Front Paper

For those of you popping over from the @torontostationeryshow - hello! I’m Beth, the person behind Front Paper. I’m based in Saskatoon, SK. I fell in love with print when I studied graphic design fresh out of high school and that love of paper and the tactile good has remained through the intervening years. The things I make are filled with bright colours and patterns and words to give to people you love. Phrases that (I hope) will make... them feel aglow and thought of. Almost all of my work is done by hand - drawn and painted with gouache. Layers of text and image are then combined digitally to make the finished product. I’ve been doing some digital colour in my patterns though - which is fun because then I get make a lot of different combinations! Anyway - welcome here. See more

If you’re really in it right now, me too. Everything that was already there a year ago (mental health stuff, physical health issues, relationships, work, questions) is still there. But, we’re a year into this other thing, this pandemic, and it’s a whole new and ever-evolving layer on top of everything else. Maybe it’s made things worse. Maybe new shit got added. Anyway, all this to say, it’s pretty hard out there right now. And acknowle...dging that and that it’s not easy to wade through all of this day after day, feels necessary. Here with you. - B See more

Getting ready to reprint most of my notepads and add a couple new ones! Sending things to print is always an exciting moment - when the drawings and paintings become tangible and I get to hold them in my hands. And then, hopefully into yours. These notepads are online in my shop. Free pickup in Saskatoon and area and shipping elsewhere! .

This beauty of a piece is done! It going to have words layered over top and become a card. The process was kind of like painting the tiles on my mosaic cards - meditative and calming. And coming off the last couple weeks I really needed that. Last Friday I started coming out of a big (mood) swing and by yesterday I felt like I was all the way out. Back to normal. Normal is in quotations because I don’t really think we have a way we always are - we’re alw...ays in flux, shifting and evolving. So what I mean by normal is that I’m able to relate to the world in a healthier way again. I know I’ve been talking about mental health a lot on here lately - it’s just what I’m really working on right now. Much love to you all - happy weekend. - B See more

If you haven’t seen it - I took a deep breath this morning and recorded my real answer to how are you doing? - so if you’d like to check it out - it’s in my stories. Here’s the gist: actively managing my mental health has been a big part of my life for a long time. When I was 18, I was diagnosed as bipolar and later, anxiety became a part of the puzzle too. In the last couple years, the anxiety piece has become something I struggled to manage and then the pandemic hit. In... the last few months, I’ve finally been carving out the space to try and figure this out and how I can move forward in a healthier way - and I feel so good that I’m finally facing this scary thing. But, that also means I have less energy and time for work - and that is hard because I love work and I am a very goal oriented person. But, it is really, really important that I do this, for myself, my family and my work too. I wanted to talk about this because I know I’m not the only one experiencing this and I wanted to encourage anyone who identifies with this (and myself!) to keep going.

I really needed to make something and I’ve been REALLY missing making patterns, so here’s the first of the Christmas patterns I plan to sprinkle on your over the next couple weeks. @jessicahische coined the term procrastiworking and her words on this has since embedded themselves in my brain. She wrote The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life. I’ve been trying to let these words guide me and my work and I think about it a lot when it comes to pattern making because it’s something that find such pure joy in doing. I also have endless ideas! Just carrying these thoughts around with me. These are up in my stories as festive phone wallpapers.

Well, I finally ordered our family Christmas cards! They may get here in time for Christmas - and definitely will get to our friends and family - sometime. I’m *trying* to give myself a break on certain things this year. Remember that there isn’t a right time to get most things done by. Things have started to slow down here, and after the hectic pace of the last weeks (well, months), I’m thankful. Looking forward to finding a measure of rest and refuelling these empty tanks. #christmascards #shoplocalyxe #greetingcards #tistheseason #merrychristmas #shoplocalcanada

ANNOUNCEMENT! The last day to place an order* for Front Paper goods this for delivery/pick up this year will be Friday, December 18th. The last day for pickup will be Sunday, December 20th. *my online shop will still be open and you can place orders, but I won’t ship or arrange for pickup until I re-open on January 5th. I have never had enough orders that I had to even consider this! next year, I’ll plan ahead differently. So, here I am, pretty tired, but still very, very thankful for your orders.

The notepads have been flying off my shelves! I am so so happy that you like them and it makes my heart very very warm to think about them in stockings and under trees and getting filled with your lists all year long. So - if you are interested in notepads, I would suggest buying them ASAP. I printed less of the smaller sizes and I have 10-11 left of the smaller sizes. Since the response has been so positive, I will be reprinting them, but not in time for Christmas.