We are so excited to be participating in the #write_on Challenge (writeoncampaign.com) to write 30 letters in 30 days throughout the month of April.  April is Letter Writing Month! Please join us for our 30 day Letter Writing Launch Party on Thursday March 30th at Paper Umbrella. Gather with fellow letter writers that evening (and throughout the month at partner venues) to share in the joy of writing letters. Everyone is welcome.  

Join us throughout the month of April for the following Letter writing nights:  

• March 30th Letter Writing Launch Party at Paper Umbrella
• April 1st Letter Writing Challenge Begins
• April 6th Letter Writing Night at Stones Throw Coffee
• April 13th Letter Writing Night at Red Fox Creative Studio
• April 30th Letter Writing Challenge ends with contest prize awarded

This Fall, we had the opportunity to visit Egg Press In Portland, Oregon where we learned about the letterwriting challenge: to write 30 letters in 30 days during the month of April, National Letterwriting Month. It inspired us to launch our own campaign here in Regina to promote joy, creativity, expression, and connection through hand-written correspondence.  

Join the letter writing movement by sharing your photos with us on Facebook and Instagram with hashtags #write_on #write_onYQR #paperumbrellask By choosing to use the #write_onYQR hashtag you will automatically be entered to win a prize on April 30.

* Remember to bring your favourite writing supplies for a fantastically fun letter writing night!
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For those interested in securing an official Write_On Kit (supplies are limited!) for $10, please visit the shop or call 306 522-3800. Each letter-writing kit contains:

6 letterpress printed cards with designs from Egg Press & Hello!Lucky
6 custom printed envelopes with a Write_On message on the back
1 sheet of Write_On stickers
1 colour-coordinated Gelly Roll pen
1 sheet to track your letters - 30 spots for all 30 days of the Write_On Challenge!

Join us throughout the month of April for the following Letter writing nights:  

• March 30th Letter Writing Launch Party at Paper Umbrella
• April 1st Letter Writing Challenge Begins
• April 6th Letter Writing Night at Stones Throw Coffee House
• April 13th Letter Writing Night at Red Fox Creative Studio
• April 30th Letter Writing Challenge ends with contest prize awarded

It is a delight for the eyes in all types of winter light;  a little colour to counterbalance the January days.

I hope you will take the time to enjoy them as you walk down 13th Avenue.

May all your paper dreams come true this Christmas.

Wishing you all the joy that comes with creativity and imagination!!

This event coincides with what has become a neighbourhood wide event called Light Up the Village with 14 additional businesses staying up late serving up deals, warm drinks and friendly smiles.  

Please join us for some holiday fun!

Brad chose his 97 year old Grandma, Kay.  She agreed to pose for our billboard, and we've had lots of terrific feedback about what it takes to be Saskatchewan tough.

We'd love to hear who inspires you.  

Enjoy! 

Don't forget about our current Lomography photo contest! A chance to see your photos on display in the shop at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival this year and win a prize!​ You have a little over a month left to get those rolls developed and send us your best shots.  

​Contest Details:

As creators and artists, photographers and enthusiasts, we’re inviting you to submit your LOMO photographs to our in-store exhibit entitled Lomography Love. This exhibit is intended to inspire beginners and bring together the seasoned experts. It will be the People’s Choice who walks away with a Paper Umbrella Prize. But the real treasure is in viewing the love. 

• Up to 3 submissions per person
• No larger than 8x10
• Accepted until Friday, May 17, 5:30 p.m.
• Returned upon request
• Show opening: Thursday, May 23, 7:00 p.m.
• People’s choice announced Sunday, May 26, 2013
• Film prints only, please! Framed, unframed, mounted, matted, cropped, whatever your heart desires.​

We're so excited to see what you bring in! Oh, and if you want to mail in your submission, our address is 2724 13th Ave. Regina, SK, S4T 1N3. 

Good luck!​

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I thought the La Sardina was the only Lomography camera I could ever love. It was beautiful, durable, it fit in my purse for easy adventuring, it created stunning, sharp images with just the right amount of film grain and quirky lens flares. I was hooked and sold and loyal to the death.

That is, I guess, until I received the Lomography Fisheye No. 2 for Christmas. ​

Another 35mm camera, yes, but this time with a 170-degree wide-angle view, removable fisheye viewfinder, multiple and long exposure capabilities, and sweet fisheye barrel distortion. The prints this thing produces are fantastic. 

I used a whole roll of film in one afternoon, because everything, everything, looks cooler in fisheye. ​

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​The Fisheyes will cost you anywhere from $40-$80 and come in MINI SIZES too (the minis are about the size of a credit card, take 110 film, and are absolutely undeniably the most adorable film cameras you've ever laid eyes on). Each camera comes with two booklets--one with inspirational pictures and unique shooting techniques, and one with instructions for how to use your camera best. 

​Don't forget to check out the Lomography contest happening right now at Paper Umbrella! Pop in to say hi, pick up your own camera, and enter your prints to win a prize from the shop! (Details on our Facebook page.)

-Suzy

Suzy Krause lives in the Cathedral Village and is an avid regular at Paper Umbrella. She also writes at www.suzykrauseandtheskyscrapers.blogspot.com and would love to see you there!​

​The very first Lomography camera I ever laid eyes on was the La Sardina DIY. It came in the mail on a Friday, packaged beautifully and so full of intrigue. I carefully removed it and its many accessories from the cardboard and fell right in love with it in 2.0 seconds.

The little plastic camera was white with removable plates that you could draw on or glue stuff to or even cover in glitter, if you wanted to. It came with an external flash and interchangeable coloured filters. There was a multiple exposure switch on the top, and a place to adjust the focus by the lens, and a knob to wind to advance the film. And that was it. Uncomplicated, but still full of possibilities.

I loaded it with 35mm film and away we went.

I took it on vacation to the mountains. I took it to my inlaws' for Christmas. I took it down the street for a walk. And every time I flipped through my newly developed film, I saw things that were not new to me at all as though they were. And that is the coolest thing. 

Things to try with your La Sardina:

1. Take a picture, change the filter on your flash, take another shot over the same frame (using the MX switch on the top of your camera). Repeat x3. Or 2. Or 4.

2. Take a picture, turn the camera upside down, take another shot over the same frame.​

3. Take multiple exposures of the same person in the same place, moving only the camera. ​Take multiple exposures of that person moving around, keeping the camera in the same place. Take multiple exposures of your cat. Make it look like your cat is triplets.

4. Take ​a picture with a coloured filter in the sunlight (only bits of the picture will be tinted) or indoors (for total saturation). Take a picture of your cat with a filter on the flash. Make it look like your cat is blue. Take a picture directly into the sun for cool solar flares. 

​The La Sardinas run from around $60 - $120. They take 35mm and a battery for the flash. (You can still get 35mm film developed rather cheaply at Don's Photo or Walmart.) Each camera comes with two booklets--one with inspirational pictures and unique shooting techniques, and one with instructions for how to use your camera best. 

Lomography  is constantly coming out with cute new designs for the La Sardina, and Paper Umbrella is ordering new ones in all the time! Make sure to stop in and check them out.

-Suzy

Suzy Krause lives in the Cathedral Village and is an avid regular at Paper Umbrella. She also writes at www.suzykrauseandtheskyscrapers.blogspot.com and would love to see you there!​

Memories are fragile and fickle; the way you see something, the way your brain interprets it at that moment, the details that are played back to you in your mind years later, the little things that are lost or changed as the memory flickers and fades and sometimes disappears altogether. 

Photography, then, is kind of a miracle--an external mind's eye. A way to physically hold a piece of your past, a laugh, a friend, a moment, and to enjoy it again. A way to keep your kids from growing up, or to stop yourself from aging, or to remember how your face looks with a smile on it if you've forgotten. 

The anti-miraculous thing about it is how expensive and intimidating and overwhelming it's becoming. There are SLRs and tri-pods and bulky camera bags and external flashes and expensive lenses;  there are rules about lighting and composition, YouTube tutorials and lengthly articles to help you figure out all the little knobs and buttons and settings on your camera; there are critical eyes and editing software and debate about whether 'real' photographers use editing software. 

I have no desire to be a 'real' photographer. There are so many of you, and you do it so well, with your cameras that cost as much as houses and weigh as much as horses. But I'm afraid of brides, and I don't like looking through the lens and trying to figure out how to make something that will impress someone else. I like picture taking in the same way that I like writing or doodling or playing music. I like the process of trying to get what I'm seeing in my head out in some physical form, without worrying too much what the "right" way of doing it is. And, most of all, I like that basic miraculous part of photography. I like seeing my precious memories laid out in front of me on the kitchen table in neat rectangles and remembering places and people and times that I don't want to forget.

That's why I love these little plastic Lomography cameras which are now available at Paper Umbrella. They have enough settings and buttons and switches and flashes and filters to keep things interesting, without ever once making me feel like I'm doing something "wrong". I can take a million exposures on a single frame and I can leave the shutter open as long as I feel like and I can shoot in a dark room or outside in the middle of the day. Even things that a 'real' photographer might consider mistakes--light leaks, multiple exposures, etc.--turn out beautiful and add to the picture, instead of wrecking it. 

​I've started my own little collection of these quirky cameras, and I'll be posting here from time to time to tell you about them and show you some of the pictures they take, as well as trying out some different films and add-ons. 

See you soon!​

-Suzy

Suzy Krause lives in the Cathedral Village and is an avid regular at Paper Umbrella. She also writes at www.suzykrauseandtheskyscrapers.blogspot.com and would love to see you there!​

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...You'll have to watch this video to see if you're one of them. {In which case, come on down to Paper Umbrella and pick up your stationary prize pack!}

We’re inviting you to snail mail us a public handwritten love letter. This letter can talk about someone or something close to your heart; for example, the love of your city, your favourite movie, your pet or partner (not necessarily in that order).

These letters will be collected until February 14, 2013 and be kept on display at Paper Umbrella throughout the month of February. Three random draws will be conducted on Valentine’s Day and be announced on Facebook. Winners will receive a stationery prize pack!

This event is designed to encourage your personal expression through handwriting and welcomes contributions from anyone who loves the feel of paper and the glide of ink (or pencil) across the page. In other words, all ages are welcome.

Send your letters to 2724 13th Ave. Regina, SK, S4T 1N3.

Good Luck!

I love handwriting.  As a calligrapher and a graphologist, I see it as an expression of our own uniqueness.  The letterforms spill first from our brain and then onto a piece of paper as diverse and unique as the writer themselves.

To my surprise, I recently discovered that handwriting is no longer on the curriculum in certain school divisions.  Memories of labouring over my Capital letters in Grade two suddenly feel as antiquated as hearing my grandmother recount stories of churning her own butter.  

And for those of you who still hold an appreciation for handwriting, we have for you beautiful pens of all descriptions and sumptuous paper to write upon.