Tag Archive for ‘stationery’ at Inspiration Junkie robayre.com

Tag Archive for 'stationery'

How Many People’s Lives Do you Touch By Sending REAL MAIL?

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on June 8, 2017

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One of the first inspirations I had in making mailart was an editorial in Real Simple magazine, probably in 2000 or 2001. The editor told a short story about lamenting to her mail carrier about only receiving bills and junk mail, and her carrier responded “how do you think I feel, that’s all I deliver anymore?”
I decided then and there that I wanted to make mail that was fun for me to send, fun for my recipient to receive, and fun for all the carriers and postal workers in between my recipient and myself as well! I hope that it brightens not just myself and my friend’s day. I made my first mailart postcard around 2000-2001 (above from Flickr). This was probably a few years before I even discovered there was a whole “mailart” movement/culture/community.
(Side note: I love that the postcard has grass and stars, even in my original mailart that far back.

I honestly think of that Real Simple editor’s letter all the time still. When I make mailart I like to imagine all the hands it passes through between myself and the recipient. When I first started making mailart I focused mainly on postcards because the artwork would be able to be seen by everyone along the way, and while post carriers are probably dissuaded from reading the letters on the back, I’m sure they do and I would sometimes address them and wish them a good day.

That drive to put joy out into the world via mail has resulted in me sending out hundreds and hundreds of pieces of mailart over the years. You can see more of it in my Flickr mailart album

Fast forward to today and that sentiment is just as true as it was in the beginning, though now I like to spread that joy even further by offering my original stationery paper products (like these one of a kind handmade envelopes) in my online shop. Visit robayre.etsy.com today to find some paper treasures that will certainly brighten my day, hopefully your day, your recipient’s day, and all the carriers in between.

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Robayre100Days part 5

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robayre

on November 12, 2016

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For the final installment of my 100 day project recap I’ll be covering my gelatin printing and work that came from that, over the 100 days

From the get go, I’ve been working with my own hand cut paper stencils on the gelatin plate. I want the resulting work to be mine alone. Part of my interest in cutting comes from 7 years doing paste up at the local newspaper. I just may have been told I have a way around an Xacto knife! For a while I tried some acetate, but I think the fact that the plastic is non-porous, just resulted in prints I wasn’t too crazy about. Now I stick exclusively to paper or cardstock, but mostly paper. I’ve been printing for a few years now and still have all the stencils I’ve cut. The first few prints using a new cut stencil are very sensitive and fragile and could tear easily, but after you build up some coats of ink or paint, it makes the stencil stronger and stronger. I haven’t had to retire any yet!

Whenever I’m working on gelatin prints, the stencils will get new layers of color, so they are ever changing. As I flip through the folder I keep them in, I’ll notice beautiful compositions of color and pattern in the layers. I’ve been keeping a collection of these captured images at #robayrestencilstack It is my hope some day to permanently adhere some of these, and either incorporate them into other work, or make them their own Art pieces. The only problem is that it means I’d have to remove them from my usable collection, and/or cut new ones to use again.

scraps from collage cuttings

Pushing paper around

Always gluing some down into little art books

I put together some collections to make some letter writing stationery set headers, using the gelatin printed papers

I just love how these two sets came out, a color version that comes with handmade envelopes from original prints available in my shop here, and

and a black and white set that comes with gray envelopes available in my shop here

That wraps up coverage on the 100 day project, whew! Read the other installments First part, Second part, Third part, Fourth part

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Robayre100Days part 4

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robayre

on November 1, 2016

in General Update, My Artwork, Projects and shop update

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Back for part 4 of my 100 day project. First part, Second part, Third part

Another one of my goals for the 100 day project was to get my etsy shop back up over 100 listed items. In my shop’s glory years (when I averaged a handful of sales a week over several years) I had around 100 items listed in my shop at any time. When I let things slide I realized I had gotten down to less than half that. I’ve been working steadily at bringing it back up again and I think I was around 80 items when the 100 day project began. I did get up to 100 items, but with sales and items expiring, it has dipped below and comes back up again. Now I’ve realized that I really need to get it closer to 110 or so to stay above 100.

This is a little out order, this was my post for day 100. When we bought our house there was a whole wall with pegboard in our basement and one day when I was down there I had the idea of hanging up some of my stationery sets to get a group shot. The lighting is not so great down there, but this was fun to put together. It’s really satisfying to see the collection.

This project was long overdue! Last Christmas my nephew (5 at the time) wanted stationery because he has a couple of pen pals. I designed this “adventure” set for him.

I painted the headers in watercolor, based on things I thought would interest him, dinosaurs, space and treasure maps. When I gave it to him at Christmas, I just printed a few sheets of each and gave them to him loosely. My intention was always to have them in a large notepad for better stability when a little kid is writing in it, so I did just that for the 100 day project. I finally made it into a notepad. 1 single notepad, for my nephew. The bottoms are lined for littles who are learning to write, and the pages alternate with illustrated headers and fully lined sheets. I’d love to design a companion set, and I would love to offer these in my shop, but they would really need to be printed commercially because it takes a lot of time printing and assembling, since each header is significantly larger than the types of headers I print on my regular stationery sets.

I painted some large watercolor patterns to use as additional backgrounds for taking product pictures over. A few years ago I drew out a large scribbly grid in a graph paper style and have been using it a lot. I wanted to make a few others so I’d have some variety.

I made these checkered watercolors above and a black and white stripe in watercolor too, but I still end up using the old grid one mostly anyway. I think they are too busy and too colorful/saturated. Oh well.

A simple lined stationery paper set with the tiny posie theme

I made it using elements from my tiny posie pattern I amade during patternswithanika earlier in the year. This set is available in my shop here.

Inspired by flags during a battle scene on Game of Thrones, I decided to make a notepad. I painted a few of these flag posts before settling on one I liked.

And tested it out to see if I’d be able to write my own messages over the printed black. Success!

For fun I cut down a few of the headers and made them into stickers, where the gel pen was printed on the protective coating, so it can be wiped away and changed as needed.

And the final notepad, which was printed on a natural speckled paper. These notepads are available in my shop. LOVE how it came out. It’s rare that I am inspired and then able to start working on something immediately. That helps so much! I need to make a bar graph that shows how the likeliness of a project coming to fruition declines rapidly as time passes.

Another goal I had for the 100 day project was to update some photos from some classic oldies from my shop, like my recycled envelope stationery sets. They used to be a top seller and I had a lot of returning customers for just this product, but when I let my shop slide they kind of got forgotten about. I still love the product, but I think I need to breathe new life into the listings.

I made a bunch of new envelopes to replenish my stock. I use an old shoe box (as pictured above) to sort and categorize the envelopes. It helps when assembling them, so I know each pack gets a good variety.

And here was an attempt to take a new product picture. One thing people have told me before on a number of occasions is that they don’t understand or know what this product is, and even though I love this picture, I don’t think it helps clarify that. I detail what the product is exactly in the listing, but I think most people look at the picture and decide from there if they are interested or not, and so many may not even get to the details of the listing. Maybe the craziness of this pic would make people click just to find out exactly what is going on? I just don’t know how to photograph this product in a way that makes sense, because all the envelopes are different and the stationery designs are a variety as well. If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear it. Another item on my list for the 100 days (but that I never got to) was of a video that would show what the sets are like.

Looks like I will be back with one last post to wrap things up. Catch up on the previous posts here:

First part, Second part, Third part

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Robayre100Days part 3

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robayre

on October 20, 2016

in General Update, My Artwork and Projects

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Back again with another installment.

The first reason I chose to focus on paper products for my 100 day project was because I had so many letter writing paper sets already designed or in process, but just not produced. It felt SO GOOD to finally cross them off my to-do list and put them out in the world! SO GOOD!

I created this pencil themed stationery set using the pencil illustrations I made earlier this year for Patterns with Anika. I still want to make a skirt with fabric printed with the pencil pattern on it.

I don’t think I have ever shared this set on the blog before, but it was probably the first set that came to mind for projects that I wanted to wrap up. I’ve literally had the original rough sketch, AND the base for the original artwork for this set stuck to the door in my studio for YEARS. It is also probably the first stationery or paper product that I created where the lines were my own scribbled lines, rather than inserted digitally. I painted the frame in watercolor, drew the lines in pencil, scanned it and had it printed professionally. The last step is what really kicks it up a notch, because I personally silk screen print each gold metallic swoosh around the edge. These sets really make me swoon.

#robayre100days cleaning up a scan 19/100 A video posted by robyn wells robayre.etsy.com (@robayre) on May 8, 2016 at 11:39am PDT

Here’s a little video of me trying to clean up a scan. This was a piece that I made on a whim and then it sat forever needing to be completed.

I scanned it and tried cleaning it up, then scrapped it and tried to redo the piece entirely, and scan it afresh, and clean again, just to go back to the original and spend an eternity cleaning it up.

I really liked the quality of the pencil and watercolor on the rough cold press paper, but it made for a nightmare to clean, meanwhile keeping all the great texture where I wanted it.

I finally conquered it and had fun taking pictures for the product listing.

This might look familiar to you as I created this stationery and offered it as a limited time, free printable download, during my 10 year anniversary celebration.

This fun digital set is now available in my shop

Another process shot, while I was setting up a layout.

The strawberries for this came from a few years back. I drew them in pencil, then colored them in very roughly with neo color II watercolor crayons, and then went back in with a wet brush. I think I’ve mentioned it here before, but I took one illustration class in college and one of the things I took away from the class was the importance of scanning while in process and then working over the printed scans. I’m sure I picked it up, because as a graphic designer I know the importance of saving files that way as well. This piece was one that was done in layers that way.

The Strawberry Stationery can be found here in my shop

And here are a couple projects I started, but didn’t finish during the 100 days project

I was looking back through instagram earlier this week and realized that I actually did 3 different daily projects this year (This one and 2 pattern a day months) and I am really proud of myself for all the work I’ve done. That’s it for now. Thank you for visiting and following along on my 100 Day project follow up, stay tuned for more installments, and if you missed the previous ones, you can find them here:

First part, Second part

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#the100dayproject progress

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robayre

on May 31, 2016

in General Update, life, Projects and shop update

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I’m over a third of the way through #the100dayproject. Some days I feel overwhelmed and question why I committed to this project, but more often I’m glad that I did and have been super productive.

My goal was to focus on paper products, and aiming to add 10-15 new products to my shop. I said 10-15 new items because I’ve been trying to get my shop back up to having at least 100 items in it. Since the project began I’ve added 14 (I think) new items to my shop already, that being said, several of those are one-of-a-kind, original items, and I’ve already sold 6 one of a kind items in my shop. Counting all ups and downs, I’m up to 90 items in my shop.

Being this far through the project, I thought I’m overdue to sharing some of these projects.

It started with this drawing, with the appropriate phrase “Here We Go”

I drew it on the very first day to kick off the project.

And turned it into this stationery. I used charcoal envelopes, and instead of ruled lines, scribbly ones that make me so happy.

I also made it into a notepad, because the phrase Here We Go seemed to lend itself well to a checklist, perfect for getting things done, or packing for a trip, etc.

And lastly, and unexpectedly, I had a custom request to make it into a graduation card. I printed it on a light gray paper and did a bit of rearranging of the image.

Stay tuned for more!

More 10 year Etsy Anniversary Celebrations

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robayre

on May 13, 2016

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As I said before, my Etsyversary party is not over yet!

I’m offering this letter writing paper as a free download through the rest of the month! Insert party emojis here, wooooo! I originally created this stationery in 2015, using watercolor lines in what is becoming my signature stationery style, and added a dotted writing line, but I never knew quite what to do with it because the image area bleeds off the edge of the paper. When I was creating my to-do list for #the100dayproject I added it. I’ve finally tackled the file, and now it is available for download! Get it now for free while you can because I will add it to my shop after the month is over.

This letter writing paper is set up with 2 vertical sheets on an 8.5×11″ horizontal paper, and the image bleeds off the edge. If you are printing from home on 8.5×11″, make sure your settings are set to print at landscape, 100% (actual size), best or high quality printing, centered, and print to the edge of the paper. You could also print it out on larger papers and crop it down or print it reduced for super mini stationery papers, cute! Print it back to back for double sided stationery. Once it is printed, cut it in half for two 5.5×8.5″ sheets.

Let me know if you download it and use it, I’d love to see pics of it in use (#robayre), or if anyone tries printing it out on different types of papers, etc.

This is the part where I get all legal on you: This stationery was created and copyrighted by Robyn Wells in 2016. This stationery is for personal use only and may not be reproduced, transferred or sold and profited from in any way. Make good choices, be good people, follow the golden rule. Thank you very much

The download is hosted on Google Drive, so you may need to be logged into google, not sure. Download here: https://goo.gl/ENkbMn

New Stationery Sets

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robayre

on October 4, 2015

in General Update

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As promised, I am back with my prairie project!

After returning from Nachusa I was inspired to watercolor some prairie grass. Using this picture of mine as a reference…

I came up with this…

Which is a fairly loose (read: not botanically correct) interpretation in watercolors, but I really liked it. Originally I was going to go back in and try to paint a really dark green in all of the negative space, but I ended up liking it so much that I was afraid to ruin it. If you know me, I’m not done painting grass, not for a long shot, so something like that might happen again later.

In the meantime, I let the watercolor sit around and I enjoyed it until I came up with the idea of using it for a stationery set. I continued to paint more, added some details and voila!

I created a stationery set which has two designs, one with the grass at the footer, and one with green watercolor stripes as a header. In the past I had customers inquire about double sided stationery and so both sheets are lined on the back as well. The stationery set comes with an assortment of green envelopes and the stationery paper is printed on a lovely Neenah Classic Linen paper (same as my recycled envelope and stationery sets). Find out more details about the stationery set in the etsy listing.

And if that wasn’t enough, I’ve recently started exploring into digital downloads, so I’m offering the same stationery set as a printable download as well. With the printable PDF you can print the prairie stationery on whatever paper your heart desires, AND if you’d like it to double sided or not.

I’ve also started offering this geometric pattern stationery set as a printable download as well!

I’m getting really excited about my etsy shop again. For a long while I wasn’t keeping up with all the changes on etsy, and apparently etsy was making a LOT OF CHANGES. Keep an eye on the shop for new listings that I hope to be adding regularly.

I have been saying this for a long while, but there’s this HUGE trend in greeting and note cards, but to me stationery is and will always be letter writing paper. To me, cards are for a quick thanks or hello, but letter writing paper is for real correspondence. I remember years ago being so sad while searching etsy and seeing the results for stationery was 99% cards. Where were all the letter writing paper sets? Then I read a feature in Stationery Trends about a particular designer (who I can’t find the name of right now) that said her best selling products were letter writing papers and I was all “YESSSSS!” and it really gave me the confidence to keep doing what I love to do, and not feel like I have to bow to trends and start offering only greeting cards. This is not to say that I don’t LOVE cards as well, I do, but I just also love paper and it also has a nostalgia factor for me, of writing long letters and being a dedicated penpal as a kid. I also know that excitement of getting real mail and how much I LOVE pouring over a long letter and rereading it over again. Even when I send postcards I try to fill up ALLLLL the space hoping that the recipient will enjoy it that much more.

Do you write a lot of letters? Or mostly use cards? And when you do write cards, do you find you just jot a few words down or fill it up like a letter?

Giveaway winner announced

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robayre

on February 25, 2014

in General Update

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So, it only took me a few additional days to getting around to the drawing, but here I am.

I wrote out all entries from the instagram post and comments on the blog and the winner is, drum roll please

Jane of Alphabet Pizza!

Congratulations Jane, I know this set will be put to great use!

If you weren’t a winner but would still like a set, please feel free to hop on over to ye olde etsy shop and purchase a set (2) for only $5!

Geometric Stationery Notepaper

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robayre

on February 6, 2014

in General Update

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I have finally listed this fun stationery paper in the shop. Each sheet is 5.5×8.5″, or a half sheet of letter sized paper. The top is a pattern I painted in watercolor (I’ve used it for a number of things) and the lines are scanned lines I drew out freehand with pencil and lots of scribbly character.

The stationery is BEAUTIFUL, I’m so pleased with it! While I normally print most of my paper products at home or at print/copy shop, I had the opportunity to print these at my work on a huge four color offset press. I dream of the day that I would be able to design full lines and have them all printed professionally like that.

I created this listing for 20 sheets of paper, but what do you think? Is that enough, too much?

When doing research for the product I found many people are now offering stationery papers as immediate printable downloads. This way a person could print it for themselves at home, for much cheaper. For someone who makes her livelihood in the print industry you wouldn’t suspect I’d be so excited. I definitely want to design products specifically for this purpose in the future. I have been toying with offering this design as immediate download as well. I even created a listing that is draft mode. I just haven’t quite been able to pull the trigger.

I know that if I designed certain things specifically for printable download I would be fine with it. I’ll have my logo on it and disclaimers in the listing. I will have designed it knowing it has wings to fly on its own. But, for some reason on this stationery, although it was a spontaneous design, I don’t think I’m quite ready to just put it out there for people to do whatever they want with it. This design is too close to my heart, if that makes sense. I’d be crushed if I found out someone altered the design or used parts for their own gain. It kind of makes me think of the music industry and how once you have digital files, what keeps people from sharing, and sampling uncredited, etc. ? I may make my livelihood working at a printing company, designing work for other people, but my own heart goes into my personal work offered online and in my etsy shop.

I don’t know, I’m just so torn. What do you think?

Stationery come to life

Published

robayre

on November 21, 2013

in General Update, life and My Artwork

. 3 Comments

I am so excited to share this little video (below) with you. I shot it on my ipod and put it together in instagram. It just gives you a 15 second glimpse into offset printing of some stationery I whipped together.

I am the in-house designer for an offset printing company. We print everything from newspapers and magazines, down to brochures, letterhead and business cards (and everything in between). Sometimes on the rare occasion, and if I’m lucky, we print a job that only requires so much space printed on a big sheet of paper, leaving an open hole. This week I scrambled to put together a quick little note paper for writing letters. You may remember this pattern that I made below.

I’ve used the pattern to make little notebooks and note cards before. But, earlier this week I scrambled to use that pattern as a masthead on some stationery. I already had the image scanned and saved on a jump drive, and then I drew out some loose pencil lines, scanned them and put them together to make the above stationery that I am IN LOVE WITH! It’s a good thing too because I have enough to write letters for the rest of my life.

I was on cloud nine when I pulled it together because often an available hole shows up very last minute and there isn’t time to design something and get it ready for the press in time. The print world moves FAST! You’d think that I’d learn by now and have a whole folder of projects to pull from for last minute, but the holes are never predictable in size or nature. One time it might be a job that is being printed in an odd spot color only, or it might be a business card sized hole and another time it might be something printed on label paper. But this time, I had an idea and pounced quickly. I was so excited all day and told Matt that it would be my DREAM job to get to design things like this all the time and get to see them go from my original handwork to a final printed product. I love designing for print, but it’s almost always other people’s design ideas and I’m just executing it. It’s not very often that my personal creative side and professional side get to cross paths and it felt amazing.

Maybe I’ll share some in my etsy shop?

Inspiration Junkie robayre.com