Vintage Flower power

Lovely, vintage, framable, original print from Elitas. Camilias I think. This is a fab example of the kind of prints we love to use at Cartolina.

This beautiful letterpress book, Fibonacci Flower by Susan Happersett, is one of many produced by Purgatory Pie Press in NYC. Their selection is eclectic and artistic - I think you will fine them very interesting.

Anchors away!

Aren't these cool - fascinating little cameos from this shop. I love all three of these. Now sure what I would do with them - maybe buttons?? I saw these on the prettiest blog Paper Cakes - you must visit - all things pretty!

The Dutch Connection

I'm very excited today to introduce you to the new Cartolina Baby collection. I have been asked many time to design a range of baby announcements but, up until now, I haven't found a good online fit for Cartolina Baby. So, I was excited to meet Nathalie and Dorien from the Dutch company, Lief Leuk & Eigen. They approached me about designing some cards for them a few months ago and I am happy to tell you, that as of today, they are available online. Now this first dip into the baby industry takes place in Europe and the reason I'm starting there is because I really felt a good connection to the aesthetic at Lief Leuk & Eigen - the bold images and colours are a good fit for Cartolina. In the past I have found that the baby stationery industry thrives in a very cliché world of the palest hues - Cartolina and Lief Leuk & Eigen are about to change that!

The Cartolina Baby collection is available for customization - baby's name and all the exciting details. The cards are super pretty on the inside too with lots of options to personalize right on their very clever website. Nathalie assures me that they have shipped baby announcements all over the world - so don't be shy if your in Canada or the US give them a shout and they can estimate international shipping for you. Lief Leuk & Eigen are at the Negenmaandenbeurs show this week in Amsterdam and would thrilled to say hi if you happen to be attending - I know we have loads of Dutch readers!

Lucky You

As if you didn't see enough pink, flowery blog posts yesterday - this is a set of postcards from All The Luck In The World. I think they are the prettiest things I've seen in quite a long time. I thought you would love them too :-)

Random art of fabulosity

I ran across this the other day and I think it's so fab. I love drama in art - I'm not really into wishy washy colours - I like big, bold and colourful. There's certainly some drama going on here in this piece. Don't you love it? It has a vintage feel - I think it's the fantastical nature of the sea serpent and I love the big black heavy clouds. This is buy Dan Bob Thompson and can be yours for $25.

Poppy House Pottery

These lovely bowls are from Poppy House Pottery. I love their vintage Scandinavian look. I would want to display these on an open shelf and admire them. Love it that they are handmade and painted - and not mass produced. Beautiful!

Top image from our Cartolina iPhone app. Middle image from our new Etsy store.

Bottom image one of this year Cartolina Valentines cards.

Oh Pangaea Books!

One of the reasons that I love vintage imagery is the early printing processes that they used in the past. A lot of vintage imagery that we have access to is engraved - steel engravings, copper engraving etc. And I like nothing better than to inspect beautiful old printing with a magnifying glass or loupe. That's why I was so drawn to this gorgeous book from Oh Pangaea Books - hand bound books. The bird on this book looks a lot like it is from a book of natural history perhaps in the 1870s - and I love how huge it is.

Benefit Boots.

Check out this lovely lithographed tin from England, turn of the last century. I can't believe what good condition it's in. fabulous typography, design and colour - it doesn't get much better than this. From Olde Tyme Notions. And it can be yours for $26.50 - seems like a good deal!

Perfect little works of art

Really interesting collages - perfect little works of art by Studio Erinzam. Beautifully done!

Vintage Indian

I favourited this Etsy shop yesterday, Iowa Jewel. It was these illustrations that caught my eye. I'm a total sucker for anything vintage and Indian. These are from a kids book. Iowa Jewel has a lot of interesting stuff. - mostly not in the public domain but definitely inspiring and worth a visit.

Inspiration - mystery trim

For some reason this piece of vintage trim is really inspiring - I think it's the rough sewing technique and the blue and cream colours - gives it an Indian look though I think it may be European. I like it a lot, do you? The colours, the texture and the general folksy look. It's from here.

I spotted this clock at Johnny Vintage - how could you miss it? It's huge! It apparently is from a hair salon and someone painted it red. I love it's honest to goodness authentic vintage look - no airs or graces just a good old clock to tell the time - that's it, nothing fancy!

Open for business!

Hey, guess what? We've got an Etsy store and I'm so excited! You know, we have some pretty fancy stores in places like London, New York, Vancouver and Sydney that carry our cards but, I'm really thrilled with our little Etsy shop. It took a few days to put it together but as of today we are open for business. As I mentioned last week, we will be selling our new Cartolina Art Prints in the shop exclusively - these aren't available in stores. So if you're looking for something super pretty, vintage and fabulous - or if your looking for a gift for the happy couple - look no further - the Cartolina Etsy store is officially open for business - yay!

Please note that any orders made this week will ship on Monday - I ordered some perfect square mailing tubes - but they won't be delivered until Monday! Thanks!