Great Stationery Gift Ideas & Accessories
Although the paperless office was a great idea, very few of us have gone totally paperless. Perhaps we’re printing less out, and perhaps we run our diaries on our smartphones, but pen or pencil and paper still seem to come in useful for jotting, annotating, or simply doodling your way through one of your organization’s more boring meetings.
What perhaps has changed is that stationery no longer needs to be bland and functional; it can actually be fun. If you’re keeping a journal, it can be bound in leather, or it can have glitter all over it, or Hello Kitty on the front, and you can use a metallic gel pen, a glass pen with purple ink, scented ink, a highlighter, whatever you like, to write with. Bye bye black pen and lined paper! Hello individuality and enjoyment!
Different types of journals and planners run the gamut from project manager style planners to gratitude journals or notebooks with creative writing prompts. Some still prefer plain white paper sketchbooks, while many artists buy postcard-sized cards that they can work on.
If you’re not into washi tape, you should be. An absolute genius of a Japanese woman came up with the idea of masking tape made pretty, and it’s now a huge industry in itself. Whether you’re scrap booking, or just want some pretty tape to use for packing presents, washi tape is just the stuff.
Also a cute Japanese idea is the pen kimono – a tiny single pen case made of beautiful silk or cotton fabric. If you have a much loved and expensive pen, it needs to be properly dressed! Or choose a pen or pencil case from the numerous varieties available – from fold-out leather holders with elastic strips to hold ten or twenty pens, to denim or Harris tweed pencil cases.
In an increasingly digital world, going analogue is a style decision and it’s one that’s becoming increasingly popular. Fine writing lovers all over the world will be getting together in a couple of weeks at ‘Pelikan Hubs’ to share their love of Pelikan fine pens; older gentleman collectors will be joined by hipsters and millennials searching for the best italic nib or the shiniest glimmer ink.
Don’t forget though that style doesn’t have to be expensive. Take a look on Vipon for some incredible deals on stationery before you splash out!