New at Cartolina!

Well it's that time of the year again - time for new Cartolina Cards! Our latest collection is so pretty, I'm super excited. The buyers are loving them and I think we may have a couple of best sellers on our hands! As you know, I'm always on the lookout for beautiful vintage imagery to incorporate into our designs - I license pretty, antique illustrations from a variety of art dealers but I've also been interested, in the last year, to find a collage artist to work with at Cartolina - someone that can collaborate with me, that has a similar aesthetic and sense of design. I get a lot of portfolios sent my way, but I'm pretty picky! So, long story short, when I saw April Meeker's work I really hoped that we would have an opportunity to work together. So April has worked with me on this little collection and I think it turned out GREAT! A collaboration really is a meeting of minds and I thoroughly enjoyed working with April's collages and concepts - together we turned her ideas into 3 really great cards - the circus gal on the horse, the fabulous sailing ship and the pretty little hot air balloon. So we have 6 new Cartolina Cards - and I think we should have a giveaway next week - what do you think?

New releases at Blanket

You may, or may not, know that Cate Hubbard is one of my best friends. She and her husband Martin are the brains behind Blanket - the super stylish and crazy clever pet tag system that is enjoying lots of success these days due to it's innovative system that enables lost pets to be reunited with their owners quickly and safely without tattoos or chips etc. Cate has just released her latest collection of pretty little tags and I'm excited to show you them here this morning. Cate was telling me that so many pet owners wanted pink tags so the latest collection is inspired by colourful candy and polka dot bikinis. I love them and so, apparently, do pet store owners who snapped them up last week when she debuted them on her super fun blog - Under The Blanket. If you'd like to know more about the clever online system that ensures your pets are returned to you quick as a bunny - go to their website - Blanket! Good job Cate - I love the new designs!

Shameless Self Promotion - Cartolina new releases.

If you have been following me on Twitter for the last couple of months you will have been privy to my own personal design angst - lucky you! From the realization that I needed to design a new Cartolina collection for the fall, to the moment that the truck showed up at the studio on Thursday and unloaded the almost 50,000 cards - it's been the usual rollercoaster of emotions that comes with being a professional artist. When I sit down to design a new collection(which happens about 3 times a year) I surround myself with beautiful vintage imagery and start the creative shuffle which hopefully, after about 3 weeks, will result in almost 50 new designs. Those 50 designs then get whittled down to a dozen and eventually, after hours of tweaking, end up at the printers in Vancouver. The printing process takes about 3 weeks during which time I manage to dig up a new detail to worry about everyday - did I pick the best images, are the colours bright enough, should I have made one more birthday card and one less thank you card? It all boils down to the moment that I open up the first box of finished cards . . . .

These are just a few of the new cards - there are 15 new in total. This print run went very smoothly and I am pleased with the new cards but it's not always a happy ending. . . there was the time when we opened up the boxes of new cards and found that they had all been scored with too much pressure and they fell apart, into 2 pieces, as we lifted them out of the box. There was the time we ordered 10,000 new notebooks and every single one of them had torn corners - and of course the time that 2 skids of new cards were delivered in an uncovered truck in a torrential downpour - that was a very soggy ending to thousands of cards. If you are a retailer and you would like samples of the new cards just email me and I'll pop some in the mail! And if you're a reader who'd like some new releases - stay tuned we'll have a giveaway very soon - maybe on Friday!