Curious Pearl Paper from Anna Marie Designs

Here is my first post of my favourite suppliers series.  I decided to start with this as there is a sale with incredible bargains at the moment, so figured this would be a timely one to start with.

I want to be clear here - I have no affliation with these companies or products, I just really like them!

Curious metals pearlescent paper and card

My ultimate favourite paper to cut with is curious metals pearlescent paper.  It's a  nice thickness (120gsm) that cuts better than any other paper I have tried.  Given it's shimmery, I was surprised that it's very forgiving when bending and folding - I've used it to make both small  origami pieces and also a large lightshade.  The paper is double sided, prints beautifully and gel pens work well too.  Seriously, it's like the holy grail!

Anna Marie Designs

Quite a few shops sell this paper, but the best value by a country mile is a shop called Anna Marie Designs.

Anna Marie Designs Homepage - click to view pearl papers

Currently in the clearance prices section, there are A3 packs of 50 sheets on sale for just £3, so that's just 6p a sheet instead of over 50p.  The normal price for these packs from the same shop is £9.99 and the next cheapest I've found for the same paper is another shop I use alot called PDA Card and Craft at over £25! 

Links to the Curious Metals Pearl Paper Bargains

My main gripe with this store is that I find the website very hard to navigate.  Here are the links to help you:
Main link with all colours A3 pearl paper regular price
Same pearl paper, all colours but A4
Bargain Corner
You'll actually find some A4 pearl paper on sale here, but weirdly it's actually more expensive than the A3 packs!
50 Sheets Antique Gold A3 Pearl Paper £3
50 Sheets Super Gold A3 Pearl Paper £3
50 Sheets Cognac A3 Pearl Paper £3
50 Sheets Cream A3 Pearl Paper £3
50 Sheets Ionised (Dark Grey) A3 Pearl Paper £3
50 Sheets Luster (Light Grey) A3 Pearl Paper £3 -the title says 1/sided, but the one I received was double sided 120gsm like the rest.
There are also bargains with sheets cut to be folded into cards
For example 50 sheets dark blue 6" pearlescent sheets for just £1

Other Items

I've also bought linen and laid 120gsm paper, hammered paper and card - all lovely.  I  like the smooth card and the envelope packs are very good value and quality.  My favourite adhesive is the red hi tack tape and it's only £1 for 5m (3mm, 6mm and 9mm wide).

The only item I've not been so keen on is the single sided pearl paper - it's very pretty, but thinner and it was difficult to cut, so more suitable as an insert or backing.

Shipping

Shipping is free over £30, under that it varies between £1.25 and £6.95 for up to 15kgs.  On first look, with a few items in my cart, the postage was sitting at £6.95 which felt very spendy.  Thing is though, paper is incredibly heavy - I recently bought a big haul of paper to split with my friend Danielle.  Her half weighs 6kg and will cost about £8 through Hermes, so I think it's fair really.  Processing times are 7 working days, which I think is on the high side, so it's not suitable for urgent rush orders (PDA would be my choice for that).  Sometimes also the parcel arrives with some items to follow, which happened for one items in my most recent order recently.

All in all, I'm a massive fan of Anna Marie Designs.  The range is big, the quality is really excellent and the prices are phenomenal!  I'd be interested to hear if you shop from here also and if you have any favourie products.