Trote

One of my online friends, Giuseppe Salerno, AKA @beppeartz , has a new project. Giusepppe is a very talented typographer and graphic designer in Spain. He recently designed a line of fun canvas bags and launched Trote! There are 4 designs - with more to come. I think you'll like them! Also, follow @beppeartz on Instagram to take a peek into the life of a typographer - really interesting!

SURTEX

Next month Cartolina will be exhibiting at SURTEX for the very first time.

We are so excited! We will be at Lilla Rogers Studio booth - #309 May 20, 21 and 22.

Javets Centre NYC.

SURTEX is the global marketplace for licensing art and design - where artists, agents and licensors connect with manufacturers and retailers to create beautiful products in every category imaginable. Since I started licensing with Lilla's studio it has been a whirlwind of interesting jobs, keeping me busy in between designing cards. There's so much to learn about licensing - I'm glad I got an agent - I can't imagine doing it alone. I'll be at the show this year in New York, buzzing between the Stationery Show and SURTEX (they are in the same location, same dates) so if you are attending I'd love to meet you. You can email me or tweet me to catch up for a chat.

Forage - Gabriola Island this summer!

Recently, I was asked by Mariko Paterson McCrae to be a keynote speaker at FORAGE in August. I was delighted to say the least!

Forage is a summit/symposium for creatives of all sorts to tackle the issues that we face as self employed artists in today's global environment. Best of all, it takes place on Gabriola Island in the BC Gulf Islands - one of my favourite places to be(I'll be bringing my kayak)

I will be speaking about how my experience, launching and managing an internationally successful creative company from our remote location in the back woods of BC, can help you. Whether you are an urban artist or a rural crafter, I have lots of useful and insightful information to share with you. We'll discuss issues of business planning, scaling and sustaining your production, social media techniques, importing and exporting details, marketing and advertising - you name it - if I know it, we'll be talking about it!

If you are interested in participating check out the FORAGE website - attendance is limited, it's a great price and I think you'll have loads of fun! Let me know if you're going to be there! I'm looking forward to meeting lots of new people.

Oh, and guess what else? Doug's speaking too - so it's like a 2 for 1 - you get both of us :-)

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?

Cartolina and Flow - again!

It's so nice to have another Cartolina image on the front of Flow Magazine again this month, from Holland. I just got my copy and it's amazing - I so wish we could get an English version! This month with your Flow Magazine you also get a free matching notebook - nice!

Wild Chairy

These gorgeous chairs are from Wild Chairy (via HGTV). They are just stunning and the before and afters are truly inspiring. Great job!

Poppytalk Handmade Market

The new Poppytalk Handmade Market is showcasing some remarkably gorgeous handmade goodies such as these lovelies from Stitch and Tickle, My Bearded Pigeon and ImagineNations.

Ahoy matey!

I went for a coffee with my friend this morning and across from me there was this young guy waiting for his latté with these boots on - I couldn't resist taking a picture - and he seemed quite delighted with it when I showed him. (Apparently his friend made them for him!) Maybe he'll see them here on my blog ;-)

Washi tapes at Omiyage

I'm really loving these new washi tapes at Omiyage - lots to choose from, take your pick!

iPad shells from Tech Candy

These are from Tech Candy. I recently (like just last week) got a brand new iPad and I was searching for a pretty rubber shell to make it easier to hold (I find it quite heavy and slippery without a cover.) I like these because they are texture but they are not too chunky. What do you think?

Cartolina at Jack Cards

Did you know that you can now buy Cartolina Cards online at Jack Cards? It's a great site with a great service. You can start a planner and add birthdays, addresses and reminders. They will send you your card, with a stamped envelope if you like, and if you're in a real hurry they'll even write your message and send your card to the lucky recipient. Here's a link to Cartolina at Jack Cards.

Hello!

Surprised to see me here? I'm sorry I've been MIA for the last few weeks. The truth is that I've been finding it really tough to get all my work done everyday and then find time for the fun stuff - like blogging. I think that most biz owners find themselves in a position like this at some point. It's great to be busy, and have a thriving business, but you definitely have to sacrifice some of your leisure :-(

So I took a vacation - I just got back from 2 weeks on Maui. It was a great opportunity to step away from work and really relax. If you know me well you know that I rarely take a trip that doesn't involve work. Well that has to stop! My vacation made me realize how important it is to take care of ones self. I was able to 'zoom out' from my life and see it in a new perspective. It's so true that a person can get too 'close' to their work and yet not be able to see it clearly. Coming back with fresh eyes I'm reminded how lucky I am to have such an interesting life, loyal friends and a fab job.

I miss my blog - I miss the feedback and the connection to you guys :-)

I have so much stuff bookmarked to show you - let's get started!

These ceramics are from Katrin Moye via Print and Pattern. Stunning!

New Toile

I love toile and I love that it's being reproduced in such awesome colours these days. This wonderful toile collection comes from House to Home - and there are even more pictures!

Justine Ashbee

Aren't these neat? These are the Justine Ashbee artists edition oxford from Osborn.

New at Cartolina Postale

Hello everyone. I wanted to tell you that we have a new update to the Cartolina Postale app today. If you download the latest version you will see that you can now email and Tweet your postcards. We heard from lots of you that said you'd like to email the postcards - not just mail them - so we listened and as of today you can now email them. And you can also send fun greetings on Twitter too.

If you'd still like to use snail mail I'd like to show you how easy it is to design a postcard using images from your iPhone. You've probably got lots of pictures on your phone - but like me, you may not be comfortable always including a picture of yourself on one of our postcards. Here's what I do. I get out some of my vintage cards and ephemera and I take a nice picture with my iPhone, save it to my camera roll and then use it one of the Cartolina Postale postcards. I love this first one and have used it a few times recently to say hello and thank you to our newest retailers. You can also email yourself images from your desktop computer, save them on your iPhone and use them the same way. There are lots of good ideas. have fun.

Save photos of vintage graphics to your iPhone and use them instead of family pictures - above.

Use vintage clip art - take a photo of the clipart with your phone, save it to your camera roll and use it on a postcard. This would make a fun dinner party invitation, don't you think?

When you email the postcards there are size options. I recommend using the medium size - but if you'd like to print the final piece out then use the largest size. The Cartolina Postale app is available for iPad and iPhone and is available here.