Tag: stationery

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Are you a Mad Hatter?

Greeting cards and stationery for all occasions

In this era of social media, texting and instant messaging, here are 10 reasons to pick up a pen, stick a stamp and send a card. The Mad Hatter may have had the right idea.

10 reasons to be a Mad HatterTF11-Teacups-and-butterflies

Haven’t forgotten you

Good friends starsIt’s been a while since we last spoke, I’ve been busy and didn’t want you to think I had forgotten you. A handwritten card will forgive a lot more non-contact than a FB msg, take the extra minute to write a card.

Saw this and thought of you

Fun with gardening Your friend loves gardening and you saw this great card they’d love. Send it! Don’t just look and think “I know who’d appreciate that” because if you don’t send it they can’t appreciate it!

Just catching up

It’s time for a coffee and cake somewhere. Your friend will feel you really want to meet up if you write a note, with even a time and place suggested….trust me, much more meaningful than a text and they’re less likely to forget a card and more likely to reply.

Wanted to make you laugh

Laughter is truly the best medicine and whether someone is ill, having a tough time or not that you know of, a humourous card will brighten up their day….just like it did yours when you picked the card.

Remember when…

Pyjama party…we had that pyjama party years ago? Doesn’t the one on the left look like….

It’s National Clean up your room day*…

…and I wanted to give you advance warning. Or chocolate truffles, ice creams, save the whale etc. Your friend will love the thought and might even frame the card! (*It’s May 10th by the way if you need to know…)

I’m a bit of a Mad Hatter

Happy Unbirthday! At least 364 days a year you can send these cards and let’s face it most of us would love more than one birthday a year. Or if you really are a Mad Hatter and love tea, then I have the perfect card!

It’s been a year since…

Whether it’s been a year since you walked along that beach or since they lost a loved one, such a thought will either bring back happy memories or remind them they aren’t forgotten in their grief.

No flowers allowed

With many hospital wards not allowing flowers any more a colourful card goes a long way to brightening up the hospital bedside cabinet!

Phoenix Trading greeting cardJust because

If none of the above apply, well then just because it’s a thoughtful thing to do. Pick the right greeting card and it will look good and do good!

Go on, make someone smile today, send a card.

To stock up on cards visit my UK shop, if you’re outside the UK, visit International Enquiries to find out how to get hold of some fabulous greetings cards.

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Watch “L309 Butterfly Baskets” on YouTube!

Our newest card ‘Butterfly Baskets’ will be sold in support of children’s hospice care through the charity Together for Short Lives. 50p from the sale of every card will support this worthy cause and each card is just £1.40 if you buy 10  or more assorted cards, otherwise it’s still just £1.75 which is great value for such a quality, innovative and stunning card.

I am ordering 100 for starters – how many would you like?

If you’d like to see how the card works, watch this 34 second clip!

https://youtu.be/_e7HlnNkGug

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Did you know?

Who came up with Christmas cards?WS319_ceramics

Which country leads the way in greetings card design?

How much money goes to charity from Christmas cards?

What’s the average cost of a greetings card?

Answers to the above and more in my latest video – Did you know?

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Staying within the lines – or not?

“Coloring is an activity that we tend to associate with children. As we grow older, we put aside our crayons and colored pencils in favor of more respectable writing utensils like pens and highlighters. However, it turns out coloring can be beneficial for adults — namely for its de-stressing power.”

via Coloring Isn’t Just For Kids. It Can Actually Help Adults Combat Stress..

Of course – anyone who loves Phoenix Trading knows this already and if you’ve had one of our colouring in tablecloths you’ll know that you probably spent more time colouring in than your children did…at least that’s what happens in my house! I think we adults sometimes need an ‘excuse’ to colour in, it’s not something we see as an adult activity, there are always more ‘important’ things to do – but with one of our tablecloths, or maybe a frieze then we have the perfect excuse. And of course, any such creative activity we can do with our children has to be a positive thing for us and them surely.

Here are a few of my favourite products:WS173-Hearts-Butterflies

1 – Colour in hats – we have two sets: the first contains a mermaid, a butterfly and a fairy, the second a chief, space cadet and king. Both illustrated by Amanda Loverseed.

2 – Colour in map of the British Isles – educational and destressful this comes in a presentation tube too so makes a great gift, and is also illustrated by Amanda Loverseed.

3 – Colour in friezes – I love the animal train, though we also have farm, princess carriage, under the sea and a nativity one at Christmas. I think these are particularly great as they come in six pieces and can be coloured individually and put together later to make a large frieze if you wish, but they look great on their own too. All beautifully illustrated by Claire Winteringham, Alison Hullyer or June Armstrong.

I do get parents tell me they will get frustrated if their children colour outside the lines (maybe I just have too many ocd friends?)…my response – buy two, one for you, one for them!

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Grammar Girl : Why Did People Stop Saying “Thou”? :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™

(I thought this was fascinating, a friend shared it via her FB page Barefoot in Belfast, she sells gorgeous children’s books by the way, and I thought with all the romantic poems we often write in cards it was interesting to see what happened to thee and thou, this is only part of the article, see the link at the end for the full thing, well worth a read!)

We know language changes—we don’t say thee and thou anymore—but have you ever wondered why? Often, it’s not clear, but there’s a particularly satisfying answer when it comes to these two pronouns.

A couple of weeks ago, after I talked about how the pronoun you fills so many roles, I started wondering why we stopped using thee and thou.

It turns out that English used to have formal and informal pronouns like many other languages. German has Sie and du, French has vous and tu, Spanish has usted and tú, and during Shakespeare’s time, English had thou and you and thee and you.

Thee and Thou Were English’s Informal Pronouns

Since thee and thou have survived mainly in religious and poetic writing, you may be surprised to learn that thee and thou were the informal pronouns. Yup. You was formal, and thou was informal.

In a book called The Personal Pronouns in the Germanic Languages, Stephen Howe says that in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries, thou was generally used to address someone who was socially inferior or an intimate. For example, parents called their children thou, and children called their parents you, but then the use of thou sharply decreased in the seventeenth century, starting in London. Thou was used the longest in areas that were farthest from London, and in fact, it’s still used in a few regional dialects including those in Yorkshire and Cumbria, which are both quite a bit north of London.

When Social Status Became Unclear, People Started Using You More

The reason people stopped using thou (and thee) was that social status—whether you were considered upper class or lower class—became more fluid during this time. You had social climbers striving to talk like the upper class, so they used you all the time instead of thou, and since you couldn’t be as sure as you used to be about who was in what class, it was safer to use you instead of thou because you didn’t want to risk accidentally offending someone in the upper class by using the wrong pronoun. You didn’t want to call someone thou when you should have used you!

via Grammar Girl : Why Did People Stop Saying “Thou”? :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™.

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Why Flamingo Paperie and what’s cake got to do with it?

why flamingo paperie

People often ask me why Flamingo Paperie?

There are a lot of reasons but here are today’s top 5 reasons why Flamingo Paperie ticks my boxes

1 – Potential

TF22-butterfliesThe UK card industry is huge and growing. Despite what you might think, “that no one sends cards anymore because we all just Facebook each other”, the Greeting Card Association UK (GCA) reports that sales of greeting cards are actually increasing! In fact we spend more on cards than we spend on tea and coffee put together!

2 – Charity

I am passionate about giving something back. Having previously worked in areas like Darfur and Sierra Leone I cannot escape the reality that I am hugely blessed in life. I don’t believe in just giving handouts. On the whole these don’t better someone else’s circumstances. But giving people the tools they need to take control of their own lives and situations – that’s worthwhile. Flamingo Paperie as an organisation always looks to share their success, to give out, not keep it all to themselves. The people who run it have done this since they started as the company, Phoenix Trading in 1995. All our Christmas cards are charity cards. Some of my team donate all their profits to charity, and I love to help people raise some extra money for their cause, be it their Scout group or their local hospice.

3 – Being my own boss

I’ve done the working for a big company and having to work overtime to make more money for shareholders with no personal gain. I’m through with that! Anyone with children will value flexibility in life as planning even a day can all go to pot with a sick child, a well timed nappy change, an unexpected nap (from the child not me…though often I wish!). Working from home and being in charge of my tasks and goals, with no one saying “I know it’s tough and we don’t want to push you over the edge but we do need you to work the overtime” (as a previous boss said to me after I had disclosed that I had depression and was struggling to make it through each day), is a key reason why Flamingo Paperie is best for me and my whole family.

4 – Flitter

What is flitter? Why do I go on about it so much? Flitter is that wonderful stuff also known as fairy dust or magic sparkle that people sometimes mistake for the poor imitation that is glitter. Many of Flamingo Paperie’s cards are flittery – and at no extra cost! If the cards aren’t flittered the illustrations are still stunning. When I first became an independent Phoenix Trader I thought I might send them some of my designs but I’ve since been privileged to see some of the original artwork and, no – I won’t be sending mine in. The artists who illustrated for Phoenix Trading and now Flamingo Paperie are in a league of their own…if you are in that league you might want to look at the info for artists. What’s more all of our flitter is eco-friendly glitter. That’s really important to me as I work to be a plastic free business as you can see from my eco-friendly paper tape that I have designed myself.

5 – Cake!

Sorry can’t get away from it…I’ve tried to eat less of it but there’s no getting away from the fact I love cake. Flamingo Paperie Partners eat a lot of cake, drink a lot of tea – and when we can we love wine with our cards too. Being a Flamingo Paperie Partner is about people. Whether it be listening to what someone wants out of their business, seeing how I can support someone with fundraising or helping someone choose the right sympathy card. These conversations often happen over a cuppa and if possible a slice of cake. I’m not fussy what kind of cake, any will do!

B030-sugar-and-spiceThese are my reasons for today and probably in today’s order why Flamingo Paperie ticks my boxes.

They might change because being an independent Flamingo Paperie Partner means I can be flexible like that. If you’d like to find out more do get in touch. I’ll be happy to send you some information with no commitment on your part. Except possibly the requirement to eat cake if you come to a team meeting. But as I say I’m flexible – you choose how big a slice you want!

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The Art of Handwriting – Is it Lost?

Cards lost art of handwriting

Have we lost the art of handwriting? I hope not. With social media being a part of our lives that it never was when I was young I see changes in what we teach our children. Quite rightly they learn how to touch type on a qwerty keyboard from an early age. But they still have their handwriting book too. How important is handwriting in a technical age? Does it matter anymore?

Despite the common perception that ‘no one sends cards anymore’ the opposite is true. According to a recent survey 95% of British households still send cards. So surely it’s important that what’s written in them is readable? Or is it?

I did a little research on the lost art of handwriting.Phoenix Trading

This article on The Art of Handwriting about letters by artists is worth a look just to see the handwriting. I’m not an artist so my handwriting leaves a lot to be desired but I just adore neat, artistic handrwriting.

Here is a very inspiring TED talk on the lost art of handwriting – you might be inspired to pick up pen and paper after listening to these shared memories.

Now, going back to my earlier complaint about poor handwriting, there might be an answer in this. A hi-tech pen that could improve my handwriting!

…and if you’re still not sure you need to bother brushing up on your handwriting then this 8 year old has a very good reason why it’s important – how else will he fill in his contract to be a major league player?!

So, is the art of handwriting important or not?

Does it matter if my scrawl looks pretty or is it enough just to be readable? It’s a well known fact that sending handwritten cards and notes has a positive impact on someone’s mental health. So perhaps I shouldn’t get too hung up on how good or bad my handwriting looks but worry more about if I am writing enough. After all the only way to improve my handwriting is to practise, practise, practise. I no longer have a handwriting jotter like my children at school so perhaps my best practice is to send more cards and letters.