie version.

8) Elephant Poo Paper Journal and Note Box (choose between the 20-paged journal or the note box with 70 slips of paper - $14)
    Just recently, my pal from NM sent me this clever note cards made entirely out of Elephant Poo! I am all out for recycling and upcycling and making use of an otherwise wasteful matter just blows my mind! It reminds me of this one fashion designer who made use of discarded salmon scales on her accessories collection like how we use snakeskin. Amazing!

9) Panda Poo Paper (notepad, greeting cards and journal - sold in sets or individually - $8 - $24)

    I don't know where all this poo-recycling could lead to, hopefully we can stick to just poo's of our grass-consuming friends. On the bright side, these products are highly recyclable and DO NOT STINK at all.

10) Horse Poo Paper: Note Box and Journal (choose between the 20-paged journal or the note box with 70 slips of paper - $14)
      For your pen pal who has a ranch, a few lean horses and is horse-crazy and looks like she has everything. She probably doesn't have this. Well, she has the real thing I'm sure.

11) Bacon Flavored Envelopes - Set of 25 ($7)
      Yes we're done with Poo.
      I remember the time when scented pens and stationery were all the craze between my girlfriends and I in high school, but the scents were always on the fruity and floral side. Never in our youth would we imagine to ever come across a bacon-flavored envelope!!! But here it is! And it can only mean the beginning of more bacon-flavored stuff!

12) Plantable Wish Cards (12 wish cards plus three pencils - $10)
      Another wonderful idea! You can send out a prayer, greetings and well wishes by writing it all down on the circular cards, plant it and voila! You get a variety of flowers sprouting out in a few weeks.

So for your next Christmas party, you need not panic but visit http://www.uncommongoods.com/. They have a large selection on gifts under $50 or $25 for the kids, coworkers, neighbors - they have just about everything for everyone!

Keep checking back on their website because they are constantly adding unique items.

Snag any of the items above and have a blast writing!

Cindy Gonzales-Kujat