Along with all things analog, stationery is having a moment — you only have to look to the media. At the end of April, The New York Times’ esteemed Wirecutter department provided its ultimate selections for custom stationery, informed (in part) by a panel including Temple University’s program head of printmaking. Then at the beginning of June, Forbes released its picks under the paper nerd-approved headline: Personalized Stationery Is More Than Just A Pen And Paper—It’s A Power Move.
While this nerd sincerely wishes consumer stationery coverage veered away from the bigger players to focus on the smaller makers that make our community so endlessly compelling, that is a minor complaint. After all, any publicity is good publicity. Regardless, a lot of this excitement should be credited to Kristina Burkey. Kristina owns Calliope Paperie in Hudson, Massachusetts — and she is also the proud founder of Stationery Store Day (SSD), which officially turns five the first Saturday in August.
Kristina has nerded out with me on The Paper Fold, she is a Gift Shop Plus 2026 Spotlight Award Honoree, and I also celebrated her in my editor’s letter in the just-released summer issue of Stationery Trends. I’m thrilled to be able to look back in more depth with Kristina to commemorate this massive milestone — to say nothing of all the fabulous merch she has generated both by herself and via collaborations thus far!
SS: The world is such a different place now than it was five years ago, when SSD was conceptualized during lockdown times. What was your original goal then — and how has it evolved?
KB: It was definitely floating around in my head for a while. I just saw so many shops struggling during that time and I was like how can I have a day for stationery stores like Record Store Day?? Record Store Day has limited releases every year so I got to thinking … and I ALWAYS go big right out of the gate. I remember telling my husband I wanted to have this special day but also have limited merch made by all different artists and I’d need a whole separate ecommerce site for it and and AND!!! — he said maybe just start with establishing the day and go from there. LOL he’s always pulling me back down.
But that is what I did! I established the day and had a COUPLE merch items for the first year. Every year since it’s just gotten bigger and bigger. And the shops come up with their own activities and specials and they just go wild with it!
SS: Let’s talk artists! Can you take us through the first five? What criteria goes into selecting one?
KB: Well I was the first one haha!! I designed the Paper People Parade, and every year I make a special sticker and postcard featuring them doing something different. After that I started asking my many talented friends, partly because I was pretty sure they wouldn’t say no. I started with Eloise Narrigan who is in Rhode Island. She draws THE CUTEST little animals with jobs and I just knew she would come up with something amazing, and the Tiny Town for the second year was so precious.
Year three was Krista Perry. Again, not just my friend but also a powerhouse of creativity. She used her retro style around a stamp theme and she wanted to make SO MUCH stuff. It was so much fun to work with her and her style resonated with a lot of people. Then the next year was my first time asking someone I didn’t know: Suzy Ultman. I started following Suzy when she did cards for Egg Press and I loved her style so I reached out and she accepted!! I was really excited to nab her and again, her style was so different from the last two artists. Last year people went BANANAS for Suzy’s work. Every year the merch takes on a life of its own and resonates with certain people more than others but this was the first time I had sold out of everything. Suzy’s little mailbox really just HIT. And this year I have Karen Schipper who is my first product-based brand to design merch! And we have more merch than EVER.
As far as criteria goes … I pick my artists a little bit by how well I know them but I feel like SSD is so much more established now if I were to ask someone I didn’t personally know they wouldn’t be like, “You want me to WHAT??” Mostly I am looking for people who have a strong sense of their own style so that every year’s merch doesn’t look the same. I don’t plan on having an open call anytime soon though. That would be so overwhelming, and so far no one has said no to me!
SS: Let’s talk 2026! Can you describe what SSD celebrants can expect?
KB: Well as far as the merch goes, which is “all” I personally do, you can expect SO MUCH variety and so much cuteness you may pass away from joy. Besides that, it’s down to each individual shop to decide how they celebrate! A lot of shop-dense cities have Paper Shop Crawls (which I call paper trails) and I know for Massachusetts, Tiny Turns wants to do ours with a little zine to make it extra fun. I have had quite a few new shops get added to the website this year which is always so encouraging to see new shops open. For Calliope I have big plans to have live screenprinting plus other surprises you’ll just have to wait for! In general I would say just follow your local shops and make sure to get in line early!!
SS: This is clearly a huge effort with endless moving parts. You have a lot to be proud of but what are you most proud of?
KB: Being able to hire an artist every year and PAY THEM. Despite my always asking a friend to design, there have been no favors or free work. I definitely have had some lessons to learn on contracts and stuff like that but I always pay my artists for their work. I’ll take this opportunity to also make a note there will NEVER and I mean absolutely never be use of AI for any part of Stationery Store Day. The livelihood and integrity of our shops depend on real art by humans and if every product costs more because I paid a real person to make original art, so be it. I will always be proud to support artists.
SS: Can you share some of your favorite moments from 2025 festivities?
KB: For me, I had someone doing on-the-spot iron-ons by Hot Dang Press on TRAVELER’S notebooks and people had so much fun with that. Every year it’s so thrilling to hear shops having a line outside when they open when they never have a line, or that SSD is bigger than Small Business Saturday. My goal is for shops to make money and be seen and every year. I am exhausted but when I sit down to watch all the posts SSD IG is tagged on, it’s all worth it!
SS: If you had an endless budget and employee resources, how would you present SSD ‘27?
KB: Ohhhh I’d like to have a pop-up in Boston that’s just the merch with a ton of exclusives and like, a letter-writing room and all kinds of cute exclusives. Maybe for year 10!
SS: Is there anything else you would like to share with us nerds?
KB: Just get out there and support your local shops! And it doesn’t need to be with money! Post on socials about your cute local shop and share their events! Tell your friends how great it is. Power to the paper people!
Power to the paper people indeed!! Thank you so much Kristina for taking this nerd’s questions. For now, save the date and start plotting your paper trail — actual or virtual — as August approaches. This day is ours, let’s make it one to remember!
