We were lucky to catch up with Heather Palenscar recently and have shared our conversation below.

Heather, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

So true, naming things can be hard. Fortunately, naming Silver Ribbon Studio, my stationery brand, was fairly easy. There are three aspects to how I came up with the name:

1. The more obvious meaning of the name comes from how we foil print our cards in silver. The silver foil is literally a ribbon of silver material on a spool. Our brand name helps to differentiate our style as being in favor of silver, when a lot of stationery brands use gold foil.

2. We believe in silver linings, and hope our products inspire others to find the silver lining in whatever life throws at them. We believe silver ribbons are silver linings woven together with love, wrapped around the gifts we give.

You know how when someone gives a gift and it’s wrapped with care, you can feel the thoughtfulness and love by seeing the time and effort they put into making it look special before you even get to the gift?

Much like a ribbon wrapped around a gift, our products are silver ribbons — meaningful shiny finishing touches to share positivity and love, and show someone you think they are special, without necessarily giving anything other than a card … which might happen to be one of our sassy swear word cards that provides a little tough love.

3. This one’s a little “woo-woo” but it’s the “deep down in my sparkly heart” core of how my brand name came to be.

Prior to starting this stationery business I had a brand design/photo agency. In 2017, I felt it was time to close the business and had a lot of anxiety around that decision. I loved what I did and others relied on my services, but I felt a need to do something different.

One of my clients at the time was an anxiety coach, who I worked with to “tap” through the emotions to gain clarity and confidence. During one tapping session I had a visualization of myself wearing a long sleek metallic silver gown. I was walking out of a glittering silver ocean after coming up from the water in a silver gift box that opened up from all sides. On the back of my gown was a big silver bow with long ribbon tails going all the way into the silver water.

I visualized the expectations of others sliding away down those silver ribbon tails, allowing me to walk forward with full confidence into my sparkly new purpose, which I didn’t fully realize until over a year later.

When I started making cards and decided to turn that into a business, the name Silver Ribbon Studio came from that vision.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Heather Palenscar, and my company is Silver Ribbon Studio — a San Diego, CA based fashion-forward stationery brand, specializing in sleek and sassy foil printed greeting cards and paper gifts.

I’ve been a print professional since 2007, when I landed my first design job in a commercial print shop. Throughout my career I’ve worked in various capacities of printing, from design and prepress, to customer service, estimating, and eventually becoming a director of a print shop here in Southern California. In the midst of all that, I have been a business owner of three different companies: 1) a brand design and photo agency, 2) wedding floral design studio (seems random, I know), and 3) my stationery studio.

In 2018, when I first started making greeting cards, I didn’t actually intend to start a stationery brand. Really, I wanted to make my own thank you cards in silver foil on black cardstock. A custom commercial print job, how I wanted them, would have been very costly. So I learned to make them myself, and in 2019 turned my card-making into a business.

Silver Ribbon Studio products are available to purchase online at our website, Etsy, and Faire for wholesale accounts. We are currently expanding our retail presence and look forward to gracing the shelves of some badass brick and mortar stores soon.

We’re known for our foil printed greeting cards that have creative, edgy, swear word sentiments designed with my classy minimalist aesthetic. We have several cards with nice sayings, too. Whatever sentiment you need, our cards keep you looking stylish while being thoughtful.

In addition to greeting cards, my brand offers fun paper and gift centered products, such as inspirational pens and pencils, letter openers, notepads, ribbons, and gift tags … all designed to give a modern stylish way for you to nurture relationships and celebrate through the tradition of card writing and gifting.

If you think about the most common times to send cards or gifts, often those are some of the most joyful, or saddest times in our lives, when we have the biggest feelings. Those around us want to show they care, and support or cheer us on. I aim to channel the emotion surrounding those incredible highs and tremendous lows into a single shiny sentiment printed on a little folded piece of cardstock.

That little foiled sentiment, whether it’s snarky, modern, cheeky, sweet, caring, funny, or loving, I hope is exactly what a person receiving it will appreciate from the person who’s giving it. And the person giving it, well, I want them to feel good about sharing their support or joy on a fancy card, made by a woman-owned brand with high standards.

Flowers are beautiful, but they wilt. Text messages get lost in the scroll. Voices from phone calls fade. But a card, picked out just for you by a loved one, handwritten by them with their care and thoughts for you — that little paper hug is a physical representation of someone’s love, that you can hold onto forever. Especially if you use one of our cards printed in foil and archival inks that won’t fade. Our cards are recyclable too, but the cards you want to keep should be able to be kept.

I have been on the receiving end of many cards, and I’ve actually saved a few. One in particular I have pinned to my office wall, which was from a very intense time of my life when I faced some serious personal matters.

The card I saved was from one of my best friends, Amber, and it says, “this f*ucking sucks but I’m here for you.” I mean, how perfect was that for me?! She really understood me, and knew what sentiment would be most meaningful to me. That lit me up and gave me the biggest glittering smile. (BTW, this totally could have been one of my cards, but was from another stationery brand that I adore).

Ultimately, I gained a new very raw perspective and an even deeper understanding of the impact that one little sparkly paper hug (read: card) can have. That’s a silver lining I’m grateful for and will continue to be the foundation of my brand going forward.

I’m most proud that my cards can be a medium in the exchange of thoughtfulness, gratitude, humor, and love, in the best times and the worst. Of course, there are plenty of “in between” times when it’s nice to get a card just because someone was thinking of you and thinks you’re f*cking awesome — can we swear here?

Life can be tough, and it’s important to be OK with falling apart sometimes. Then someone sends you a card and you feel seen and loved. That bit of positivity, that silver lining, helps you get yourself together. Sure maybe you lose a little glitter when you’re down, but you get back up … you rise and sparkle. Leave that trail of f*cking glitter behind, and show everyone how you sparkled your way through some tough shit.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

Yes, and no. Being a print designer for over a decade before I started making cards, I had the advantage of knowing how to design custom cards already. I also knew the print vendors to outsource print manufacturing to, and had done some print finishing (cutting, scoring, folding, etc.) while working in print shops before. It was really a privilege for me to have had hands-on learning experiences and training from some of my highly skilled colleagues in those previous print shops.

As a proud paper and print nerd with an affinity for tinkering, I started to DIY foil printing using a toner fusion process in my home office. After much trial and error using the right papers, foils, laminators, 3 different high end laser printers, I finally perfected my digital foiling process. I came up with several of my own cards that I gave to friends and family. I realized that making my own line of greeting cards could be a great business and use of my creativity. In 2019, I started selling my cards online and continued to perfect my craft while working full time.

During the pandemic I leaned into my sassy side with our card designs, and started getting more sales. I invested in upgraded equipment and set up a small print production studio, still in my home office.

A couple years later, I decided to expand our foil capabilities and bought a more traditional hot foil press from the UK. I learned to use my shiny new Metallic Elephant press by watching several youtube videos and taking an online foil printing course. This new machine provided an opportunity to take my card production to the next level, and I positioned my brand for a larger wholesale capacity.

If at some point I’m not able to keep in-house production ahead of demand, I do have preferred vendors locally that I could outsource some or all of the production process to. I’ve worked with these print and foil vendors in my previous print shop roles, and trust them to meet my high quality standards. If we were to bring on a new vendor, I would ensure quality control through doing press checks and sample runs.

Some of our other products, such as letter openers, pens, and foil printed satin gift ribbons are not manufactured in the studio. These are outsourced to USA production facilities that specialize in those unique processes, to deliver the best quality product. Once the product is made and delivered, I inspect each for quality, and complete the packaging in-house before entering them into inventory.

I found these product vendors through my promotional product supplier network. I’ve also found vendors for various materials for packaging, or base blank products (like the pencils or cardstock that we print on), by searching online for that specific thing. I email or call to ask questions, order samples, etc. before making a large purchase order.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

In addition to finally becoming a seller on Etsy in 2023, my most effective strategy for growing clientele has been to focus on providing an exceptional brand experience through product presentation and customer service.

By making an impression with our packaging, timely shipping, and communications, my intent is for customers to feel like they are important to us, because they are. I am reciprocating the gift of their purchase with a thoughtful order experience. In the words of one of our customers, “I seriously felt like I was opening a very special gift.”

Our amazing customers then share my shop with friends and family, and leave generous feedback with 5-star reviews. This in turn provides the social proof that new shoppers look for when making purchase decisions. It’s also been successful for earning loyal customers that return to purchase time and time again.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://silverribbonstudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silverribbonstudio/
• Other: ETSY: https://silverribbonstudio.etsy.com FAIRE: https://faire.com/direct/silverribbonstudio

Image Credits

Heather Palenscar, Amber DeBarge