Hey Fabbies! Recently while shopping in Dollar Tree, (any other Dollar Tree fans out there? Raise your hand), I was strolling down the stationary aisle, when a bright, multicolor book caught my eye. I whipped my head around so fast, because I can recognize that design from anywhere: Lisa Frank. Lisa Frank, the founder of the brand that specialized in stylized colors of animals and other neon objects. Her products included school supplies, stickers, diaries, TrapperKeepers (OMG do ya’ll remember those?!), toys and lunch boxes. And let me tell you something. I. WAS. OBSESSED!!!! If you said the words “Lisa Frank”, I came running!
My love for Lisa Frank began sometime in about the third grade. I remember being in Walmart with my mom, and passing by the school supply section and seeing the brightly colored designs and cheerful images. I was instantly hooked. I mean, I-had-to-have-everything-Lisa-Frank-in-that-store-right-there-and-then, hooked. I knew exactly where to buy Lisa Frank products: Walmart, Eckard’s (a drugstore in Jackson), occasionally at grocery stores if I were ever so lucky, and SuperD. I knew exactly what products were new the minute I saw them, and when it was time to enter the fourth grade, I knew that I absolutely had to have Lisa Frank pencils, notebooks, folders, and of course the TrapperKeeper.
At my elementary school, I even started a “Lisa Frank Club” in my class. We would collect stickers, show off whatever new Lisa Frank item our moms had gotten us, and just revel in the awesomeness that was Lisa Frank. I would drive my poor parents crazy on telling them just how much I HAD to have a particular Lisa Frank item. Sorry mom and dad! 🙂
Meanwhile, last week I was in Dollar Tree gagging over the fact Lisa Frank still exists! The Dollar Tree sells coloring and activity books for kids, as well as a small selection of stickers. Of course I bought the coloring book, and even put it on my SnapChat last week:
After seeing Lisa Frank in the Dollar Tree (and also mourning the fact that my childhood favorite stationary designer somehow ended up in the Dollar Tree-no shade to Dollar Tree-but it was such a premium purchase back in the day!), I decided to do some more digging and see what else, if anything, was out there by Lisa Frank.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Lisa Frank is still very much alive and well beyond the Dollar Tree findings! Many people are selling vintage Lisa Frank items on their online shops on sites like http://www.ebay.com and http://www.etsy.com. If you go to http://www.etsy.com and type in “Lisa Frank” in the search box, thousands of products will come up! People have been saving their Lisa Frank jewels for decades! Below I’ve include two Etsy shops that sell a plethora of Vintage Lisa Frank:
I’m seriously considering getting this:
The sticker box was probably my most prized possession of my entire collection. This is how it looked brand new:
The fact that Lisa Frank created a special box just to house your precious stickers was genius!
And to top off all the warm and fuzzy feels that I had from researching Lisa Frank’s elusive existence, was that the Lisa Frank Headquarters is located in Tucson, Arizona. The sprawling building sits beautifully in the middle of the desert, colorful and beautiful, just as I imagined it would be:
“Lisa Frank founded the small company-turned-phenomenon in 1979, according to its website. During the next 10 years, she moved the company from a small guesthouse to its current 320,000-square-foot factory.”–www.tucson13.nytimes-institute.com
Lisa Frank no longer manufactures products at that factory, but it still stands there in all of its glory. The company now operates on a much smaller scale, where lawsuits were thrown around throughout the years along the way, perhaps crippling the production and sales of the merchandise. But didn’t the Lisa Frank Headquarters look like a dream place to work?!
Having started her company at just the age of 24, Lisa Frank is a HUGE inspiration to me, and my love for bright colors and whimsical designs are absolutely attributed to her products that I so adored in my childhood.
Long Live Lisa Frank! 🙂
Have a great weekend! xoxo
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