Hi! I’m Anouk, nice to meet you. I’m a stationery nerd in love with beautiful illustrations. I collect pretty paper goodies and postcards, but also journals and fountain pens. I even design my own stationery from time to time and sell them online.
I have been a paper kind of girl ever since I have known. I do like the digital world as well, but it just does not the same magic paper holds: it mostly a means to an end. For sharing, selling and shopping my passion. With Nouk-san I would love to take to take you with me on this journey.
Nouk-san: paper, crafts & design
Back when I was a teen I was mostly online for the communities on several Harry Potter websites. At some point I wanted a new nickname. I decided to go with Nouk-san because I was called ‘Nouk’ already and at the time I was into anime: ‘san’ sounded like a nice addition. It’s a Japanese honorific or a name suffix. It’s the most common one to use and you almost can’t go wrong with it. Little did I know back then that Japan is very well known for stationery so it actually fits quite well.Â
It was not much later I decided to create my own website. I was learning to code and there was a blogging trend so I decided to join. At first I just shared my personal stories, but after a while some creativity as well. Mostly digital designs which online friends asked me to do after a while too. So when I started my own business in 2011 it’s not surprising I used Nouk-san for the name. And since I wanted to bring my paper passion to the screen I decided to sell my own stationery. At first in collaboration with other illustrators and after that with drawings of my own. In the meantime I started to share creativity on my blog instead of (just) personal stories and I even started a YouTube channel to support this as well.
Stationery brand
What started as a small shop for postcards (because I have collected them ever since I was a kid) and letter paper after a while too, turned into a whole webshop with several products such as stickers, notepads, stamps and even washi tape as well (I was quite proud of that one to be perfectly honest). In 2014 I even created a separate stationery shop to sell other brands as well, even though I have changed the product range to writing letters after 10 years. It’s now a shop for letter pads, envelopes, address labels and seal stickers. Still paper goodies graced with beautiful illustrations but just on a select few items. To accommodate my habit to collect postcards I recently opened a new webshop though.
Over the years I have created many illustrations for several stationery collections. Many of which are still available by the way! Apart from the drawing style, which is animals and items that are recognizable but clearly drawn by a person, I have ventured into many different materials to use for my illustrations up until 2024 when I started drawing digitally on my iPad in ProCreate. The last collections are like the pictures I want to create, but it’s very time consuming so unfortunately I have not created recently anymore.
About me: Anouk
The reason I have limited time at the moment is because I am a mom of two daughters (3 and 5). I also started a job at the end of 2024 to help get the pressure of my business. I discovered I rather do stationery and illustration as a hobby or a side hussle than having it as my full time job. Even if it’s just to get out of the house more and have a steady income. I still spend many hours in my room filled with stationery though. Collecting, journaling and simply admiring. And I hope to keep doing so. On my website, but also on Instagram and even my YouTube channel.
Are you a stationery lover as well? I love to connect with you!