Next up in my bumper gift guide for Christmas 2021 is stationery. I am obsessed with stationery and think it is such a great gift any time of the year but especially at Christmas when people start to think about plans for the year ahead. 2022 here we come!
Make a stationery lovers dream come true this Christmas with this wonderful selection of stationery goods from small independent businesses. Appreciation for pens, pencils, notebooks, cases, journals and, pretty much all paper goods is an addiction for many and I think the stationery lover in your life will enjoy the thought and love that go into these picks.
I would love to see if you've added any of these stationery gifts to your own Christmas list or if you've found the perfect gift for the stationery addict in your life. Don't forget to tag me and the brand over on Instagram, you can find me at @small_business_collaborative.
Hello Day
Hello Day, make beautiful planners and stationery for people with style. Their products are designed for those who want to have a positive perspective on life, wake up each day with purpose and go to sleep each night with a sense of accomplishment.
Husband-wife team source their products locally in the UK wherever possible - over half of the range is UK made. Their planners are not just places to write your to-dos and appointments. They're designed to help you to think bigger, plan better and achieve more over the year. They help you be positive, stay motivated and look after yourself.
I've been a fan of Hello Day since I started my business and discovered their beautiful planners. My first one was their Flock spiral bound original planner, this year I've gone for the Tortoise (pictured right above).
Fun Fact from Kirsten and Dave: We ran our business out of our house for 4 years - our dining room, then moving to a new loft extension, and now finally we've been in a small studio space for one year this winter.
Price Range: £10- £90
Website: www.hellodayplanner.com
Follow: @hellodayplanner
Natalie Byrne
Natalie Byrne is an award-winning Latina illustrator & author based in London. Her unique colourful style promotes intersectional feminism and tackles social issues such as sexual assault, mental health and equality.
Natalie has been featured on BBC woman’s hour, The Huffington post, Refinery 29, The Good Trade, Women of Illustration and has worked with The BBC, NYX make-up, Lucy & Yak and The Body Shop.
I love how warm and fun Natalies work is whilst still tackling important issues and serious subjects.
Fun Fact from Natalie: Natalie love to use warm colours that brighten up your day, I love that the first line in her Instagram bio reads "Art so you feel less alone". It describes Natalies work so well!
Natalie also co-hosts a podcast about loneliness and mental health called 'The Loneliness Collaboration'.
Price Range: £2.50- £65
Website: https://nataliebyrne.uk/
Follow: @nataliebyrne
Kate And The Ink
Kate & The Ink products make your life brighter through nostalgic messages, retro prints and patterns. Whether you're searching for the perfect gift for your hard-to-buy-for friend or that final print for your gallery wall, Kate & The Ink greeting cards, stationery, art prints and homewares empower you to create memories that will last a lifetime.
Bold colourful designs, useful products designed for busy lives, sustainably produced in the UK, FSC certified.
I love Kate's nostalgic style and got one of her meal planners on my fridge.
Fun Fact from Kate: have heard (on good authority) that actress Tilda Swinton is a huge fan of my cards! She buys them from Pencil Me In in Elgin and comes back again and again!
Price Range: £3- £30
Website: https://kateandtheink.com/
Follow: @kateandtheink
Matere
The Matere collection is a range of premium, consciously-formed stationery which celebrates unique textures and tactile quality.
The brand is influenced by slow living principles and blends an understated, minimalist aesthetic with carefully chosen tactile materials to encourage more purposeful, special moments in everyday life.
Sustainable values are inherent to Matere, with a focus on using papers sourced using traceable sustainable forestry. The collection includes notebook covers made from recycled coffee cups, ocean plastics and leather offcuts retrieved from tanneries. Produced in the UK by a small selection of manufacturers who share a commitment to craft, detail and sustainability.
Jess's designs are beautiful in their simplicity and so calming they invite you to do some mindfully journaling.
Fun Fact from Jess: As a remedy to the chaotic nature of life in a busy city, Jess found herself drawn to calming spaces, understated design, minimalism and conscious living. While her life became more digitised, solace was found in off-screen experiences and purposeful interactions with the physical world became more important.
Price Range: £7- £30
Website: https://www.materestudio.com/
Follow: @materestudio
Lately Studio
Lately Studio is a stationery, homeware and lifestyle brand focused on making life as fun as possible. All Emma's products are designed in her home studio and created to be functional, beautiful and, very importantly, bring your life a bit more joy!
Lately is all about creating colourful goodness to brighten up your home. Emma's products are born from taking anything she's been struggling with lately and using it to create something that will fix that issue right up. In the most colourful way possible! Whether that's greetings cards that strike the perfect balance between soppy and sweary or stickers that will fill up all that dull, grey real estate on your laptop!
Before Covid, my stationery buying style was a lot more muted and subtle but now I'm embracing everything that makes me happy and Emma's stationery range can definitely brighten up your day.
Fun Fact from Emma: I started off offering custom illustrations before I designed stationery!
Price Range: £1.50- £19.50
Website: http://latelystudio.co.uk
Follow: @latelystudio
Text From A Friend
Text From A Friend is an award-winning luxury card and stationery brand. It was created by art director Sharon Caddie when her scribbled real texts from friends appeared on social media and she got requests to turn them into cards and posters.
Sharon clearly gets quite different text messages to me, if my messages were turned into cards they would read, "Leaving now" and "This is great!" :).
I meet Sharon at Top Drawer a few years back and I love her honest messages and the super posh papers she uses.
Fun Fact from Sharon: Real texts were and still are actually the inspiration for some designs.
Price Range: £3.50- £30
Follow: @textfromafriend
AIM Studio Co
AIM Studio Co are a design-led stationery brand with a strong focus on mindfulness and creating beautiful, yet calming workspaces where you can feel your best self. The range focuses on optimising productivity and combining this with an elegant aesthetic to get the most out of your working day.
The core stationery range is printed using eco vegetable inks and using FSC certified paper. Uniquely designed by Mia and produced solely in the UK. Each product is hand-finished by hot foil embossing in their Northamptonshire based studio.
I love the geometric shapes and calming colours, when I worked in an office I used to love having a desk calendar in front of me, it really helped when stockists would phone up to place an order and I needed to tell them when they could have it.
Fun Fact from Mia: Back in 2017, I designed a desktop calendar to sit on my desk at work. I got a small run printed and gifted some as Christmas presents to friends and family. With such a lovely response, I decided to start an online shop and sell the remaining calendars and that's how it all started.
Price Range: £6- £50
Website: https://aimstudio.co/
Follow: @aimstudioco
Osity
Osity is a design-led luxury stationery brand that creates modern-day stationery that has traditional craft skills, quality and sustainability at its core. Designs are beautifully fresh and contemporary but with a vintage tactile feel.
Founder Sarah grew up being part of the family printing business. She uses things that she has collected and found, be it a piece of metal type or a vintage relief block to reinvent the original objects and make them into something new – vintage objects but with a modern design twist.
Everything is made in the UK by Sarah and her team in their print workshop at the bottom of the garden.
I love when things are printed in a traditional way, it adds so much charm and texture to a beautiful piece of card or paper to really make it pop.
Fun Fact from Sarah: Where my family comes from an osity or (funny osity) is someone or something that is daft or peculiar in an amusing way. Me and my sisters were called funny little osities quite a lot by our dad when we were kids.
Price Range:£2.50- £32
Website: https://osity.co.uk/
Follow: @_osity
Ponderlily
Ponderlily is a British, design-led, and ethically focused boutique lifestyle brand. They make stylish and sustainable productivity tools and equip women with resources for intentional living.
A Ponderlily planner gives you tools to imagine the life ahead and carve out space for the too easily forgotten “me-time". It includes wander-lists, reflections of gratitude and positive habit trackers to hold you accountable to celebrate the everyday.
Ponderlily products are eco-friendly from cover to cover: made with FSC paper, printed with vegan ink, ethically packaged, and made in Europe.
I have several of Ponderlily's products and love how high quality the paper is and feel and the thoughtful design and prompts that is.
Fun Fact from Carina: m a Brazilian-born, Arabian Gulf-raised, Brit-wed, higher-ed executive and twin mum with a plan: to ignite joy, purpose, and empowerment in women striving for a life of fullness, not busyness.
My business was my MBA project. I run my business while running a 9-5 and raising twins under 8.
Price Range: £7- £45
Website: https://ponderlily.com/
Follow: @weareponderlily
If you'd like to see the full Christmas gift guide for 2021 please visit this link.
I hope you found the perfect piece of stationery for the planner/pen/pencil lover in your life I would love to hear if you have supported any of the small businesses featured. Don't forget to tag me over on Instagram, @small_business_collaborative, with your unique finds - I love to see them!
Thank you so much to all the 260+ businesses that took the time to apply to this year's gift guides, I really appreciate you all and it was so much fun to see everything you create. And thank you to Adele who helped me put this all together. If you need help with your online product listings for Etsy, Faire, Shopify and more, Adele can help. You can find all your details over on her website.