Swoon

I followed a link on Twitter yesterday and found myself drooling over this ring on Vicente Agor's website - isn't it wonderful - I love it to bits. I think if Cartolina had a jewelry line it would look a bit like this! Which reminds me, we are introducing some new products in the new year - I'll tell you all about it next week!

Vintage

How sweet is this? A vintage, handmade, tin carousel from Elemental. Love the colours and the patterns - very inspiring!

Inspiration

Here's another fun thing from Elemental to inspire you to be creative this weekend(after you've nursed your sore head!) I'm not suggesting you take up forged iron work but I do think there's the potential in this vintage mirror to inspire a wonderful repeat pattern or some curled paper work or . . .

Inspiration

So I guess you'll be getting all gussied up tonight and heading out to a glamourous New Year's party. Well don't forget to do your hair - here are some ideas a la Amy Flurry and Nikki Salk (I'd suggest you wear a tad more make up than these gals!)

Found

Good morning everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful few days off last week. Can you believe that it's almost the end of 2009? I ran across these images over the holidays and stashed them away to share with my creative pals here at The Cafe. These are from a Flickr set - interior images from Anthropologie. What I was curious about was the amazing sculptures created from unusual materials, take a closer look . . .

Rolled newspaper and plastic knives?

Recycled paper, chopsticks and plastic spoons?

Plastic spoons and forks - amazing!

Inspiration

Super fabulous moth pillows from Utilitarian Franchise - love the oversized graphics - very inspiring!

Found

There are so many cute things I found when I was shopping online for the holidays. Including this little pin from Marisol Spoon's shop. She has some wonderful illustration some of which she applies to interesting items like this . . . .

Found

Have you seen these? - Cut Out and Sew Glove Puppets from Alice Melvin. These remind me a lot of similar items that were quite popular when we were kids in the 70s. I remember there was an orange striped cat that you could buy, cut out and sew into a pillow - do you remember those?

Happy Holidays!

This is my last post for a few days. I'm looking forward to taking a well deserved break. It's been a simply amazing year here at the studio - especially the last 2 months. Cartolina will take on a whole new life in 2010 and I'm looking forward to sharing all the exciting news with you over the next couple of weeks. Preparing posts for Cafe Cartolina has become my favourite part of the day and every morning I look forward to reading your comments. I'm going to have lots more time on my hands in the New Year and I promise to update the labels list and some of the permanent image links we have on the side bars - just a little bit of housekeeping to keep the Cafe fresh! Thanks for visiting everyday and for commenting. Happy Holidays! {I'll be back here on the 30th!}

These images are from the amazing Katrin Cargill - enjoy . . . .

I'd love to know what plans you all have for the holidays. Why don't you leave me a comment - I'd love to know!

Inspiration

I think this is the third time I have featured the clever designs from Once Wed here at the Cafe. This time I found these images at Design Sponge and had to pluck them off and plop them down here. Such a simple idea done so elegantly - as usual - well done!

Found

I'm really hooked on the jeans and long boots look this winter - I bet you are too. So you have probably seen these before - I had not, until last night. What a great idea - boot cuffs! I love the colour of these too - so fun. Available at Laine Design.

Found

Super simple and striking. I want to fill my house with these for the holidays, don't you? From the clever, and I'm sure busy at this time of the year, people at Kissa Designs.

Vintage

These are fun - vintage matchbooks with novelty graphics and fun illustrated matches. Goofy but good! From here.

Vintage

I thought you might like to see these. These are known as watch papers and date from the late 19th century. I know all you typophiles will appreciate the beautifully designed type.

From here