Cartolina for teNeues!

A few months ago I was asked to design some note cards for teNeues. TeNeues publish really beautiful products and I was thrilled to be asked. We designed 3 different sets of eco-friendly boxed note cards - and I think they turned out great. They will be available in retailers all over the US and Europe at the end of the month - but they are available for pre order from teNeues website right here (and they're a great price point!)

Flower Designer

I think that these are the covers of Flower Designer magazine. They are from Izutsu Hiroyuki's Flickr collection. Fabulous illustrations! Very modern folk art feeling.

American Indian inspired decorating

Pretty, American indian inspired rug. I like, I think. This reminds me so much of Ralph Lauren circa 1986 - I had that wrap around shaw collared cardigan - did you?

Plumes

This poster is from Urban Outfitters. I have an original of this vintage page from an encyclopedia. It's quite wonderful -  I use some of the details occasionally in my designs You can't beat vintage engravings.

Roses

I'm so into roses at the moment - can't get enough old fashioned tea roses and peonies - thank goodness it's the season for roses! So I wanted to share this little tutorial with you that I found online at La Dolce Villa. These are actually made from coffee filters!

New Cartolina Studios!

I know, I've been missing in action again - just when I had announced that I was back for good! Sorry about that! We decided to do some renovating and decorating in the studio so my regular schedule was thrown for a loop. Anyway, now I'm back again and I can't wait to put together a post on all the changes I made in the studio. I love it. I've been working like mad for 5 years in the same space never really having time to make any changes so it was great to have a fresh start. I'll put a post together very soon and share it with you! Here's a sneak peek . . . .

Ganesha Maidens - fab.com

More pretty things in my INBOX yesterday morning. This is an original Indian poster, complete with tears and stains. And it's quite big - 20 x 13 inches. I have a few of these and I treasure them! The colours of these posters have inspired many a Cartolina design! This one has now sold but there are more - around $200 from C.G. Sparks

Hand painted wallpaper

Hand painted wall paper scrap on One King's Lane this morning. So many people try to copy this style of vintage illustration but few succeed - thank goodness (nice to stay authentic.)

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.