The person behind Suteki
Hi, I’m Amy!
I’m the person behind Suteki Stickers, a stationery shop based in the West Midlands.
I curate my favourite stationery from around the world, from independent artists to well-loved brands, alongside a growing collection of my own original artwork and products.
Suteki has grown into much more than I ever imagined. It now includes subscriptions, planner meets, original designs, plenty of happy mail and a lovely community of stationery people.
Welcome to my little corner of the stationery world.
A creative beginning
I’ve always loved making things
I have loved drawing for as long as I can remember. Art was always the thing I came back to, even when the route there wasn’t completely straightforward.
I studied Art and Design at college before moving on to Illustration at university. I later changed direction and studied Computer Game Design, where my main interest was 2D art, although the course still occasionally had me wrestling with 3D modelling and Maya.
After that, I completed a Master’s in Illustration. Looking back, my education wandered through quite a few creative spaces, but drawing and visual storytelling were always at the heart of it.
It took me a while to find the right place for all of those interests. Eventually, that place became Suteki.
A lifelong obsession
Stationery has always been there
I didn’t suddenly discover stationery as an adult. I have loved stickers, pens, notebooks and all the little bits that go with them for as long as I can remember.
There is something lovely about a fresh notebook, a really good pen or a sticker sheet that feels far too nice to use. Although I do eventually use them. Usually.
This slightly chaotic planner was how I organised my tiny shop in the early days. Long before there were subscriptions, events or thousands of products, there was just me, a planner, a few stickers and lots of ideas.
It might not look especially glamorous now, but so much of what Suteki became started on those pages.
A huge source of inspiration
Japan, colour and cute things
Although my love of stationery started long before I ever visited Japan, Japan and Japanese culture have become a huge inspiration for me.
I love being there. The colour, characters, packaging, tiny details and the sheer amount of care that can go into an everyday object all leave me feeling inspired.
Japanese stationery in particular has a wonderful way of being both useful and joyful. It can solve a problem, make a page easier to use and still be incredibly cute.
That balance between practical and playful has influenced both the products I choose for the shop and the things I create myself.
The first version of Suteki
A tiny shop and a second chance
Suteki Stickers actually started before I went to university.
Back then it was a very small shop where I mostly resold stationery that I loved. It wasn’t anything huge, but I enjoyed having a little corner of the internet that was mine.
When I finished university and started my first full-time job, I closed it. I didn’t really understand how self-assessment would work alongside full-time employment, and I was worried about the tax implications.
The slightly funny part is that the full-time job I was starting was working for HMRC, so I closed my tiny business because I was worried about tax and then went to work for the taxman.
For a while, that seemed like the end of Suteki.
Then Lily came along, and I realised I didn’t want to go back to work. Spoiler: I did.
Trying again
Giving Suteki another chance
After Lily was born, I wanted to be at home with her, and reopening Suteki felt like it might be a route towards making that possible.
I kept thinking about the original idea. I genuinely felt that there was something special there and that I could turn it into more if I gave it another chance.
So I reopened the shop.
At first, the hope was fairly simple. I wanted to build something that might eventually give me more time at home with Lily. But as Suteki grew, it became much more than that.
It became a creative outlet, a community, a place to share the stationery I genuinely loved and, eventually, a space where I felt confident enough to start sharing more of my own artwork too.
Somehow, I managed to pull it off.
Created and curated
What Suteki has become
Today, Suteki is a mixture of all the things I love.
I curate stationery from independent artists and well-loved brands around the world, choosing products that I genuinely like and would be excited to use myself.
Alongside those, I’m creating a growing collection of my own illustrated products. I don’t design everything in the shop, but anything that is one of my original creations has been designed and illustrated by me.
One of my favourite parts of creating is noticing a problem, hearing other stationery people mention the same thing and working out whether I can make something that helps.
Happy mail
I want opening a Suteki parcel to feel exciting, whether it contains one sticker sheet or a whole subscription.
Favourite finds
Everything is chosen because I genuinely love it, not because I want to fill the shop with as many products as possible.
Original art
I’m gradually creating more of my own products and becoming braver about putting my artwork into the world.
More than a shop
Creating places for stationery people
Some of the things I’m proudest of aren’t individual products at all. They’re my planner meets.
I love making everything for them, from the theme and artwork to the tiny details people discover on the day. They give me an opportunity to combine illustration, stationery, puzzles, happy mail and the joy of bringing people together.
The Spooky Meet was one of those moments where everything came together and felt exactly right. Since then, I’ve wanted to keep creating events where people can turn up, feel comfortable and spend a day with others who get just as excited about planners, stickers and stationery as they do.
What began as a very small online shop has grown into subscriptions, events, original products and a community I’m incredibly grateful to be part of.
The journey continues
What’s next?
The dream is to be able to do this full time and put all of myself into it.
I’d love to design lots more of my own products and artwork, run more workshops and events, meet even more lovely people and have the time and space to properly explore all the ideas currently living in my head.
Hopefully, one day, there might even be a little packing help so I can spend more of my time creating.
More than anything, I want Suteki to keep growing without losing the joy that made me start it again. I want to keep loving stationery, making cute art, learning new things and sending out parcels that make people think:
“Eeep! Happy mail!”
Whether you have only just discovered Suteki or have been here since the early days, thank you for supporting my little corner of the stationery world.
I hope you leave knowing that the person behind it genuinely loves stationery, knows what she’s talking about and really does love making cute art.