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!

  

Yard sale score!

 

I bought a vintage View Master set today at a yard sale. Model C from 1946. It came in a great Bakelite box and included loads of reels. I am totally fascinated by the old Wizard of Oz images. I took this picture through the Viewfinder. The imagery is weird and wonderful and odd and beautifully creepy - which of course is right up my alley! Thought you might like to see it :-)

 

New Cards at Cartolina!

We have new cards - yippee!

I love it when we have new releases at Cartolina - it's so fun. I always try to have a theme for the new cards and this time it's the zigzag type. All the zigzag type is original, Victorian, hand painted type. No digital fonts here! I love working with the original typefaces - they have so much character and dimension - and really look great with our vintage imagery!

For more information about our line, or for ordering our cards wholesale, check out our website at www.cartolina.com or email me at info@cartolina.com