After book stores, my next favorite are paper stores. New York City, Toronto, and Portland, Oregon, have particularly good ones. Of course, art stores, too, offer an excellent supply of Japanese rice paper, origami paper, and packets of blank cards.
Not all that long ago, I got out my paper cache and fiddled about, wondering just what to make. I hit on Japanese-style holiday cards. Using scissors, I cut small triangles. And using the edge of a ruler, I ripped off strips. (The rough edge adds more interest than a straight one and contributes to that handmade look.) After I arranged and glued and came up with a nice supply of cards, I gathered some into little gift packets which I tied with ribbon. I also made small gift tags, handily using some tiny (unmailable) envelopes I had on hand. Come holiday time, I even sold a few packets and tags to a store in town.
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| A gift tag and tiny envelope |
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| Using these left-overs proved to be jolly fun! |
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| A Christmas tree |
As a p.s., I believe my third favorite are old-fashioned hardware stores. We have one in town. It has squeaky wooden floors, maybe fifty-year-old drawers for different size knobs, plus lots of inventory all crammed together in a friendly fashion. It also has a good number of employees who will lead you to whatever it is you're looking for, whether cedar chips to freshen a closet, a just-right paint match, or a tiny bulb for a Himalayan salt lamp that helps ionize the environment with negative ions. (I keep mine next to my computer to get rid of electronic air pollution, as it is called.)
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