giftbandit.com™ and Traces of Heaven, Inc.
GiftBandit is now in their new space in Arlington Heights! We are very excited to announce that, while we will still have “by appointment hours,” we also welcome browsers - of course when we are not meeting with a customer!
Appointments are necessary for meeting with us to view our invitation albums.
We offer the latest in Invitations, Calligraphy and Favors with a reputation of originality, quality, creativity and a strong emphasis on personalized attention!
Mariette Fredericks, Owner, began in the print industry in 1978 as a typesetter, artist, plate-maker, back in the day. In 1993, she started a part-time business and named it Traces of Heaven, selling invitations, personalized stationery and gifts from her home.
As she began selling these items, her heart longed for more creativity in designing. Customers began to see the fruits of her labor as she added more product lines. A personal quest begin to collect Christmas cards, to make unique gift tags. this launched her into a new design direction. Mariette began cutting and shaping these cards into gift tags as a way to dress up or personalize gifts. Running a colorful “rubber band” thru a hole at the top of the card, she would then band it around her gifts! Hence, the name Gift Bandit was born! In early 2000, after creating and giving away dozens and dozens of Christmas gift tags, the name giftbandit was officially born!
Years later, after not seeing this unique process done by any other manuvacturer, she decided it was time to get to work on a website for her business. She incorporated the giftbandit name with her every day invitation and stationery business. GiftBandit.com was launched in 2004. And as of today, September of 2010 NO STATIONERY manufacturer has yet to produce a gift tag with a stretchy bandit cord to wrap around their gifts! This is still an original and of of a kind design we hope you will enjoy.
With Mariette heading up the design and personalization of each product, the company has grown to service hundreds of customers each year. She continues to meet the needs of her invitations, stationery and calligraphy orders every day.
In addition to the original giftbandit gift tags, Mariette took the Gift Bandit logo and created a new line of paper products called “girlfriends® ” (pretty stationery passed among girlfriends) and has truly enjoyed introducing it the line to her girlfriends, family and existing customers. The line offers matching invitations, stationery, note cards, luggage tags, candy wrapper party favors, stickers, car magnets plus a whole lot more!
We like to keep the name Traces of Heaven, as it reflects our values and many customers still know us by this name. But the GiftBandit business remains relatively small so that we are able to make time for worship, serving, enjoy extra-curricular activities, family, friends, travel and other neighborhood functions.
We are all thankful for the many opportunities and blessings, through our family business, as well as the loyalty of our customers and referrals, that inspire the fanciful designs that burst forth daily, but would like to give credit to the Lord, for making it all happen and for the joy that comes from it.
Please tell us what you think by sending your comments. Join our mailing list or send a comment thru the buttons at the top of our website. This is the safest way on the internet to contact us (helping us avoid spam crawlers). We look forward to hearing from you soon!
