Casa Papel

Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, PA

Pretty Note-Worthy

A stationer and craft-paper store comes to Northern Liberties

Self-proclaimed "paper junkie" Cecilia Torres and her husband Nestor have turned their passion for pretty paper into a wonderfully vivid brick-and-mortar shop. At Casa Papel, you can flip through binders teeming with house-designed stationery samples reflecting Cecilia's graphic-design sense, and she'll conceive, assemble and help you create everything from wedding invitations to baby announcements. While you're there, scour racks draped with 320-plus sheets of paper-cum-art flown in from everywhere from Japan to Nepal, and crafted out of such unconventional materials as mulberry tree bark and... elephant poo. (Hey, even pretty has its eeww side.) 804 North 2nd Street. 267-761-9149, casapapel.com.

(REPRINTED FROM PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE, MARCH 2009)

casapapel.com