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  • Kathy Toppins

    Chirps and Cheers

  • Kathy Toppins

    Chirps and Cheers

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October 30, 2009

Stationery shop, chirps & cheers, opens in downtown Edmond

KATHY TOPPINS

EDMOND — Susan Kropp recently opened a specialty stationery shop in Edmond for people, like her, who get excited about celebrating life’s everyday chirps and extraordinary cheers. Located at 100 N. Broadway, chirps & cheers is the realization of a dream for Kropp, who has been designing her own stationery for 10 - 12 years.

The shop features stationery lines new to Edmond, many of which use environmentally friendly paper, ink and printing processes.

“I love some of the lines I carry now,” Kropp said. She said she especially loves the artistic expression possible with letterpress, an older form of printing.

Customers can browse wedding, party and social stationery albums, as well as choose from cards, boxed notes, journals, office accessories and wrapping materials. To continue offering new products, Kropp said she will constantly change her inventory.

Using her design sensibility and knowledge, Kropp said she works with customers to come up with something unique. An invitation, for example, “is the setting for your event. It sets the whole personality of the event,” Kropp said.

One advantage of coming to the shop, Kropp explained, is the chance to brainstorm with her on the custom design and actually feel the paper. Some people are strictly utilitarian, she said, while others want to go over the top with stacks, bows and rhinestones.

Kropp compares people’s taste in stationery to their taste in shoes. Her shop, she said, carries products for the flip-flop crowd as well as those who wear Jimmy Choo.

Coming into the fresh, colorful shop is a fun experience for customers. “The atmosphere is different from anything else, and people have been really receptive,” said Kropp’s 19-year-old daughter, Sami.

Sami, a dancer with the Oklahoma City Ballet, is performing this weekend in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Kropp and her husband Brad have two more children, ages 17 and 19. Keeping up with her teenagers has helped keep Kropp up to date with the latest trends.

Calling cards, carried in a lot of Kropp’s custom books, are the new thing with teenagers and the college crowd.

“Calling cards are definitely becoming more and more popular,” Sami said. “I keep telling her I want calling cards.”

Sami said calling cards are “like a portable résumé,” listing a phone number, e-mail address, Facebook address and more. Dancers, she explained, put their videos on the Internet for directors to see. Instead of carrying CDs, she explained, dancers provide directors calling cards with a Web address for their videos.

Concentrating on home and family until now, this is the first shop Kropp has opened. After a year of serious planning, she’s happy to start a new career at chirps & cheers.

Customers may stop by the store at 100 N. Broadway, Suite 106, or schedule an appointment to discuss stationery needs for an upcoming “chirp or cheer.” The shop is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and by appointment. For more information on chirps & cheers, visit chirpsand

cheers.com.



ktoppins@edmondsun.com |

341-2121, ext. 112

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