Surprise Packs - Fifth Edition!!

This July marks Omiyage's birthday... our fifth birthday! Which is pretty amazing... and a bit astounding. Time really does fly when you're having fun!

Of course, July also means birthday treats... and the best treat of the year is always our Surprise Packs!

While I'm sheepish to admit that the first edition of these back in 2011 were the result of a careless ordering mistake, they were so popular that I've been mindfully making them every year since. Carefully curating an assortment of cute and colourful things, placing special orders, adding handcrafted details and wrapping it all up with lots of handcrafted love.

No promises or grand proclamations, but a quiet warning that this might be the last year I do them... Five x Joy seems like a good stopping point and while they are well worth the happiness they bring, they take a whole lot of time and energy to assemble. So, this year, to avoid disappointments, I made twice as many as usual. Grab yours while they last.

This year's edition features a trio of tags and a twine tassel. Pretty cute, right?! The Omiyage version of a classic brown paper package, if you will.

Choose your favourite colour for a customized surprise - and don't worry, not everything inside the yellow pack is yellow, colour coding just helps to keep things organized during the packing process and to avoid duplicate items when ordering more than one pack!

Want a peek at a few of the goodies inside? Here we go...

The best tag & twine sets I've ever put together... a great mix of shapes, sizes and materials plus a pair of handcrafted tags in each pack - a little useful inspiration, if you will! And don't forget - the tassel tag on the outside of the package can be reused too.

My new favourite pens direct from Japan - twin tipped and perfect for addressing envelopes and writing colourful letters. The memo pads are pretty sweet too!

I sorted through over 1000 vintage stamps to find the prettiest and most interesting ones to include, then packaged them up with love.

There are also three rolls of washi tape in each pack, cute illustrated stationery items and more... each pack includes 14 (yes, fourteen!) items and is valued at up to $50.

You'll even find clever Snail Mail Forever postcards from Q&A Letterbox... don't forget to look on the back for a special message. One lucky person will win a letterbox from Q&A featuring a curated selection of cards.

I've been offering lots of sneak peeks over on Instagram throughout the process. Pop over there if you'd like to see more.

So far, blue has been by far the most popular colour - which colour would you choose?

Illustrated Stationery

Do you know Aimez Le Style? This Japanese company produces some of my favourite washi tapes. I've used lots of them in previous DIY projects here on the blog. Like this one & this one too!

One of the reasons I love Aimez Le Style products is that they collaborate with artists from all over the world to produce their unique washi tape designs.

New to Aimez Le Style (and to Omiyage) are fabulous new lines of artist stationery products. I snapped a few (ok, more than a few) shots of these new collections last week and couldn't resist sharing here.

Colourful designs from French artist Steffie Broccoli - French animals and Parisian places and quirky girls. How great is that owl... or rather hibou? 

More animals! This time from British illustrator Charlotte Farmer. I can't decide who I'm more smitten with - that stately Tuxedo Cat or the friendly polar bears.  All the critters are just.so.cute!

And, last but certainly not least, lovely floral and tea-themed designs from British illustrator Emma Block. The pink floral is just so sweet - I want to keep it all for myself!

You can find all the new products over in the shop.

Which collection is your favourite?

New MT Designs!

If there's one thing I've learnt over the past 4+ years in washi tape world, it's that mt lovers really love mt! So we just had to bring in the new line of mt basics - their biggest roll out of patterns in years - stripes, dots, checks, more stripes!

Find all these designs (and more) over in the shop. And don't forget to check our sale section where we've listed sets of unwrapped tapes for a reduced price.

Insta-Update

 A look at what's happening around here... through the eyes of Instagram!

Adorable new things have been arriving from Japan - loving the stationery
Snapping photos of customer orders is my favourite
Always making stickers out of tape
Colourful bags + paper doilies + tape = awesome
Greeting card grab bags are ALSO my favourite
This order totally tugged on my heart strings - more colour, more fun!

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Another fantastic order - cameras, cosmos, plants & Scandi crosses
Big box of new tape filled with illustrations galore
Loving Uppercase. Treated myself to a couple of back issues in a recent sale
More new tape (and one little guy who didn't survive the voyage)
Pink, purple grey & white - yet another fab #omiyagepalette
Textile goodness from Avril Loreti & Miss Matatabi. Do you remember when we sold fabric? My dream shop/studio combo definitely has a big wall of fabric. 

Hope to see you over on Instagram! @omiyage_ca

Have a fantastic weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Washi Tape Grab Bags

Late last week we added some of our popular washi tape grab bags to the shop. Filled with lonely last rolls, photo samples and specialty tapes which never made it to the shop, each grab bag is filled with colour, pattern and crafty potential!

Plus, this round of bags ships with a friend - a second grab bag of twine, tags and stickers. Put them both together and you'll be wrapping some fine-looking gifts!

Grab a grab bag here!

Insta-Update

A look at what's been happening around here - through the eyes of Instagram.

Packing orders, unpacking new products.
Admiring colour combos, playing with a bit of collage.
Trying out new ideas.

Follow @omiyage_ca on Instagram for more studio sneak peeks.

Fresh Tape Arrivals

 

 
 

Fresh new mt tapes are always fun to photograph. 12 new designs in the shop.

Happy Friday!

Birthday Treats!

Birthday Surprise Packs and Washi Tape Grab Bags are now available! 

This round of Surprise Packs just might be my favourite... if only because I love how the wrapping turned out! How cute are feathers used as gift toppers? Pretty cute if I do say so myself.

If you were following along on Instagram, you might've caught some in-progress shots as I prepped and packed and wrapped. (You might even have snagged some pretty scraps!)

And while Surprise Packs might be my first love, I do have a soft spot for Washi Tape Grab Bags. Usually available just once a year, we pack up all our extra rolls of tape - photo samples, loose rolls, anything extra lying around - add something special (this year it's rolls of mt fab) and sell them off at a really great price!

Hope you love them too!

It's a Button Party!

Super excited to give you a little peek at something fun up our sleeves. Washi tape buttons and magnets! How cute are these?

Most of these are headed into our Birthday Surprise Packs but there will be some popping up in the shop soon.  I can't even pick a favourite - I love them all!

Lovely New Tapes

I do so love a new stack of tape - and these ones are really quite fun! Standard and slim width in cute and colourful patterns to mix in with your collection (or to start a new one). And wonderful new specialty rolls full of illustrated goodness.

Find them all here.

Washi Tape Cuties

Washi tape cuties are now available in single rolls - 24 fun patterns and 24 colours. Now you can mix and match your own favourite palette.

Which one is your favourite? I'm pretty partial to this one. (And this one.. and this one too!)