I'm Opening a Stationery Store!

This has been a long time coming. I've been running my business since 2022, and I always knew from the start that the best part of it was sharing my work with you all at events. I've joked about how I must have ancestors who set up shop in their little village square— I love meeting my shoppers, seeing all your cute outfits, and hearing about your wonderful lives. It just feels like it's in my blood. The Columbus creative community is so compassionate and bright— it's always been on my mind to have a home base that I could land at.

As we've all heard, times are hard. I can barely wrap my head around gas being $5.00 a gallon in Columbus, Ohio. Every single company is nickel-and-diming us within an inch of our lives. It becomes more precarious to run a business in this unsteady economy every single day. I've been keeping my ear to the ground on available locations in Columbus for my new home base for about a year now— and the best I was able to come up with was a 400 square foot room off the beaten path for $2,000 a month in rent. I really didn't think it was going to happen for me.

But, like most things in this little world of ours, the tide turned swiftly. The space was presented to me by Allison Chapman— one of my favorite people in the world— to share with her business, Igloo Letterpress. It's an enormous space; the front half will be used to house my stationery shop, and the back is where Igloo's new production space will live. We'll work together year-round on new products, host classes and events together, and get to work side by side to bring as many of our ideas to life as we can. We pored over the numbers together, and realized that as a team, the space would work for us both. It is genuinely a pinch-me kind of dream come true.

This has all happened tremendously fast. We looked at the space the first week of September, and we officially get the keys on October 1st— the day of my big announcement. I was in the car today, September 30th, and I started to cry. I had just picked up some prints, the first physical evidence of this thing that I'm doing, and it punched me square in the face. I am doing something that I spent years dreaming about. I am building the life that little Collin scrawled in his journal about, when he was miserable and alone and feeling so entirely unloved. In spite of every single odd against me, I am here.

I am so excited about this space. I don't see this as exclusively retail; I have about 2,000 square feet to play with. It'll be something I build onto over time (you seriously would not believe how expensive this is), but I'm seeing open table space for you to come work and journal, comfy couches for hanging out with a good book, free events, special workshops, and so much more. Again, dream stuff.

Like acquiring the space, getting open will be a unique whirlwind of chaos and joy. I'll have about 6 weeks to get everything turned over; walls painted, furniture placed, and inventory purchased. On top of that, I'm still doing local makers markets— because this thing is 100% self-funded. I don't shy away from talking about numbers with you guys— I have built my life and business completely from scratch. No family money, and no rich husband (though, maybe someday. Josh is working hard at it!). After cleaning out my life savings, I have about $30,000 to make this happen. It's plenty, but it's still going to be tough. I hope you'll take solace in knowing that every single dollar that comes in from online sales or makers markets these next few weeks will be funneled into the new store (and if you feel inclined to support the store directly, you can do so here). It'll be your space just as much as mine.

I want to also take this moment to thank you— yes, specifically you. If you're reading this far, you must really care a lot about the work I do. I have worked tirelessly at this— this business, this career, this life— for almost 10 years now, and I've had the privilege to become surrounded by so many incredible people championing me on to new heights. I am so grateful for your warmth and support. I only hope that I can put even a fraction of that back into thoughtful new work that I can share with you in this brand new space.

Stay tuned; Paper Tabby Stationery will be opening its doors in Columbus, Ohio this November 2026.

All my love,
Collin

(P.S. I know I haven't sent one of these long write-ups in a while; please know that I am fervently against generative AI in both visual and written media, I am just a huge em-dash guy! 😅)