Changes at Cartolina for 2013!

We have some big news and we're really excited about it!
As of next week we are now doing all our own distribution in the US. In the past Cartolina has been wholesaled by national distributors across the US. But we've been listening to retailers and what we've heard is that things have changed in their world over the last 4 years and they want to connect with the people they do business with. They want to meet the manufacturers face to face and they want a personal connection with their suppliers. So we made a big decision a few weeks ago to 'bring home' our distribution and start working with our US retailers directly - offering a great new selection of product, better pricing and stellar customer service.

We've been very busy getting organized:
- We have hired a whole new sales force - wonderful people that we've worked with before - people who know Cartolina inside and out.
- We've negotiated strategically with carriers so that we can offer the best shipping prices to our buyers. No high priced, cross-border shipping prices here!
- We built a new shipping department onto the studio so that we are efficient (and have a stylish place to work of course!)
- We've published fabulous new paper catalogs and built a simple to use online ordering system.
- We've upgraded all our data bases and inventory systems so that going into 2013 we have the most efficient and sophisticated fulfillment, billing and shipping system I could ever have imagined.

We are ready to roll!
info@cartolina.com

New catalogs for you!

The new Cartolina wholesale catalogs have just arrived. If you're a retailer and would like one of our catalogs just give me a shout and I'll pop one in the mail to you!

Hot off the press!

We have so much new product at Cartolina - every day we're getting deliveries - boxes and boxes of vintage inspired goodies. And, we have brand new catalogs - hot off the press. Email me for wholesale info!

WOOF

Here's something new!

I was asked by the clever people at Blanket to design a dog tag as part of their Donation by Design program. If you don't know about Blanket, here's what they do: Blanket ID tags are for your pet. Their super pretty tags come with a unique ID number that you register on their website and if you pet is lost or stolen the Blanket ID system broadcasts emails to local SPCAs, shelters etc. When your pet is found the finder simply enters the unique number on the Blanket website and you are notified so that your pet can be returned safe and sound. 

Blanket also has a huge charitable element to their organization and this is where I come in - I donated the vintage WOOF design on the tag and, every time one of my WOOF tags is purchased, $5 goes to the organization that I have chosen - which is BEAR AWARE! If you know me, you know how much I love the bears that wander past the studio windows every day in the summer. They’re incredible animals and I’m hoping through the sales of our WOOF tag at Blanket ID I can help protect them.

If you'd like to know more about Blanket please go to their site here and learn more - it's a great organization and really the ONLY WAY to protect your pets! http://www.blanketid.com/

You can buy my WOOF tag here:

http://www.blanketid.com/shop/cartolina/

Yay for Will and Kate!

Another sneak peek!

Here's another peek at our new boxed notecards and mini cards. We sell tons of mini cards - florists love them - so much nicer than the ones they usually offer! These ones are a repeat pattern of really old tea cups - I think these will be very popular!

Loads of new product at Cartolina!

We've been working like mad to get all our new Cartolina product printed and stashed away in the stock room ready for the buying season which starts in mid December. I'm super excited about 2013 - feels like it's going to be a great year. 13 is my lucky number - I was born on Friday the 13th :-)

Happy Thanksgiving Neighbours!

From the Cartolina iPhone app http://www.cartolinaapps.com

Artemis Spokane

Such a lovely display of Cartolina Cards at Artemis in Spokane WA. Kris just reopened her shop in a fabulous vintage building downtown and it's truly awe inspiring. If you are in the area you must visit. Here are some pictures of the store .

Happy Halloween!

These super cute Cartolina Halloween magnets are available from IPOP, right here 

This is a new Cartogram design on the Cartolina app  http://www.cartolinaapps.com

Introducing Mailroom!

I am so excited to introduce you to our latest iPhone app - MAILROOM!

We have been thrilled with the success of all our iPhone apps - never in a million years would I have guessed that they would be so popular - thank you to every one of our users!

So over the last year or so I have heard from a number of our creative users that they are using the Cartograms from the original Cartolina app to send short messages to their customers and clients - and they really wished that they had a little more room to write something other than a short cryptic thank you. 

So we developed Mailroom especially for all you creative entrepreneurs and visually obsessed who want to send something just a little more fun - a little more 'Mad Men' - to your customers and clients. There are 21 stylishly vintage templates with lots more room to type your message. The app is $1.99 at the app store. 

I hope you love it - and use it!  It's your business letter, only better!

Update your app!

Time to update your Cartolina iPhone app folks! We have 9 new designs free for you as soon as you update your app to the latest version. Hope you like them. I think they are very useable designs - happy and cheery :-)

If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about you can find the Cartolina iPhone app right here - it's $1.99 and with that you get 45 Cartograms to use over and over and over  . . . . 

Ink

I have something new for you this morning. The friendly folk over at Sincerely have been Cartolina's high tech partners for some time - they run the back end of our iPhone apps. They take care of the postcard printing system that allows our app users to send real postcards without ever having to go near the post office. We have some new card designs on their Ink Cards app this morning. It's the same system as our Cartolina Postale app - you pick a design and insert your photograph, write your message on the back, address it and for $1.99 the postcard is sent for you - simple! Hope you like them! You can download Sincerely's Ink Cards app for free, right here.

Original pull down wall diagrams.

Good morning! I spotted these this morning and they inspired me to post them here! You don't find these German pull down diagrams very often anymore - there are loads of reproductions out there but they tend to reproduce only the most well known designs - you've probably seen the buttercup example lots of times. I love the blue background on these! These are from Berlinner Strasse and cost about $220 each - they're huge and original! Really stunning, don't you think?

Walking the walk!

At Cartolina we recently started doing our own Canadian distribution - up until now we have always used full service distributors. It's been a really great experience and we are enjoying meeting all our buyers. It's also allowed us to offer spectacular customer service, fast shipping and really low shipping rates. 

One of the things that motivated us to make the change to doing our own distribution was reading this e-book by Mark Gardiner - "Building a Brand Like Trader Joe's"

It's a fascinating account about his experience as an ex ad man who worked at Trader Joe's for a year to try and figure out the success of their brand. 

I learned so much from this book. If you deal with customer service in your business you should consider reading this book. It will change the way you work with your customers - and make your job a lot more fun!

http://www.amazon.com/Build-Brand-Like-Trader-ebook/dp/B008A0OVPW

Petite Violette

Today I want to tell you about one of our retailers - Petite Violette (isn't that a cute name?) They are located in the south of sweden in Malmo and, let me tell you, it's one of those stores that I'd like to move into and live in. It is stacked to the gills with cool vintage and new stuff - curated with a keen eye for the curious. They are an online shop, retail space and prop hire store. They have loads of cool stuff in their online store and they ship overseas! Don't you wish you could just pop out on your bike and visit this fabulous place - maybe you can  - are you in Malmo?

I just liked their Facebook page - maybe you'd like to too :-) 

Look how they display our cards - so clever - I'm going to borrow this idea  :-)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/petite-violette/149378065167310

If Cartolina really was my last name!

Good morning!

This is fun - A lot of people think my name is actually Fiona Cartolina (which I really don't mind) So I was thinking that it would be fun to imagine the world that Fiona Cartolina would actually live in - and design a profile pic. This is what it turned out like (I may have to change my last name to Cartolina after all) . . .

And definitely start wearing flowers in my hair on a regular basis!

Interview in FLOW.

A few months ago the ladies at FLOW magazine asked me to do an interview for their summer issue. I was delighted to have been asked by this fabulous Dutch mag - I really love their publication - and, guess what - they have an english version coming out soon - which is super exciting! Anyway, the interview has loads of Cartolina info and lots of photos from my studio - so I thought you might like to see them - a few you may have already seen - but some will be new for you!