A Gift for Your Stationery Basket

After posting about my Stationery Basket, Elisa wrote:

I am looking for 8.5 x 11 pages, or similar to that size, but not the 5x8 paper. I want something lined and something that I can write on with an ink fountain pen. I just browsed all the sites, but I can't find it! I will keep looking, but please write back if you know a place.

Elisa, I am finding the same challenge!  I would love to find an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of stationery paper, but I simply cannot.  So, I made my own, and I'm pleased to share them with you so that you can download them and use them in your own stationery baskets.  It really couldn't be simpler.  Just click on the links provided at the bottom of this post, and save to your desktop.  Print on nice paper.

I tried two different colors of paper.  I really wanted a light Robin's Egg Blue, and ordered a turquoise paper I hoped might be the right color, but it's really too deep, too bright and dark.  If you know of a good source for a nice Robin's Egg Blue 8 1/2 x 11 paper, please do leave a comment for me!

The other color I chose is a pretty, creamy ivory linen color.  It's perfect for stationery because it's soft on the eyes and the light gray lines on the stationery are visible but they don't stand out.  I'm very happy with this paper.

With the paper in hand, I set out to find some lovely vintage clip art that was in the public domain.  The Graphics Fairy has always been a favorite resource of mine and I chose several graphic images I liked for the stationery you see pictured.  There are a variety of lovely choices offered, and all of the images are copyright free (in the public domain).  If you don't see something you like here, why not browse around and make your own stationery to suit your tastes and preferences?

I started with a simple document and added light gray lines to the page....because....well, I have a hard time writing in a straight line without guide lines.  I've always wished I could do this, but so far I've been unsuccessful, so I rationalized that it would be better to have lightly printed shadowy lines...than to mar my stationery with my drifting penmanship.  Thus...

From there, I dropped the vintage images in place.  I edited all of them in terms of size, and flipped a few images.  Click on the images to blow up the pictures and get a closer look.  The link to download each image pictured is below each image (you'll need Adobe Acrobat to view and open these).  Hope you enjoy! 

Scrollwork at top and bottom of page

French Roses

Birds in Nest - robins egg blue image 

(note - if you prefer not to print in the blue color, simply set your printer to print a black and white image.)

Bird Scroll with banner

Ribbon Banner with Oak Leaves

 

There are two final designs that are not pictured:

Fleur de Lis in center top of page

Children At Play

If you have a mac and would like the Pages version of these simple documents, please email me.  Likewise, if you have trouble downloading these images from Adobe Acrobat, email me and I'll send you a pdf file. 

I enjoyed putting these together so much that I may make some more stationery sheets soon.  I'll be sure to let you know if I do!

Happy letter writing!