Welcome to the fifth edition of my Supporting Small Businesses series. Lockdown has started to lift here in Wales, but these small companies still need our help. I’m sure you won’t be surprised that I’m featuring another stationery company, but I promise I do buy other things!
Last year, a very good American pen friend of mine sent me a letter on some gorgeous stationery which immediately made me want to get some for myself. I couldn’t find it anywhere here in the UK and while I found it on Etsy the postage pretty much pushed it out of my price range, so it was a no-go.
Recently, Pen Heaven launched a giveaway on Facebook featuring three exquisite Kartos sets. Kartos is the brand of the gorgeous stationery I have coveted for so long. I entered the giveaway, but just couldn’t leave it to chance… I rushed to their website and purchased two of the writing sets.
Kartos stationery is made in Italy. Their designs are wonderful and classy, but my favourite is Florentia. The Kartos Florentia stationery features the traditional Florentine motif in striking colours and gold detailing on cream. I picked the Florentia set of 10 Medium Cards & Envelopes Set and the Florentia B5 Writing Set.
The Florentia 10 Medium Cards & Envelopes Set comes in a lovely box featuring the Florentia design. The cards are 135mm x 85mm on a 200gsm smooth cream card. The design acts as a border on the front of the cards with space to write on the front too. The inside of the cards is blank and the name of the design (Florentia), the Kartos logo and company details are on the back. The Florentia design can be found on the inside of the envelope, making it a nice surprise when the recipient opens it.
The Florentia B5 Writing Set comes in a card portfolio and has 10 sheets of paper with 10 matching envelopes. The Florentia design decorates the top-left and bottom-right corners of the paper and there’s plenty of space to write your letter. The sheets of paper are on 90gsm smooth cream paper, 180mm x 250mm in size and are best folded into thirds to fit into the supplied envelopes. Again, the striking Florentia design can be found on the inside of the envelopes.
Fountain pens work well on both the cards and the paper. Both sets look great and they add that special something to any letter.
Pen Heaven sells everything from pens (fountain, rollerball, multifunctional, calligraphy etc) and inks to paper (writing paper, notebooks, leather journals, Filofax Organisers and diaries) and stationery-related gifts. They also offer an engraving service (handy for that special gift). Ordering was simple, delivery was free and it only took a couple of days for my order to arrive. What more could you ask for?
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Please note: I bought these items with my own money and I am in no way affiliated with Pen Heaven.
Love the pattern and colours!
I do miss receiving hand written letters. In college in the sixties I corresponded with my cousin and grandmother often. In my 20’s and 30’s I also had frequent letters from friends. Now only a few people send a physical card at Christmas – very sad. Beautiful stationary!
I love writing letters, though I don’t do it so much nowadays! Prepping my wedding invites has been a nice way to do something creative like that 🙂 This stationery looks so pretty, makes me want to start looking for some of my own.
This design is absolutely beautiful, I can see why you were so desperate to get your hands on it. What lovely paper for a pen letter! x
Sophie
Truly, these are beautiful!
Anyone who receives a note on this paper, would know that the sender has a strong feeling for the sendee!
Those are beautiful note cards! I know most people don’t use “snail mail” anymore, but I still like writing and receiving hand-written notes.
OMG! This design is amazing, especially with the pattern repeat on the envelope too.
Pen Heaven have journals and notebooks too and they are not that expensive compared to anywhere else, but they look fantastic.
I know where to send anyone who wants ideas for a birthday or Christmas gift now!
My new ‘go to’ website, thanks for the recommendation 🙂
Yvonne
xx
Wow, this writing paper is absolutely gorgeous – you can’t beat a handwritten letter in fountain pen on lovely paper. It’s like a gift all by itself, isn’t it? Lisa
I love the design and the bright colours, they are gorgeous 🙂
They could not look prettier, the design is exquisite! Thank you for sharing this, I’m glad I found your blog because I was feeling lonely loving stationary this much and not finding anyone else who does.
Alas such delights are now beyond me. I used to have good handwriting and I even did some signwriting in one job. Now I can just barely sign my own name without making mess of the writing.
Receiving letters from you must be a joy, Nikki!
What gorgeous stationery!! It makes me want to look around and see what I can find near me. We use to have a nice printing supply store in town, but I don’t know if they’re still open (especially now, after all the shutdowns). I bet I still have my monogram plates tucked away somewhere.
I’ve long been eyeing up this stationery brand on the scriptum.co.uk website so it’s interesting that it’s now available at Pen Heaven too.
Same here Pamela! Scriptum is an amazing Oxford shop, but I just couldn’t justify spending that much on writing paper, however beautiful! So I found it in this shop too! Already ordered
Beautiful stationery, I like it.
I love Florentine paper and these are beautiful! Enjoy!!
-Soma
I haven’t written a letter to anyone in years (sad I know) but if I did this stationery would look very classy and tasteful. 2 things I’m not! Haha.
Beautiful, I shall definitely be taking a look at that site. I love the inside of the envelope being decorated in the same design. Thank you so much for all the kind comments you have left on recent posts, it’s meant such a lot to know that I’ve been in so many people’s thoughts at this sad time.
Ooo I love the look of this paper and envelop set. What a beautiful pattern, imagine getting a letter with it! Will have to check out this site, I love a good bit of stationery!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Aimsy xoxo
Aimsy’s Antics
Another nice share, Nikki 🙂 🙂
These products look so beautiful. It’s great you have been supporting small businesses. You have shared a great review. Thank you for sharing.
It’s so important to support little businesses, especially at the moment.
Love the look of the paper 🙂
have a great day,
Tiziana
http://www.tizianaolbrich.de
Lead me not into temptation. Loving the Kartos Florentia set, my only complaint being I very rarely use only one sheet of writing paper.
I rarely use one sheet of paper either! Luckily, I’ve got a pad of cream paper which is the same size so I can use that for the other pages.
The stationary looks gorgeous and reminds me of the time when I used to write letters and send notecards to people.
Maybe I should get into the habit again.
Oooh! I love that you’re giving these different small businesses a spotlight. Pen Heaven has some cute stationery goodies. Their card and envelope set looks so fancy!! I need to get back to playing with a fountain pen. Thanks for sharing!
Nancy ✨ exquisitely.me
After reading this I ordered some. It is very nice stationary, thank you!
That’s wonderful. I hope you enjoy it!
The stationery is beautiful. I need to start writing letters again.
Was delighted to find Kartos stationery on their website! I’ve been lusting after it for a while now, and as I joined pen pal club during lockdown, it will definitely be used!