Sugar Paper | Handmade Stationery for Every Special Occasion

“I think it really started in our childhood, we have always both loved paper,” Shukov says. “When I would go to the mall with my friends, they would go to the clothing stores and I would find myself in a paper store buying completely unnecessary paper items.”

The paper-loving duo met in college, but it wasn’t until they were both working in their respective careers that they discovered the power of a traditional letterpress.

“We were both in an art store together and we had seen a card that was done with a printed letterpress,” Shukov says. “Neither one of us had ever seen the printing method before, and we were kind of enamored with it.”

 “One thing led to another, we bought a letterpress and started experimenting with it, just as a hobby.”

That hobby quickly became a full-time job after requests for handmade cards and stationery came pouring in from friends and family who had seen their beautifully crafted work. A year later, they opened their first brick-and-mortar stationery shop.

“What we do is a throwback to a different time,” Shukov says. “We print the old fashioned way, on antique equipment, one piece of paper at a time. When you feel Sugar Paper in your hands, you can just feel the difference.”

Today, Sugar Paper has expanded from one California shop to three, including Lido Marina Village, and has become a profitable online business, with its stationery products offered in big and small shops around the country, including Target stores.

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“The paper is always extra thick, the envelopes are always lined by hand and it just has this nostalgic quality that feels higher quality than what you’re used to seeing at a big box retailer,” Shukov says.

“For certain life events, people come to us—because a birthday card from a big box store will do, but when it’s a baby announcement, a wedding invitation, a holiday card, they tend to use us for those really kind of important life moments,” she added.

Sugar Paper’s most popular stationery product is their letterpress printed cards for different occasions, and Shukov says that it’s a special opportunity that they get to follow a family from the time they get married, have their first baby, to their child’s graduation and beyond. 

To simplify the card writing process for their customers, Grobecker and Shukov worked together to write their first book, “How to Write a Letter,” which is filled with creative ideas and tips for writing and addressing cards, letters and everything in between.

“We found that our clients were hesitant to put their love on paper or to write somebody a message, because they didn’t know what to say,” Shukov says. “After having been in this business for a couple decades now, we really do know what to say in the stickiest of times or the most celebratory times.”

Intended to help Sugar Paper customers overcome the personal barriers that make sending thoughtful cards in the mail a challenge, this how-to book makes it simple to put feelings into words.

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“Take the time to send one letter to somebody that you love, because it matters so much.” Shukov says. “I know I’m personally getting more letters because of it—and I know people are writing more because of it and we’re really proud of it.”

In addition to their debut book and handmade cards, Sugar Paper is known for their high quality planners, and they will soon launch a new collection of stationery for the upcoming academic year.