Wednesday 23 November 2011

The perfect gift


Since I've seen this melting video below, I think there's no better way to expose what is, for me, the concept of "perfect gift". While people are often carried away by the stress of the scramble for last minute Xmas gifts, I think on the contrary that what gives sense to the act of donating is the time we spent for our beloved and scrupulousness we dedicate to take care of their presents. What make unique a gift is the time we spent for seeking the right item, which represents the tastes and wills of our beloved; for writing a good greeting card, able to keep up with the sentiments we'd like to expose; for wrapping and presenting it in the more original way, showing how much we care about. Thus, the perfect gift is the one you can't wait to give... because to give a gift should be somewhat able to gratify also ourself, not a mechanic task, or an mandatory action to be accomplished. For that, I feel as the child of this video: while I'm wrapping what I thing is my perfect gift for someone, I experience the his impatience growing in me, I feel the sensation of this great expectation to see a smile appears on the mouth of my beloved.


For this Christmas, I am already looking for the right items and I'm still enhancing my writing capabilities to be used in greeting cards; yet the main decision I've taken is to wrap my gifts with home-made wrappings and to use handmade decorations for them. And here's indeed a special kit I've produced for your special Xmas pacs: four buttons made with modeling clay representing sweet gingerbread men, with which to embellish strings and bows of the pack, and a special stamp made with 6 different motives for printing out a unique pattern on your wrapping paper. I hope you like it, check it out on my etsy...




Thursday 17 November 2011

Make me queen!! new hand carved rubber stamp set



I'm glad to announce that a new stamp set of the series "make me droll", which I presented some time ago, is now available on my etsy: it is a complete set to give the power to people to crown whoever you want as your personal sovereign!! With this stamp set, indeed, you could doodle magazines and photos with crown and other royal gadgets, in order to give a princely touch to other people: girls will became odd princess, boys self-important princes... everybody could be appointed queen of king just for fun. Check it out here, I hope you will like it!!




Monday 14 November 2011

More geekery stuff!!



After pacman and invaders rubber stamp sets, I'm glad to show you new hand made geekery stuff!! I've indeed produced during last periods some felt brooches inspired to one of my favorite 1980s video games: pacman! They're a must for all of you that want to show to the world their love for vintage games; check them out on my etsy...


Moreover, keeping this geek attitude on, I've also conceived other stuffs inspired to vintage video games. Using some plaster, I made both pac man and space invaders magnets to be attached, for instance, on the fridge door. Also these vintage technological creations are available on my etsy, I hope you like them!!





Wednesday 9 November 2011

Xmas felt mascots!! Ornaments and tutorial



By popular request, my Xmas felt ornaments are back!! A smiling gingerbread man, a cute xmas tree, a lovely red stocking, a shooting star, a special butter cookie, and a pink teddy bear... these soft friends will be able to decorate your house or christmas tree in a unique and cute way during the coming holidays! I'm sure that thanks to these ornaments your Christmas tree is going to say you "thank you very much, my dear"... You can find these ornaments on my etsy, I hope you like them!!


Along with these felt ornaments, I am also glad to announce a new tutorial in my etsy. All these Xmas ornaments, indeed, became the object of new ebook that illustrates how to hand-made them. I don't know if for you is the same, but after me Xmas period always inspires creativity: while staying in family with our beloved, it is very usual to make things to embellish home and to carry out little crafty projects all together... I am sure that with this tutorial, you will have a lot of fun to do yourself cute ornaments easy-to-make!! You find it on my etsy as well...





Sunday 6 November 2011

And the winner is...



According with randomizer, the winner of my special giveaway, announced here, is the author of the comment n. 7, Sewon!! You won my "buttons on buttons" set!!! Please write me a private email with your address for sending you the buttons set.


For all of you that you liked my buttons and are interested in them, I want to let you know that other sets are available on my etsy: the Mademoiselle stamped buttons set, please check them out!



Saturday 5 November 2011

timeless vintage brands #6 Snuggle



Today for me was the "washing day". Indeed, I've not any washer at home, and, usually, I need to spend whole afternoons in the coin-operated laundry on the doorstep for doing the washing. But today, my time was not totally wasted. As soon as I crossed the laundry's threshold this afternoon, I've promptly recognized something a new but familiar at the same time: the soap dispenser was re-settled to sale a new kind of softener and its panel has been covered with a huge sticker of "cajoline". Cajoline is the French name for "snuggle", in Italy we call it "coccolino"... and it remembered me too much my childhood! Shortly, a new argument for my special issue dedicated to vintage timeless brands was dropped in my mind! Indeed, as soon as I finished to dry my scented clothes, I hand-carved the logo of snuggle, making a special stamp that you can see in the pics of this post; I hope you like it!


Watching again today the old commercials of snuggle from 1980s (a lot of them are available here - in French), I remembered all the efforts made by my grandma to please my desire to have this cute character of the TV. During my childhood, indeed, in Italy (but I guess also in other countries) it was possible to win the teddy-bear accumulating points. A lot of points. I think that at the end my grandma obtained the bear only thanks to a friend of her, who has a little stock of promotional teddy-bear because she was the owner of a grocery... But, this was not exactly a happy end: indeed the toy revealed to not be at all the cute and softy teddy-bear of the adversing. It seemed more to an evil woo-do doll, very rigid and mangy. I think that, fearing it could become alive, I enclosed it into a drawer, without even considering the possibility to play or sleep with it. I read that still today an accumulation of point exists for having the little bear... and in the pic it seems really cute; what should I do, to try again my chance to obtain this white teddy-bear?


Wednesday 2 November 2011

My favorite illustrators # 6 Roger Hargreaves



Amongst my favorite illustrators, Roger Hargreaves merits a special place; it was impossible for me to not include him in this corner of my blog. Roger does not need any presentation: Mr. Men and Miss Little are maybe one of most popular characters of children books; since 1971, when these characters were created, dozens of millions of copies of Mr. Men booklets were sold. All kind of gadgets of these characters were also created: from t-shirts, to plasters, from mugs, to jewelries... Recently, even google dedicated its first page to this author with a special doodle inspired to his characters. And to tribute them and their creator, I took decision to carve some stamps inspired to Mr. Men and Miss Little, I hope you like them very much!!


What is less know, at least to me before taking decision to write this post, is how Roger started to create these funny creatures: according with wikipedia, one day in 1971 his young son asked to him "what does a tickle look like?" The answer to this question was an odd orange ball, with a hat upon its head, and long and trembling arms: Mr. Tickle was born. During following years, a little funny army of colorful characters was created from this first inspiration. What I like the most of Roger Hargreaves is, aside the cuteness of his creations and the hilarity that they excite in me, the fact that he was able to represent through his series of Mr. Men and Miss Little, the widespread features of human being. Likewise to a contemporary Balzac, Hargreaves was able to draw all characters of a modern "Comédie Humaine". So said, which character looks more like you? I'm sure that, if you check the image below, you will find the most similar to you!





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