The Office Supply Trend

Brads, clips, staples, envelopes and file folders have always been easy to find in your local office supply store, but today they’re also commonly found in the aisles of your local craft store. A hot new trend in paper crafting, office supplies add a whole new look to handmade projects.

From attaching items with paper clips, brads, binder clips or staples to journaling with a date stamp and using envelopes and mini file folders, these ‘new to paper crafting’ supplies are ultra fun! Here are a few ideas on how to add office supplies to your next projects.

Gratitude
By Shauna Berglund-Immel

Shauna crafted this stellar card with office supplies of all kinds. She used a template and ivory cardstock to create a Library Card Holder that serves as her base. Shauna stamped the word “time” on yellow lined paper and stapled it to the brown textured background. She also used staples to attach a cut apart rubber band to the library card holder and date-stamped the rubber band. Paper clips hold knotted ribbon accents and brads embellish the corners of the card, as well as the center of the stamped clock. It’s a terrific use of these trendy products!

Flower Book
By LeNae Gerig

Originally used to fasten documents together, brads are now a mainstay in paper crafting, available in millions of sizes, shapes and colors. LeNae used two different sizes of brads in creating this small book. She added three orange brads across the folded top of the book, and used purple, orange and dark pink mini brads as decorative centers to the flower fabric stickers. Brads are also great for attaching elements like photo mats, journaling blocks and overlays

Kristen & Allison
By Susan Cobb

One of Susan’s favorite office supplies to use on projects is envelopes. Susan used the Office Envelopes Template to make this large envelope from the Retro sarapapers™ dots paper and created a journaling block that could fit inside the envelope to accompany it. Susan also created a mid-sized pocket of green texture paper and a tag to fit neatly inside. A small pink pocket was perfect for tucking a small photo in the window. Susan added brads and a heart-shaped clip to give the page a finished look.

Dad’s Workbench sarabinder™
By Sara Naumann

Another great office supply that’s perfect for paper crafting? Metal library treasures. These great little accents add dimension and interest to any project, and they're the perfect spot for journaling or titling a project, as Sara did here.

Love the office supply look? Grab your stapler, an Office Envelopes Template, a date stamp, and get started—the creative possibilities are endless! For even more great ideas, check out the Weekly Webisode Sara Naumann and Paulette Jarvey hosted on office supplies.