Found - vintage inspired iPhone cases

You may have seen these iPhone cases from Cath Kidston - very pretty - love the juxtaposition between vintage pattern and new technology - great idea!

Cartolina on sale right now!

It's a great time to stock up on your favourite Cartolina products. Many of our prettiest cards and notebooks are on sale right now, for great prices - including our best selling notebooks for just $4.25 - right now online at Modern Paper Goods - our exclusive online retailer.

All our new notebook designs are on sale for $4.25 right now,

including this one, my favourite!

Vintage - Aubusson painting

According to French Blue and Co this is a rough design for an Aubusson carpet. I think it is truly wonderful - don't you?

Found - Bellalulu

A wonderfully curated collection of vintage stuff - with great prices - my kind of stuff - at Bellalulu

Found - vintage accessories

There is a vintage section on the Free People website that I think you might like. Apart from the vintage clothes, that give me serious flashbacks, I think the accessories are quite neat. Especially the bags and belts . . .

First up a vintage carpet bag - a classic. Below, a vintage leather satchel with what looks like a stenciled star on it - which got me thinking - wouldn't this be a great diy crafty project - stenciling vintage leather hippy bags with cool, iconic symbols or flowers birds etc? What do you think? I'd like to try this.

They also have a selection of vintage cowgirl shirts - which are always fun! I noticed lots of western shirts in the stores for fall!

And as a side note, they have a great pair of long narrow rubber boots at Free People - you know, like wellies! If you're tired of the short, wide wellies - these look really great!

Inspiration - guess what?

This is kind of a funny post. Doug was telling his friend Craig that we were planning on going to Vegas for a trade show in September. Craig said that he didn't think much of Vegas and the last time he went he spent a large part of the vacation taking pictures of the carpets in the casinos because he thought they were so amazing. I think they are fabulous, here are some of Craig's pictures . . .

Inspiration - embossed paper

These are super cool - embossed paper birds, fish and bunnies. These are traditionally German pieces. I found them at Shelf via Tea for Joy(superb blog to follow.)

Inspiration - sewing project

How cute are these? This is a great diy project - I love that the process includes tracing around a pair of shorts that you all ready have to make the pattern - I've made lots of garments this way and it works perfectly. The styling and the bright coloured fabric are fab, aren't they? - that's why they made it here this morning - of course!

Inspiration - diy pencil project

There's a wonderful little tutorial at Omiyage on how to make these pretty pencils - what a great gift idea. Love the patterns don't you? Via Craft Gawker.

Cartolina - Collection 10

Every so often I feature my own stuff here at The Cafe! So today I'd like to introduce you to Cartolina Collection 10. This collection is in response to Collection IX which has been very popular since we launched it in May(you can see it here, here and here!)

One of the next buying seasons in the stationery industry is Valentines so we have a couple of new lovey dovey cards - one of which features our always popular bunny that Doug illustrates for us. And also we have 4 new blank cards - a fabulous bunch of flowers which will be a best seller I'm sure because it covers so many occasions - and 3 blank cards featuring the amazing french dresses worn by les trés belle femmes of Collection IX (and also featured on notebook number 9.) I think that the 3 dresses would look wonderful framed in a powder room, don't you?

If you'd like to be a Cartolina Insider and hear about all our new product, hot off the press, just leave your email address in the field under the pictures of me(top right of this page.) You'll be first to see what's new - including our top secret project that we can reveal in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, enjoy Collection 10. . . . . . . .

The pretty silk flowers in this shoot are my new favourite accessories - I pin them on everything! They are all from Sparrow Blu on Etsy (except for the fab red one which was a gift from Fancy Linda!)

Found - vintage sailor

I love this. Authentic vintage sailor's jersey from Good Grace. Not sure why I love it so much - probably the stripes, the stars, the symmetry. Yes, it look itchy. It would look great on an old wood hanger at a beach house - what do you think?

Inspiration - who do you work with?

Good morning! How are you?

I bought these vintage Turquoise Drawing Pencils for Doug the other day from Mushroom and Moss - thought they might inspire him - there's nothing like having a row of fresh new pencils lined up on your drawing table ready for action! Doug and I have worked together for 16 years - I can't imagine having a better person to work with, he inspires me everyday. I was wondering how many of you also work with your partners? Do you share a studio? Have you worked together for long or is this new for you both? I'm interested to know how you feel about living and working together. Leave me a comment if you have time - thanks!

Inspiration - embroidery

This super pretty pillow was made by Rosy from The Nesting Project. This is her first attempt at embroidery and I think she did a great job - I'd be very proud of myself if this was mine!

Inspiration - vintage dresses

Wouldn't it be fun to wear one of these vintage dresses?(That is, if you have a 23" waist!) Late 50s, early 60s dresses from Hemlock Vintage Clothing. The blue/green one has a heavily beaded waist - divine!