Thursday, December 30, 2010

The best of 2010 - the 1st 6 months.

I thought it would be fun to look back over the last year and pull out some of my favourite posts. I realized once I got started that there are too many for just one post here today so I took the first 6 months of 2010 and edited it down to some of my fave things. Sometimes when I am trolling around the interweb I will come across something that really grabs me - purely visual - and in those first 2 seconds I am so moved or inspired that it often ends up here at The Cafe. So these are links to THOSE posts - the ones that really grabbed me in the first half of 2010. Hope you like my picks. I'll do the 2nd half of 2010 in the next day or 2. (Remember these are just one image from a whole post - so click on the links and fill your boots!) Happy New Year my friends!


Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Wake up!

Just a little eye candy to wake up the old eye balls after a few days off! These beauties are available form Arriba Chica.






All images from Arriba Chica

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Vintage notion paperweights

Hello everyone! Did you have a wonderful weekend? Sounds like some of you got an awful lot of snow in the last few days - hope you can hit the slopes - or just stay cozy at home. (I definitely hope you are not stuck at an airport somewhere!) I thought you might love these fabulous little paperweights from my pal Fancy Linda. Linda has taken some of her vintage notions and immortalized them under glass. This is so fun - I love that dapper chap in the red and white striped shirt.


Inspiration - simple utilitarian objects

Last week, before Christmas, I stumbled on these beautiful things on an interesting Japanese site, Billet. I can't tell you much about the site except they have wonderful, vintage inspired, utilitarian objects. Don't you love the leather envelopes?










Thursday, December 23, 2010


Tis the Season!
Merry Christmas, Season's Greetings or Happy Holidays - however you'd like to say it my friends! I wish you all the best for a wonderful weekend with family and friends. We'll be spending it with my parents this weekend - I hope you all enjoy yourselves and I'll see you back here on Tuesday. Much love, Fiona and Doug xoxoxo

Cartolina Collection XI

Hello everyone - sorry for my absence for the last couple of days - I definitely did not anticipate how busy we would be this week. But, I have it all under control, and after another super busy week next week we will be back on track - phew!

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Cartolina Collection XI. Yay!
I'm very excited about these new designs. I am absolutely loving the new imagery and the bright colours for spring. These new cards will be in stores in the next few weeks . . . . .

This first card with the red birds was actually a request from our UK distributors - they asked for a design with bright colours and the word LOVE prominently displayed on the front - as signage for their trade show booth. But it turned out so nicely we turned it into a card. I know it's going to be a hit with the buyers because on the 1st day of release this week we sold 3/4 of the entire production run! That's never happened before!


The cards with the cakes are very exciting for me - I work with a few people around the world who source imagery for me and we looked high and low for these very rare prints. I only work with original antique prints so when my favourite image expert called to say she had managed to find originals I was thrilled. I hope you like them too.

The background on this poppy card is a 17th century, copperplate engraving that I bought from a dealer a long time ago. It's amazing how big that poppy grew when I planted it on that lawn!

This Horse Chestnut card is interesting to me because this tree is actually on the back of one of last year's cards. I got so many comments on that tree that it has been promoted to the front!

More Cakes - luv em!


A new feature that we have on all new cards(and reprints) this year is QR codes. A QR code is that tiny checker board icon that is popping up everywhere these days. Now some of you will know about QR codes but, if like me, they are a new feature for you, here's what Wikipedia says(better than I could):

"QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards, or on just about any object about which users might need information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader applicationcan scan the image of the QR Code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the phone's browser."

So every card we print will have a QR code on the back. To scan the code you just need any smart phone and a scanner app like Quick Mark. Our codes, when scanned, could link to a multitude of things - depending on how we've set it up. This code, above, for instance, leads to our iPhone app page at the iTunes store. Other codes might lead to our website or our blog or a fun giveaway or a promo code! Each code is a fun surprise to enhance the experience of buying or receiving one of our cards! I hope you try it out some time :-)

If you are interested to know more about QR codes for your business this is a good video to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYDbFTai0iE&feature=player_embedded#!




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