Pei of The Paper and Craft Pantry

Today’s a first for TPF, namely, I’m dropping this episode in conjunction with a product drop — but this is no ordinary product. In fact, it’s more of a special project. It’s a collaboration, but it’s not like the ones where you see one brand with a little x between them and whoever they’ve partnered with.

Like those, it’s limited edition, but unlike those, it brings nine different makers from all over the place together to submit stellar card designs that are unified by colorway and format, as well as fun themes like snail mail and friendship. The result is cohesive, distinct and irresistable!

Best of all, each greeting card is accompanied by a wee trading card with the design and IG handle of the maker on front, and a line drawing of them and their stats on back! They’re baseball cards reimagined for our little world. It’s brilliant, it’s beguiling and it’s spearheaded by Pei of The Paper and Craft Pantry in Austin, Texas, who is my guest today (and can be seen at the far left of the top row below!).

As amazing as all that is, what I love most about this collaboration is that Pei didn’t create “to make a little money” for everyone, she approached every aspect to promote joy — and not just for those who buy it at retail, for those who create it too. There were no pressing deadlines to add stress to already harried souls, instead transparency was stressed throughout.

And it was designed so that for the card sender, the act of assembling a set becomes the online stationery scavenger hunt that we didn’t know we needed, but we do. This is a celebration of design, of community, of discovery, of connection, and most of all of snail mail, so you know I’m all over it! And while one drops today, it is actually the second edition; that means there is already another out there hiding in the vast internet to hunt down and discover for yourself.