By now you might have noticed that we’re not doing any gift guides for the second year in a row. The reason? I for one am complete overwhelmed with gifting decisions and seeing one million more options doesn’t help me narrow things down. I also think there are so many sites out there who do a fantastic job researching and creating gift guides that I don’t want to add to the hubbub. Some favorites are Design Milk, Jojotastic, and Coco+Kelley, so I hope you’ll check them out if you’re jonesing for a fix.
However, on that note, I think this project would make a most excellent gift for the art lover(s) in your life. Meet Papirmass, a snail mail art subscription that delivers a different piece of art – with some beautiful writing on the back – every month for a year (with free shipping!). It’s more affordable than you’d ever imagine at only $69. You can browse the Papirmass shop if you’d like to purchase prints piecemeal. My very favorite is the one above, La Tatouée by Sophie Lécuyer with a piece titled Faces, Like Gravity, Fall, by Mary Pinkoski on the reverse.
Drake General Store is a traditional hotel gift shop, a classic general store, a flea market stand, and a museum shop all rolled into one. They have the biggest and best Canadian pride and love supporting homegrown artists and designers, making them a perfect match for Design Crush and our sensibilities.
Please tell me you took 1.5 seconds to read that graphic, because we’re giving away a $1,000 prize pack!Drake General Store is my favorite shop north of the U.S. border and I’m pumped to be partnering with them for the second December in a row to give you all a HUGE something awesome. I’ve cherry picked my favorite pieces from their classic, modern goods that are a mix of sensible (socks, throws, kitchen pieces) and not so sensible (tarot cards, incense, wind chime) and everything in between.
I KNOW! So many well designed pieces and so many little luxuries to help get you through winter. You could either go the Happy Holidays to Me! route and keep it all for yourself or the My Shopping is Done! route and dive up your winnings as gifts for everyone on your list. Either way it’s a win. (But if you do spy something you’d like to gift know that Drake General Store has worldwide flat rate shipping!)
I’m a big fan of Minted, their goods, and what they’re doing for independent artists. I have several pieces of the art they sell in my home, and this is the second year I’ve turned to them for my holiday cards. Minted offers a fantastic collection of both photo and non-photo cards (my preference), and after narrowing them all down to four designs I settled on this one by Phrosene Ras. I love the bright and happy palette and the ability to customize the sentiment.
This year I took the time to input all of my addresses on the website so that Minted could print them right on the envelopes. While I’m normally all for hand-addressing my holiday cards this year is extremely busy, so I took the plunge and don’t have one regret. They look so good!
Minted also offers the option of a decorative element next to the address that coordinates with your card’s design. I really felt like this additional touch helped make up the difference (in my mind) for not writing things out on my own.
Minted will also add your return address on the envelope flap for free. The end result was clean, modern, and just my style.
I’m happy to team up with Minted to give a lucky reader $300 to spend on holiday cards, art, or whatever else might be calling your name! (They also have some lovely gift tags and wrapping paper.) Take advantage of their addressing service or wow your holiday card list with a design that features their new gold foil. Best of luck!
