Doug's new illustrations

Doug has been working on some very cool illustrations recently. I specifically love this piece that he did for the Wall Street Journal. Doug's been illustrating for a long time now with clients that include the New York Times, Washington Post and LA Times. Very cool. You can see more of his new work on his site which I updated for him yesterday :-)

Found - Annie Smits illustrations

I wanted to share this holiday card with you that I got from Helen our New Zealand distributor. This card is from a line of cards she carries that reflects New Zealand heritage and culture. I love that this angel has the simple and exotic 'tribal' decoration that you might find in Maori art. Illustrated by Annie Smits.

Illustration by Annie Smits

Inspiration - printers samples

Some simply stunning examples of early 20th century printing. The skill it took to design and print these blows my mind. I am always in awe when I run across stuff like this. From Sheaff Ephemera.

Inspiration - patterns

We have seen these a few times recently but this a fab collection on Flickr - security envelope patterns.

Hello everyone - welcome back for a whole new year at Cafe Cartolina! I'm excited. This time last year I was making big changes at Cartolina. I knew it would be a big scary year as we tackled a whole new distribution model, selling cards to buyers in more places around the world than I ever would have expected. I love that Cartolina has found such appreciation in the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand - and I am so grateful to everyone who has made that happen in the last 12 months. So let's say hello to a whole new year - it's looking pretty good so far!

A new hobby or great inspiration?

These are plates are from vintage books on Pennsylvania folk arts being offered for sale here. I thought they looked very interesting - a new hobby perhaps or just some really great inspiration!

Inspiration - simple utilitarian vases

I really like these vases from West Elm - love the vintage texture and the bulkiness of them. Oh and I love the spring colours ;-)

All pictures from West Elm

How could I start a new year without a few vintage tins? I'm a total sucker for small, french, vintage tins - these are just perfect!

All images from La Pomme

The best of 2010 - the 1st 6 months.

I thought it would be fun to look back over the last year and pull out some of my favourite posts. I realized once I got started that there are too many for just one post here today so I took the first 6 months of 2010 and edited it down to some of my fave things. Sometimes when I am trolling around the interweb I will come across something that really grabs me - purely visual - and in those first 2 seconds I am so moved or inspired that it often ends up here at The Cafe. So these are links to THOSE posts - the ones that really grabbed me in the first half of 2010. Hope you like my picks. I'll do the 2nd half of 2010 in the next day or 2. (Remember these are just one image from a whole post - so click on the links and fill your boots!) Happy New Year my friends!

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Wake up!

Just a little eye candy to wake up the old eye balls after a few days off! These beauties are available form Arriba Chica.

All images from Arriba Chica