Deeply etched into our minds and soul, this was what drove my best friend and me to make handmade and personalized gifts for our loved ones. To make someone feel special, materialistic gifts never really met the bar that we had set so high with all our ideas.
In this age of social media and DMs, the concept of handmade gifts may at times feel needless. When everything is fast-paced and digital, and where much of the communication is paper-free, receiving a handcrafted gift is quite rare. Though rare, we still believe that there is a special joy in receiving a personalized and handcrafted gift.
Three years ago, we decided to take a leap of faith and start our small business of handcrafted greeting cards: PaperTowns. And that leap started the greatest journey of our lives. We realized that we were not the only ones who felt that flashy gifts were not personal enough. We have so many people coming to us with their ideas; their feelings shaping the gifts we make. We feel glad that we can play a role in spreading love in our customers’ lives. What started as an experiment with simple two-dimensional greeting cards, PaperTowns now specializes in a wide range of handcrafted items. Our team is always on the lookout for new ideas that would help people express their feelings better, and spread love and joy.
PaperTowns stands 3 years strong today, and this journey has not always been full of rainbows and sunshine. One major struggle that we continue to face is the lack of necessary art and craft supplies in Nepal. It has also been a challenge to get some of our audience to really appreciate and understand the value of handcrafted items. It can sometimes get a little demotivating when the hours of dedication put into perfecting every detail does not get appreciated. Even though people have started to acknowledge and support small and local businesses, we know we still have a long way to go to really make that impact.
With consistency, hard work, and determination, we have made it through difficult times. Like they say, if you really love doing something, it is really just your will against all the barriers. In the end, however, the joy which our customers feel when they receive the final product is enough for us to keep doing what we do.
Aditee Bhattarai
PaperTowns