New Designs for Spring - Yellow Buds Happy Birthday Card

I'm so excited to unveil the first of the new Spring 2009 collection! Many of the designs for this spring are simple, nature inspired and peaceful. You'll see a few fun and retro designs, but everything is designed with positivity and peace in mind (since there's enough craziness out there already!) This Happy Birthday card was designed with those in mind who would rather run through a field of wild flowers than go to dinner and a movie on their birthday. Of course, like all of the Paper Mango cards, it's printed on eco-friendly paper and this one in particular is on Sundance Paper's felt texture cover stock. Head over to the Etsy store to pick a few up! While you're there, you can also get a sneak peak of the next Spring 2009 design being revealed on the blog later this week.

Mangolicious Gifts - Field of Poppies Thank You Cards

This fresh and heartfelt card is the 3rd in our series of green, affordable and mangolicious gift ideas for the holidays. If you can't say thanks with a live bouquet of flowers, say it with this silhouette of a beautiful poppy field. This simple, yet beautiful design will let all of your friends and family know just how thankful you are! A great gift for anyone on your list. Order it at our Etsy store today.

Mangolicious Gifts - Friendly Monogram Set

Next up in the Mangolicious Gift Series is this cheery monogram card. We've all gotten notes on those intimidating monogram cards. Big scary fonts, stuffy, bland colors; not exactly the way to start off a casual note. Here's a friendly monogram card, personalized with your initial, and says to the recipient, "Hey! It's just me!" Blank on the inside with just enough room to share the latest news from your world. And at only $15.00 for a set of 10 cards, these cards make a great gift for anyone from your child's teacher to a co-worker. Pick it up in our Paper Mango Etsy store.

Mangolicious Gifts - Tin Can Hello Card

With the gift giving season upon us, I thought I'd share some of the offerings you can find in the Paper Mango store. So if you haven't added us to your blog reader yet, do it now so you don't miss that perfect gift for your favorite barista. All items are recession-budget-friendly, eco-friendly, and just over all plain friendly! Take this retro "hello card", for example. Before cell phones and wireless technology there was the tin can phone. Simple. Effective. The perfect way to say "hello" to your best friend...if they were within 50 feet. Fortunately, these colorful cards featuring your childhood communication device of choice, don't need to be attached with string to say "hi". The perfect gift for anyone on your list!

Featured Fruit - Swaptree.com

I'm always excited to find new ways to go green, and swaptree.com is my latest obsession. Instead of throwing away your books, cds, dvds and video games you no longer use, just trade them for stuff you want! Any time I pack to move I purge all the stuff I've collected since the last move. My theory is if I haven't used it, worn it, read it, or listened to it for a year or more, it's time to go. (Of course this doesn't apply to the winter coat that I wear once a year here in Phoenix, but for most else it's a good rule of thumb.) In the past I've usually had a yard sale, donated to Goodwill or gone to a local used book/music store to get rid of things. But now for all of my books, cds, dvds (I don't own video games) I've used swaptree. A wonderful place where you can list items you like to get rid of, items you would like to have, and swaptree matches up trades for you with people from all over the country! All you have to do is ship the item, and wait for yours to arrive. This weekend I traded a book and a cd to two different people, both items were under $2 to ship and I'm getting some cds that I've been wanting for a while but haven't been willing to shell the cash out for. Give it a try. You'll get rid of stuff that's cluttering your house, get stuff you want, and save some space in those overflowing landfills.

The Buy for Life Project

If you've been over to our Etsy Store you've hopefully read a bit about our "Buy for Life" project. We really believe that everyone has a part to play in making the world a sweeter place and we're dedicated to fulfilling our roll in that mission. We do that in part by using eco-friendly papers, inks and other materials whenever possible in our products. As improvements in products and availability of products continue to grow we plan to increase our use of "green" materials. In addition, we do our best to work with local printers and merchants to cut down on the carbon emissions produced when things are shipped long distances.

And while we love being eco-chic, we're really excited about our Buy for Life Project. There are so many great organizations doing incredible things around the globe making life sweeter for those they come into contact with. We want to help create awareness about these organizations in addition to financially supporting the work they're doing. To this end, we donate 10% of every purchase to our featured organization. If you spend $50.00 we give $5. If you spend $200.00 we give $20.00! So, when you buy from Paper Mango you don't just buy originally designed paper goods, you buy for life. So get spending!

(If you have an organization that you would like to see featured on Paper Mango comment on this post and let us know.)