Papergang – May 2018

New stationary is always a lovely treat, and Papergang is a great way to increase your stash of lovely paper and stationery items! Papergang works with a different artist each month to produce a range of items featuring their work. A monthly subscription costs £10.95 + 2.95 p+p. 

The shipping box fits through the mailbox. I love those fantastic designs on the sleeve!

Inside the box, everything is wrapped up in a tissue like a present. It’s a lovely start.

The menu booklet gives you a list of RRPs, as well as an interview and information about this month’s designer.

This month’s featured designer is sister team HELLO!LUCKY. 

The major item in the box is an A5 Linen Notebook.

The covers are stiff but quite flexible, and it doesn’t open out flat. (That’s my hand holding it open!) The printed lines are set up for use as a diary or journal.

This is a birthday card with cute cat pictures. It’s blank inside.

On the left are two sheets of little stickers. The pear and banana designs are also on the box sleeve.

On the right is this month’s calendar sheet, with the same design as the notebook.

Finally, three little patches. Again, you might recognize the designs from the box.

As always, the RRPs total more than the cost of the box.

The notebook is clearly the main item, but I don’t think the cover is interesting, and the slogan on the front doesn’t feel special or original. I’m also not keen on the printed lines inside. They might be OK on their own, but I dislike having ‘date’ printed on the pages. If it’s a diary or journal it should be described as one, not as a notebook. It would have been nice to have included some stickers, or even a ribbon marker, but as it is it’s nothing special. Also, because it doesn’t lie flat, the first time you open it the cover is irretrievably bent. (You can’t see it in the picture, but I had to tape the cover down to keep it closed for the main picture at the top.)

The stickers are cute, but again, not original. They are very similar to little Japanese kawaii fruit stickers you can easily find, so they’re OK, but nothing I haven’t seen before.

The three patches are also designs from the sleeve. I like the roller skate, but the other two again aren’t original. There are many different versions of fruit and hearts. The cactus, pizza, tiger, or eyes would have been more interesting. The patches are also very small and very thin. They have iron-on glue on the back, but that kind of glue never lasts (I know this from experience!), and the tiny details such as the lemon leaves are unlikely to stick at all. A good quality patch will have a proper outline that can be used to sew it on, but these don’t have anything. The RRP of these patches is £8.95, but I don’t think they’re worth anything like that at all. It’s a shame, because if they were better quality, despite the less-than-interesting designs they would still be quite cool!

I do like the card. The little cats are charming and have lots of personality, and this would be a wonderful card for anyone who loves cats.

I absolutely loved last two months, but I’m disappointed by this month. I think the fun designs on the sleeve of the box promise a lot more than what’s inside. I was expecting to see all of those designs, and much more original, bright, and useful contents. As it is, I don’t feel like I’m getting anything I couldn’t find anywhere else.