Just as R.S.V.P. is a must visit for paperlovers, Frau Tulpe is the place for fabric lovers in Berlin (and Hamburg). They have the most amazing assortment of fabrics – especially sweet pattern prints for kids and a huge selection of japanese Kokka fabrics. And then there’s this "heaven" of ribbons and tape dangling down from the ceiling. Quiet dangerous. Though I think I was so irritated by too much choice, that in the end I bought a lot less than I expected…

Frau Tulpe
Veteranenstraße 19
10119 Berlin-Mitte

Mo-Fr 10.00-20.00 Uhr
Sa 12.00-18.00 Uhr
On the Map

www.frautulpe.de

Paperworld is a huge fair for paper, stationery, crafts and office supplies in Frankfurt – and a must-see for any paperlover. I feel like I’m still recovering from all the wonderful impressions…

My personal highlights: Beautiful journals and new paper designs by Jackie for Bindewerk, finally a catalogue from Carta Pura (Munich) so I can order via E-Mail and a secret tip from Brevi Manu on where we’ll soon be able to find their amazing journals, tapes and notepads in Cologne!
I’ll keep you posted!

How amazing is this airmail tape? Besides my airmail postcards I’ve honestly been planning to have tape like this made for quite a while and already did some research, but it’s so expensive. So I was very very happy to find this wonderful airmail tape in PrettyTape’s etsy shop.

And doesn’t it look perfect with these wonderful brown kraftpaper bags that Marigold gave me? Thanks again dear! I really think I’m in need of some penpals…

We started the new year in the Netherlands and also had a wonderful (but much too short) afternoon in Amsterdam. On Reestraat I found a lovely little stationary shop called Cortina Paper with a nice selection of fine papers ideal for bookbinding – mostly italian Carta Varese and my favorite german “Buntpapiere” from Bindewerk.

Cortina Paper
Reestraat 22
1016 DN Amsterdam
Netherlands
On the Map

www.cortinapapier.nl

A few weeks back when I saw my grandparents for my grandma’s birthday I also visited their lovely neighbour. I call her “Tante Marie” but she’s not really my aunt, though as long as I can remember she has always lived next door to my grandparents. When I was little I used to play in her garden. She’s really nice and sweet with her long grey hair and I think her whole house is filled with sewing and knitting treasures, that she collected in her life. She insisted to give me some of her amazing fabric and ribbon treasures and also a hand full of beautiful buttons.

Last monday I had a day off and turned the living room into a sewing room to finally sew some gifts using her amazing materials. Sometimes I think I just have too many fabrics too. It’s giving me a hard time to decide what to actually make and which materials to use… Do you know what I mean?

So I’m very excited to start taking a weekly sewing class in January and hopefully convert the fabric piles into some nice things to wear…

This is one of the lovely papers I found this year, designed by NineteenSeventyThree and printed on really nice & heavy recycled brown paper, which makes it fantastic for bookbinding. It is part of a series called the good life.

NineteenSeventyThree is a british design company started in 2003 by James & Emma Emmerson and named after the year they were born. They collaborate with some amazing artists like Pintuck and Sukie – you might already have seen one of the papers Sukie designed in this post here.

What were your favorite paper finds this year?

There was a bookbinding market here in Cologne a few weeks back. I still didn’t get a chance to go through all the photos I took, but I thought I’d just post a couple of pictures of the beautiful papers I got.

How do you like these wonderful wrapping sheets by Kamal, that my collegue discovered today?

A few weeks ago I bought two awesome butterfly paper punches in different sizes.

So far I made some decoration by sewing the small butteflies together:

And I used some butterflies to decorate these two handbound journals

I’ve been searching for some nice trim or ribbon to use for a new envelope book with transparent envelopes – inspired by this image from a bookbinding book, that I’ve blogged about before.

So I spent some time searching etsy and thought I’d share my finds:

These are some wonderful japanese linen ribbons and bands from cottonblue:

alittlegoodness, who was so kind to find me a copy of the bookbinding book, also offers a great selection of fabulous natural japanese bands:

Denarella has some beautiful sets with vintage trims like this one

I found lots of beautiful vintage lace at theginghamgirl’s shop

and this really cool green vintage floral cotton tape at shirly’s etsy shop

… and I can’t wait to use them.