Arts & Letters

What a terrific find in Santa Monica! This is a small independently owned business with a huge variety of beautiful paper products including cards, journals, pens, boxes, wallets and other gift ideas. The owner knows her stock and is very helpful. I’m not from CA, but know how hard it is to find this kind of brick and mortar treasure these days!

This is a special place. I love this shop. They have an amazing, unique selection of items and the customer service is incredible. Linda, one of the owners, is amazing and was extremely helpful and accommodating when I recently came to her with a huge project. She wrapped all of my employer’s holiday gifts this year. She probably wrapped at least 60 gifts for me. She was so wonderful to work with through the whole process. It was all very organized and each gift she wrapped looked like a work of art.
Thank you, Linda!!! You’re the best!!!

Bought 2 very unique tree ornaments here. Linda, the owner, is terrific and really has a great buying sense for her customers. The salespersons are caring, knowledgeable and fun! This is a «go-​to» must destination for any season.

This is my second time coming here … The customer service is Great!!! The store is small with ALOT of things from picture frames to every type of unique card imagine able to journals & fancy boxes. However I come for the lil things … Sentimental keepsakes tokens to place in cards whether it be a friends birthday or someone I care for. The tokens are special so when you give it to another you know that there have 1 as well!
I enjoy this place so much. It has a everything!

Not a lot of places carry Filofax agenda refills but thanksfully Art & Letters does. They also have a pretty robust collection of Filofax refills for other sizes. The employees are also very nice, friendly and helpful. As good as it gets!

This is the best card and stationery of anywhere in Santa Monica or WLA. It’s a tiny shop, independently owned, with beautiful stationery and cards, many of which are hand crafted. There’s a great selection, and many are quite affordable. I’ve gotten so many compliments over the years: «Where do you get your cards?» I’m happy to refer this store to everyone!

This is the type of stationary store that you like to linger in. It is difficult to find a place with beautiful paper stationary and cards. They have Filofax with refills and other planners. It is a chop that is full of delightful things to look at and to buy as gifts for you and/​or your best friend. Great customer service. Thanks Natalie. I was able to find street parking (meter) during the day. A must-​stop place to visit when on Main Street.

Arts and Letters is a lovely little shop. I love eating at small businesses just as much as shopping at small businesses. They have all types of greeting cards for any occasion. I love going at Christmas time. They sell packs of really cool, non-​cheesy holiday cards that are great for mailing to family and friends to wish them Happy Holidays. Best part about this spot is it’s not like the franchised Papyrus or Hallmark stores in terms of price, they’re highly affordable. For a pack of holiday cards that contained 8 different greetings were $ 8! That’s $ 1 per card. They also sell gift wrap and little nick-​nack gifts to include with your gift!

Linda from Arts & Letters was the most accommodating and lovely person to work with in our search for the perfect wedding invitations. My soon-​to-​be and I were living in LA and planning a Boston wedding and upon finding Arts & Letters on Unilocal,decided to give it a try. We had been less than impressed with the offerings on many popular online invitation shops and had visited a large, popular stationary store on two separate occasions, but the assistance that we received did not come close to Linda’s expertise and advice. We made an appointment after our work hours one evening and Linda stayed well past 7:30pm going through countless design books with us. She supported our ideas and gave thoughtful guidance to help us finalize our design. We chose aspects of a few different Checkerboard invitation designs and Linda assisted us through two rounds of proofs. The invitations just arrived days ago and I couldn’t wait to call her and thank her for helping us. The product is extremely high-​quality and even better than we could have hoped. Thank you, Linda, for your professionalism, patience, and kindness. I am only sad that we are now back in Boston and unable to stop by more often!

The people here are soooo wonderful. THANK YOU. i have always enjoyed picking out wrapping paper and cool looking stationary. You even wrapped a gift for me FREE of charge. That was cool. I will always come back.

My wife and I moved to Santa Monica — shortly after our engagement — about a year and a half ago. We had a bunch to do for our wedding and since all the festivities were happening back on the East Coast, we were a little more than overwhelmed. We went into Arts & Letters to check out some invitations and the Owner (Linda) was there to walk us through the whole process and even provide us with some much needed advice/​guidance. Linda personally worked with us to make the experience easy and anxiety free. Our invites were so great that we had them print our wedding ceremony program which was beautiful too.
We’re always in there buying gifts and stationary and we’ll definitely be back to buy our «Thank You» cards. Bottom line… Its a great store with great staff.

This is a wonderful little store in my neighborhood that I keep coming back to for cards and stationary. The employees are always extremely friendly and they have a wonderful and unique selection of cards and gifts that you won’t find in chain stores.
I’ve bought my Christmas cards here the past two years and everyone always comments on how interesting and beautiful they are! I like to pop in every now and then to pick up a card or two to keep for ‘emergencies’ (pro tip — always have a few pretty cards on hand you can use for the birthday you don’t have time to shop for). Oh, and they’re dog friendly!

I buy (almost) all my cards here.
They have a great (and constantly rotating) selection of cards for all the different seasons, and holidays. Some mass produced and some more ‘artisan’ and unique (but on the pricey side). The folks who work there are so nice, and helpful.

Great shop. They have a wide selection on cards, gift wrap, and other miscellaneous gifts. The employees are very friendly and attentive. I will definitely come to Arts & Letters to buy my cards. This little store is great.

If you’re looking for something special, be it a card, gift wrap, etc, this is a great place to hit up. The service was fast and friendly and the products they carry are top notch quality. You could opt for a $ 1 – 2 gift box for example, but Arts & Letters carries something in the $ 8 – 10 range… yet it looks like it should actually cost that much. Sure you’re spending some extra dough going overboard on quality… but who doesn’t feel good about that when they’re giving a gift to someone they care about? :) Their stuff is beautiful and you will find many special things here you haven’t seen before.

I love this store and I’ve never even bought any stationary, it’s just a perfect place for gifts and cards. It was the first place we thought of at Christmas when we went gift shopping. The ladies who work here are always very friendly and helpful. It’s definitely one of our favorite shops on Main Street.

Great shop. I’d actually come here when I was wedding planning, but ultimately decided on a cheaper option for my invites.
Anyways, we have a gay friend getting married soon and I’ve been looking for an appropriate card. I’ve been to Papyrus where the clerk was annoyed about helping me and couldn’t offer me any appropriate cards (because she really didn’t know the products the store carried), casually browsed anywhere else that carried wedding cards. Nothing good. Then last week, I was walking around Main St and decided on popping in here on a whim. I asked for a gay wedding card and the owner quickly produced 2 perfect ones! This is why it makes sense to buy from independent stores, where they really know their stuff and are more than happy to help you. The card I got wasn’t cookie cutter and I knew the grooms would love it. I was thrilled that my hunt was over for the perfect card… Thank you Arts & Letters!

I was looking for a way to thank some folks that donated to my Movember efforts and thought that a whimsical thank you card was the perfect choice. I would have loved any sort of card that contained a mustache, but would have been just as happy with a thank you card that was visually as silly as the thought of growing a mustache and hitting people up for cash.
The shop keeper was admirably kind and sheepishly offered a «I’m just holding down the fort until my wife comes back — I’m sure she would be able to help you if you waited a bit for her to return,» but I was a man on a whimsy-​filled-​card mission and had no time to spare. I ultimately found a few cards that were the tiniest bit fanciful, but nothing that really fit the bill.

Arts & Letters is exactly what this store is about! Great store to find creative gifts.
A nice selection of cards: birthday, greeting, get well cards etc. They also have stationary, pens, boxes, gifts, and wrapping paper. My favorite thing in the whole store were the leather bound journals. This would be a great gift for anyone who enjoys traveling.

As my friend & I strolled along on Main St. this afternoon, I told her I needed to buy some stamps. She suggested we stop in here.
Wonders of wonders, they had 44 cent stamps! They are the patriotic flag type, nothing fancy, though in a pinch they worked. I appreciated this store’s thoughtfulness. Saved me a trip to the post office, which was closed anyway. I agree with Bernadette, the customer service here is outstanding. Also with Joan, who said they’re pleasant & professional.
On special occasions, this store has come through for me with an assortment of birthday cards, baby shower cards and today, there was no special occasion though they provided a much needed service. Now I can send off a thank you note to my dear aunt that bought me that round trip ticket to Hawaii.

Arts & Letters is a small stationary and greeting card shop on Main. It is the perfect example and epitome of why I love patronizing little stores on Main. Why buy an impersonal mass produced card at Hallmark or CVS when you could find an environmentally friendly, original, handmade one made by a local? Now I don’ t know for a fact that the cards here are made of recycled products, are «green» or made by local artists for that matter, but that’s the impression I got.
I’ve been working on planning an event and I needed to print up invitations (I’m sick of e-​vite!) Upon conducting a handy dandy Unilocal search I discovered reviews by Joan S, Jemima W, and Christie X. and Kris P. They all seemed to have had positive experiences with this store and it just so happened that it was right down the street from where I work SCORE!
I went in and browsed around for almost half an hour weighing all my different options. The girl working was helpful in answering my questions and explaining to me what would and wouldn’t work for my printing needs. I found a plethora of items that I liked. Some of the designs I liked were out of my budget and others were almost sold out thus not leaving enough to fulfill the quantity I needed. This all helped narrow down my choices which believe it or not is a good thing because I have trouble making decisions. I was finally able to find something that I liked that also fit my budget.
I was surprised how smoothly the printing process went. I was e-​mailed a proof and when I picked them up the invites looked great! What a no-​nonsense, no hassle process! The set up and printing fees were totally affordable. I will definitely use Arts & Letter’s again. I enjoyed doing business with Linda and I’ve already referred a friend to her.