Working at Papernation I obviously love stationery of all sorts and I’m a collector of bits and bobs to clutter up my desk.  It’s not a conscious decision to buy or acquire “desk accessories”, it just happens.

Anyway I was looking at this rather ugly paperclip pot -

- and I thought  it could do with a bit of refurbishment and I had just the thing – my MT tape – and here’s the finished result, which I think is quite cool -

MT tape is masking tape in fabulous colours and designs from Japan.  It has so many uses I can’t list them here but it’s great for wrapping presents, sticking photos in a travel journal and decorating  just about anything.  It’s also great because you can peel it off, re-position it and re-use it.

You can see a range of the tape that we have here but be sure to check back as we have new designs coming next week.

The tape comes in an array of gorgeous colours and patterns, as well as different widths.  Here are a few to whet your appetite:

Using the tape couldn’t be simpler – just stick it on the item you want to decorate – and if it doesn’t look exactly right, just peel it back and start again! Because it’s a paper tape, you can write on it too!

And if you need some ideas on what to create with this fabulous tape, here’s some inspiration:

Use the tape to:

• frame your kids’ art on the fridge
• decorate a pen pot for your desk
• create mini bunting
• pimp your Moleskine or other notebook
• mark important pages in a book
• decorate writing paper and envelopes
• make greeting cards or scrapbook collages

Some great examples:

Photos courtesy of MT Masking Tape

And finally – my own creation…I made this bookend last night using a brick I found in the garden:

Anyway, as I had a great holiday in San Francisco at the end of last year I decided that I would have a go at creating my own travel journal. It’s still a work in progress but I thought that I’d give you a preview. It’s great fun cutting and sticking,  and it’s good to do something away from work, and it’s surprisingly relaxing.

Here are some of my first pages -  they might get a bit more sophisticated as I get more practised.

I cut some letters out of the  Sunday papers to make the words and I’m using  the travel album from our range. I had a desk easel calendar from Cavallini last year and it was full of vintage images of San Francisco so  I cut those out too – some of them mirror the photos that I took which is quite fun. I also had some butterfly stickers  which I used  to act as photo corners which brighten up the pages.  The photos of my album would have looked a bit dull on my desk and so I thought I’d use some world map gift wrap from Cavallini to act as the backdrop.  I think it’s set the photos off a real treat.

We’ve just added a range of coloured ink stamp pads to our online store, and we thought we’d give them a whirl ourselves to see how they shape up. This card is quick and easy to make, and creates a unique card tailored for the birthdate of the recipient.  .Here’s what we used to make it:

• Crown Mill Coloured Cards (in cream)
• Crown Mill Coloured Envelopes (in red)
• Happy Birthday stamp from Cavallini Greetings Rubber Stamp Set
• Colourmine Ink Stamp Pads
• Date Stamp (sadly we don’t stock these)

The card couldn’t be simpler to create – start with the Happy Birthday stamp in the centre, then just date stamp wherever you fancy, doing all the dates for one colour before cleaning the stamp and starting the next colour. Don’t worry if the date stamp doesn’t stamp perfectly – isn’t that the authentic ‘librarian look’, after all?

Anyway, on to some photos:

The building has been artists’ studios for 20 years but the artists now need to pull of a miracle to ensure the studios survive.  Their lease runs out next year, and the building owners have indicated that they intend to sell the building at that time. So the artists have just 1 year to raise around £1million to buy the building.  £1MILLION!  It would be such a sad loss to Bristol if they didn’t make it…here’s hoping that miracles really do happen. With Bristol’s vibrancy, energy and enthusiasm for life, art and individuality, I’ve got a feeling this will actually come off!

Jamaica Street Artists Studios

The video below was produced last year to promote the 2008 Open Studios event, but it is still very much worth watching!

Jamaica Street Artists Studios, Stokes Croft, Bristol

This pic is from Fun Fever where they have some great face-themed moneygami.  Over at Commongate, they have a whole gallery of incredible dollar-bill moneygami examples.