About Us

Hello and welcome to the home of Paper Turtle - it's lovely that you have found us here. Some of you may know us from Lewes High Street, where I had a shop for more than 15 years. 

So as to fill you in, here is a short resume as to how we find ourselves here......

I spent my late 20s working in the Stationary and Gift Industry and was inspired to build a shop that I was yet to find.  So in 2005 after three years of research and saving, I opened a little shop on School Hill in Lewes, which initially sold gifts and cards.  My initial business idea evolved and changed as the years went by and the Town changed - I moved into party supplies and onsite balloon decor, before completely rebranding in 2016 to Paper Turtle.

My husband at the time had his doubts, but loyally stood by my side (!) with my new vision to recreate and also simplify life around my then young Son. My hunch was to create a business based upon my current greeting card wall offering, which always performed well. I particularly loved buying cards and really wanted more shelf space to display individual artists. I had a vision that the shop would look like a 'mini art gallery', displaying a publishers range as a small collection - offering a very affordable form of art to send or frame.

So on a shoestring budget we set about creating a special space to display the vision - the interior made use of 'natural' materials to give a warm and friendly feel and the layout was carefully considered to make the shop uncluttered and easy to browse.  Finally we added some quirky lighting features and some splashes of colours to give a sense of fun.

My core ranges were what I would describe as 'nature inspired' with animals, wildlife, flowers, plants and landscape themes featuring strongly amongst the walls. Paper Turtle did indeed perform well, sales grew and I loved the shop display and visual art I could add to the windows.  However, the Pandemic arrived, along with an increasingly busy personal life and my Husband needing my help in his own business thus making the difficult decision to close the doors after nearly 16 years on the High Street.

Today, I continue to sell online a small selection of the style of cards that sold well in my little shop and hope at some point in the future I can further expand this and get back to where we were!