Without further ado, our winners are with a few comments from some of our friends at the companies themselves:

1. Modlet Starter Kit from ThinkEco
Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Mei Shibata, was excited about the participation on the giveaway and said: “A fridge is a good guess – that may be one of your home’s power hogs, but remember that different brands/models vary greatly in energy efficiency. In general, any device with a heating or cooling mechanism draws more power than you might think, and some of this may not be so obvious – e.g. a laser printer that heats up toner, a single-brew coffee maker that keeps its water warm.” Congrats to Rebecca Zipp (Rebecca-Zipp) for winning the Modlet starter kit (see instructions below).

2. Safe & Modern Baby Bundle from Zoli
The baby bundle includes one (1) Sumo Snack Stacker, one (1) STUCK suction bowl and (1) On-The-Go Snack Stacker. I personally can vouch for the On the Go Stacker as my daughter, Baby B, used that more than any other baby product we own. Congrats to Stefanie Chen (stefanie.chen) for winning the Safe & Modern Baby Bundle (see instructions below).

3. Flip Ultra HD 8GB Video Camera from giggle
With the holidays here, an HD video camera is a great way to capture all of those priceless holiday moments (whether that’s grandpa snoring like a polar bear after a little too much Christmas ham or it’s Baby Logan deciding to do his best Sandy Koufax imitation with his cherry pie). I loved giggle’s design so much that we’ve recruited them as a design partner and you can find the trademark giggle colors and design throughout Paper Culture’s catalog or giggle cards. And if you’re looking for a last minute gift for a mom or mom-to-be, I encourage you to check out their online and retail stores. Congrats to Liz Maimone (LizMaimone) for winning the Flip Ultra HD Video Camera from giggle (see instructions below).

4. 6 month subscription to Kiwi Crate
Huiling Chen, one of my co-founders and our Creative Director, introduced me to this great company founded by the founder of Maya’s list that became Baby Center’s community platform. Our two kids keep asking when the next Kiwi Crate is going to come. Congrats to Diane Bradley-Henning (Diane-Bradley-Henning) for winning the 6 month subscription to Kiwi Crate (see instructions below).

5. $100 Voucher to weeDECOR
Pam Webber, the CEO and founder of weeDECOR, loved reviewing all of the entries for the contest. She added, “Our goal with the christmas wall decals was to design decals that both the whole family would enjoy. We want our decals to help create of playful, personal memories over a lifetime and bring beauty to your holiday home.” Well, we’re biased, but we sure think they succeeded. Congrats to Krista Herling (Krista Herling) for winning the $100 voucher (see instructions below). Note: we mistakenly posted Stefanie Chen’s name twice as a winner. That earlier item was a typo, but Stefanie did win the Zoli giveaway (sorry!).

6. $200 Voucher to Paper CultureI loved all of your ideas for an eco friendly holidays. While flattery was definitely appreciated for those citing “order Paper Culture Christmas cards” as one of their eco to do’s, I swear we picked the winner at random. And yes, it appears she’s a Paper Culture customer (although you are on the Paper Culture fan page so I suppose there’s a decent likelihood of that ; ). My favorite is the potted Christmas tree. In my parents’ back yard we have a huge pine tree that grew from one of our Christmas trees growing up. It not only keeps the circle of life going, but it brings back priceless memories with every pine comb and needle it drops. Congrats to Susan Nenadal-Boeldt (susan.nenadalboeldt) who has won the $200 Paper Culture voucher.

For the winners, please send us a message to contact@paperculture.com from your Facebook account. Just click the message icon on the upper left of your Facebook homepage and enter our email address. Mention your name, address (if you’ve won the Zoli Baby Bundle, Kiwi Crate 6 month subscription, Modlet Starter Kit from ThinkEco or the Flip HD Video Camera from giggle) and preferred email address. We’ll get you your prizes right away.

Thanks again from all of us here at Paper Culture – we hope all of your holidays are full of love, joy, family and friends.
be modern.
be eco.
be merry.

Sincerely,
Christopher Wu
CEO, Co-Founder of Paper Culture

As you may know, I recently started writing the “Inspired” blog for Paper Culture. Before I started my job, I did some research — I looked at the site. I checked out the assortment of cards and designs that were available. But I hadn’t really experienced Paper Culture until now. My daughter is turning four next week and I am making, as my Aunt Aleen from NJ would say, a party for her. This year I am doing the tried and true “age of the child plus one extra guest.” I have gone to too many 4-year-old birthday parties recently, where the birthday child has been in meltdown mode for the last half hour of the party. Also my daughter just started a new school, so I wasn’t really sure, who to invite. Here is my experience:

1. Register: I went on paperculture.com and registered, which was a piece of cake.

2. Pick your card: I had a terrible idea and let my daughter pick her invitation. She was very opinionated and a difficult customer to boot. “Fairies don’t have green wings. The princess’ mouth is too big.” And she didn’t like the line that went through the letters – disliking fonts at her age???! We finally settled on a card that she liked. It had scoops of ice-cream on it. Needless to say, she likes sugar.

3. Input text: I filled out the pertinent information. And then the site quickly sends you a proof and asks if everything is ok, or if you have questions about the design. I wasn’t sure if the text should be in all caps or not. I sent my proof back with my question. 30 minutes later I got a new proof and the designer had fixed everything: the “headline” was in all caps, and the other text was capitalized as needed. I also asked if the card could be more pink. Voila! I got a new proof, which had a pink background. We were good to go.

4. Order: I ordered 10 cards as this is going to be a small fete.

5. Mail: I hadn’t realized that Paper Culture offers a “Mail & Message Service.” The cards can be sent directly to you for you to send out, or the “Mail & Message Service” addresses and sends out the cards for you! You only pay for the stamps. I figured I would try it, as my handwriting leans towards being illegible. You can either type in your addresses – there is a nice little intuitive form – or you can import your addresses by using the paperculture.com excel address template. The Paper Culture people will assist you if you are stuck, but really it was so logical that I didn’t need help. And it didn’t take very long to do.

6. Message: Then I came upon the most magical part of the process. You can type individual notes for each guest which will be printed on the back of the card. Or you can send everyone the same key information and either personalize it a bit, or not at all. You never want to fill the front of your card with important, but non-festive information like directions and/or parking instructions. And you don’t need to with the “Message” part of the “Mail & Message Service.”

7. Purchase: I bought ($32.54 including tax and the cost of stamps) them on Tuesday and my daughter received her invite in the mail the next Wednesday. Not bad at all. Actually, it was quite a wonderful experience. And the word on the street has been amazing. My daughter’s friend, Sasha, told her that she had taped it to her wall. And two Moms told me that they loved everything about it.

Now I just have to figure out how to keep six 4-year-olds busy for two hours. Any thoughts? Suggestions?

But just as one chapter closes, a new one  opens. And I am thrilled to introduce not one, but two new bloggers, Wendy and Ariston. As always, Wendy and Ariston will share their inspirations, especially as they relate to modern design and sustainability – and more importantly, we hope all of you will share your ideas with them as well.

Wendy takes the mommy and SoCal torch from Souris. In her own words, “I am a single Mom of an almost four-year-old soon to be princess-ballerina-chef. We live in Santa Monica now. I lived in NYC for many years before returning to LA, where I am from and where most of my family still lives.” She has written for Cool Hunting for over 7 years and strolled the corporate halls at Nike, WalMart and Pepsi. And apparently, she likes having 11 year olds take her intro post picture with a cat that’s not even hers.

And while we lose one ‘hustler of culture’, I’m quite sure that Ariston is going to step in to make her own mark in that department, not to mention keeping us West Coasters honest with an East Coast point of view – who said the East Coast / West Coast rivalry was dead with Puff Daddy?!? Ariston settled in New York over a decade ago to start writing for the Village Voice. Over the years she has evolved into a culture writer, covering all things travel, eco, design, fashion, and lifestyle for sites like Luxist, Cool Hunting, the Huffington Post, JustLuxe, and the99percent.com. For a year she edited the blog of DoSomething.org, a national nonprofit for teens which encourages kids to do good in the world. Today, she is a leading identifier of current trends in arts and design as a digital strategist for Fortune 500 brands including, Pepsi, Target, HBO, Jeep, and nonprofits including TED and UNDP. Her daily musings can be found @aristonian and now, on here on Inspired.

I feel incredibly lucky to have had an opportunity to work alongside Souris, and with the anticipation of a 7 yr old boy on the night before Christmas – I look forward to doing the same with Wendy and Ariston moving forward. I hope you all will join me in thanking Souris and welcoming Wendy and Ariston!