There’s still work to be done – window displays to finish, marketing to push out, inventory to buy – but it feels good to have the doors open and customers coming through. Hooray!

I can’t believe it’s been almost three months since I last updated the blog! It wasn’t for lack of things to talk about – there are plenty of amazing and inspiring paper goods and design excitement floating across the desk these days. No, my absence is for much more practical reasons – too much on my plate! The workload around here hasn’t gotten any smaller – still plenty of changes to make to the store and catalogs to dog-ear and all the other day-to-day tasks of running a store. But the good news is, our plate is getting bigger.

Just over two months ago – about the time this blog entered radio silence – I mentioned to some fellow designers that I was looking for a studio space that would allowed me to run a storefront. I mean, we’ve got too much paper and crafty goodness to keep it all bottled up on the internet, you know? I’d been keeping an eye on retail space availability, but because we live in a “trendy” area of town, everything in the location I liked was far, FAR out of our budget.

A few miles away, in the city of Lakewood, there’s a an upscale new-urbanist development called Belmar. Belmar sits on the site of an old shopping mall, and the mall was razed to make room for mixed-use development – lofts and townhomes, some big-box stores like Whole Foods and DSW, office spaces, and a ton of retail. And one block of the development was set aside for artists and designers. This block of storefronts, Block 7, is subsidized by the developer so rents are highly affordable (half to one-third of the cost of similar spaces in other parts of the Denver metro). One of the spaces, a 1200-sq-ft. double unit, was occupied by a husband-and-wife design team. They ran their studio out of one side, and the other side was home to their screenprinting gallery and workshop space. And three months ago, they moved into a new space elsewhere in the city. One of my fellow designers mentioned the availability to me, and I e-mailed the leasing agent that afternoon. And thus began a two-month process of applications and interviews and stress headaches and clothes shopping (being self-employed means I don’t dress up for work too often). I had to wait over a month from the time my application was submitted (since the space is so inexpensive, the openings are competitive) to the time I was called for an interview, and then I waited another three weeks until I was called for a second interview. I showed samples of my work and our products, I answered questions about our plans for the store, and I tried to be as honest as possible. And finally, last week, I got the call – we’re in! Starting in December, Fluff Paper will have a brick-and-mortar storefront location!

There will be a few changes, although not really any to the online shopping experience. Our physical location will known as “Fluff Co.” – we’ll have more than just paper goodies in store. We’re also following the model of the previous tenants and half the space will be studio space for me and my friends – designers, copywriters, photographers… whoever decides to join me on this adventure. The store side will have a custom lounge, where people looking for wedding invitations or baby announcements or any other one-of-a-kind products can come to meet with a designer and discuss their vision. We’ll also hold classes and workshops for paper crafting aficionados in the Denver area (feel free to come out and visit us if you’re in town!) and host private get-together for local artists and designers to showcase their work. The upside for our online friends is LOTS more inventory – since we don’t have to cram everything into a supply closet anymore, we’ll be able to stock the store to the gills with all the amazing paper we come across.

Stay tuned for all the fun changes – there might just be some free goodie giveaways come up to celebrate! If you’re a designer or artist and want to get your stuff in stock, drop us a line. And if you haven’t yet, feel free to sign-up for our soon-t0-launch e-mail newsletter – there’s lots to share!

I’m hoping that RVA’s Autumn Craft Class will at least give me a nudge in that direction. Elsie and her partner Rachel Denbow are teaching an 8-week class that will let participants create no fewer than *30* crafty projects to keep, share, give as gifts, whatever. A private blog, weekly live chats, tons of photos and instructions, and the ability to use materials you already have make this class stand out. I’m excited to make all the fun projects, just to keep my hands busy (and away from the computer that seems to be chained to me), and I’m sure I’ll pick a few new techniques that I can apply to my own future projects. But I’m mostly excited to be inspired – to sit at the virtual feet of a person I admire and learn more about them, their creative process, and their unique take on life.

The class size is limited and the class begins September 15th – so if you’re interested sign up soon!

That’s right – the site is live! We’re calling it a “beta” version because there’s still work to be done. But it’s up and it works and now we can focus most of our energy on populating it with the best products out there.

A few notes:

• Everything works. You can check out. You can add things to your wishlist. You can browse everything. You can join the mailing list. All the standard functionality is in place. If anything doesn’t work, let me know and we’ll fix it as soon as possible.
• It’s not quite finished. You’ll notice some pages have “Coming Soon!” messages and some pages, like the Custom Design section, are empty. We’re working behind the scenes to get these filled, but we thought it was important to launch the site and keep some forward momentum for our business. And we had all this great product on our shelves that we wanted to show off!
• This is the fewest products we will ever carry. There are several orders en route to the shop that we haven’t placed online yet to avoid shipping delays. There are several orders waiting to be placed. And we’ve got trips to the National Stationery Show in May and the Craft & Hobby Association show in July planned to make sure we’re carrying the newest, hottest stuff. To sum up – there will be much, much more.
• There are more features coming. We’ve got big plans for the site, and that includes making sure it’s not only a store but a resource for a host of different things. So stay tuned for some of the big things we plan to roll out.

This is only the beginning, and we can’t wait to share the rest of our journey with you!

As promised, here are the new recipes from Envelopments. Very colorful, and in a range of prices to suit every budget.

The two shots above are of what I’m assuming is their most expensive recipe – it was the featured design in the latest Envelopments ad for Martha Stewart Weddings. The multi-layered invitation has a handful of enclosures inside a pocket folder, and the cream paper has a beautiful pearl finish that sparkles when the light hits it.

Below are some more shots of their new recipes – enjoy! And if you want a better view of all the new recipes, be sure to check them out in our Envelopments showcase.

We plan to use this blog to highlight some of the amazing products we carry and to inform you about all things paper and stationery. We’ll make the occasional announcement here, but the best way to ensure you receiving the latest news from us is by joining our mailing list.

Thank you for all your support as we jump into the deep end and start this venture. We hope you’ll stay tuned. And shop!