Giveaway at @RësorShop

The lovely Rësor Shop is having a give-away! Your options are: a Traveler’s Notebook or $55 worth of accessories if you already have one! Click here for details! Winner will be announced July 15th, 2013.

Review: @PaperPastries Custom Pet Return Address Stamp

This review is long overdue, and many pen pals may be wondering, why the heck haven't I seen this stamped on my letters before? Because I'm a moron, that's why. Moving on...

This cool stamp was a prize I won from Paper Pastries who I've been a fan of and a follower of for awhile now. It just so happened that around Valentine's Day, Margaret had a giveaway and had a few different ways to enter. I was the Instagram winner. (In other words, follow her on Instagram). I got to pick a stamp of my choice from her shop and given my obsession with cats, the choice was clear. I selected the custom pet return address stamp, one of the stamps that just happens to be designed after a ragdoll! It couldn't have been more perfect.

Margaret sent me proofs to make sure everything was spelled correctly and that I liked the design. Within days. I don't know how this girl worked so fast. And then before I knew it, a little box was in my mail. Inside was some of the most beautiful tissue paper I've ever seen (I saved it, of course), along with the stamp, and an ink pad with the color that I selected. 

 

I adore it. The stamp looks like Tyco.

 

At $70.00USD, it's not an inexpensive stamp, but it is custom made and would be a fabulous gift - housewarming, wedding, birthday for a lucky pen pal - it's just so cute. Especially because you can send a photo of your own pet. Plus, Margaret is really sweet and a pleasure to deal with.

If you don't like cats (how did you end up here...?) you can have a look at the other custom stamps at Paper Pastries!

Kickstarter: @KarasKustoms RETRAKT

This gorgeous prototype of the Karas Kustoms RETRAKT pen was sent over by Dan for me to examine and try out prior to the launch of the Kickstarter funding. I already have a Render K in aluminum and I love it - it's a very cool piece and it stays with me almost always, so I was pretty eager to give this one a go.

This new pen is a “click” style pen that uses a near-silent mechanism to expose and retract the tip of the refill in use. The RETRAKT features a German-made, all metal, knock mechanism, the signature heavy duty stainless clip, and will come in three different materials.

With the Render K aluminum machined pen.

In addition to aluminum and brass, Karas Kustoms are introducing a version in copper. The aluminum version will be anodized and the copper and brass versions will be hand-finished and left raw.

The copper RETRAKT is very, very cool. I have taken it apart, observed it, written with it, and taken pictures of it. It's really just gorgeous. It's a warm copper with that knurled top that I'm crazy about. Nice, snug clip that won't snap off. Pure goodness.

Each RETRAKT is ready to accept the Pilot G2 refill, just use the provided spring, and you're ready to go. If you want to run a Parker compatible refill instead, just drop the provided machined spacer into the upper half of the barrel (the part with the clip) and assemble as usual. Now you can easily find a refill at any office supply store if you run out of your favorite ink and can't wait. 

I'm surprised at how comfortable it is to write with, given its weight. Well done on that one. The combination of the gel ink refill with the weight of the pen came together very well - the pen's weight puts the pressure on the gel's tip which requires almost no effort on the user's part to get the pen to write. Very cool. And not something I was expecting either.

Have a look at the other pens by Karas Kustoms - there's a delicious selection. Check out the Kickstarter project! Pledges start at $30.00USD.