Cartolina at the Stationery Show - Booth no. 3124

It's that time of the year again! If you're in NY for The National Stationery Show - May 19th - 22nd - please stop by booth no. 3124 and check out what's new at Cartolina. I won't actually be at the show this year but we are well taken care of by our stellar group of sales reps at Crow and Canary. Have a great show everyone!

Cartolina at Barnes & Noble

I've been very excited to let you know that, as of this month, a select collection of Cartolina cards are available at Barnes & Noble across the US. That's 730 stores - yikes! This boxed set of notecards is also available on their web site at www.bn.com

Craft hour!

It was rainy and quite stormy here at the weekend so I spent some time crafting - including this little folded book project that I've been meaning to try for ages. A fun way to display ephemera don't you think?

Uppercase issue #17

Ever thought of starting your own stationery company?

Pick up the latest issue of Uppercase Magazine (#17) and read my top ten tips for taking your paper passion global. Also read about how Cartolina got started and a few thoughts on the industry today.

Uppercase is a Canadian Magazine - available in locations world wide. I recommend a subscription :-)

New Cartolina tats at Tattly!

Hey, we've got new designs at Tattly! This time the temp tattoos that we designed for Tattly are vintage tools. Following the extreme success of the nautical set we continued with the vintage engraving look and settled for a set of antique style tools. Hope you love them as much as we do. You can buy them at Tattly - right here!

Cartolina for Kelloggs!

This is kinda fun. A few months ago I was hired to do an illustration for Kelloggs. I worked with the art director at Leo Burnett in Chicago, and it was a great experience. But, I had almost forgotten about it, until I flipped the magazine page at the hair salon - and almost flipped myself right out of the chair. What a surprise I got, to see the illustration in all it's glory - and I think it turned out quite well. It was in a People magazine - cos that's what you read at the hair salon - right? :-)

New - Cartolina notebooks for teNeues!

I'm loving this brand new little threesome of notebooks that we illustrated for teNeues - they're in their online shop and ready for ordering. Lovely details and a great price point at $8.95 http://www.teneues.com/shop-us/stationery/green-booklets/cartolina.html

New Shipping room - and a DIY table for you!

We have been making lots of changes at Cartolina and to accommodate this year's new distribution system we have had to expand the studio. We are so lucky to have lots of space and so Doug built us a really wonderful new shipping room - a space devoted entirely to packing boxes! I wanted the space to be functional, with really great shelving and a fabulous work table. 

The Table (and the DIY plans!):

When I started looking for the perfect table I was really surprised that the options I was looking for were just not available. So, Doug to the rescue - he designed and built this GREAT table for me using plumbers, cast iron pipes and fittings. It's 8ft long and has a heavy wood work surface. When Doug started to design the table we were surprised that there were no plans available online for a table like this.  I knew that, as soon as I revealed the table here, loads of you would have questions for him about the construction. 

So, Doug has put together the plans for the table and you can download them, for free, from here - 'Table Plans"

Our table is 35.5 inches high - which is great for a kitchen island or a work table. You can definitely shorten it for a dining room table. The pipes are all cut at the plumbers supply shop (you just need to take the plans into the shop with you and they cut and thread the pieces). The top is 8ft long and 32 inches wide - made from rough lumber from the lumber yard - sanded and varnished. You could also use reclaimed lumber for a wonderful vintage look! 

Click here to go to the downloadable plans

Changes at Cartolina for 2013!

We have some big news and we're really excited about it!
As of next week we are now doing all our own distribution in the US. In the past Cartolina has been wholesaled by national distributors across the US. But we've been listening to retailers and what we've heard is that things have changed in their world over the last 4 years and they want to connect with the people they do business with. They want to meet the manufacturers face to face and they want a personal connection with their suppliers. So we made a big decision a few weeks ago to 'bring home' our distribution and start working with our US retailers directly - offering a great new selection of product, better pricing and stellar customer service.

We've been very busy getting organized:
- We have hired a whole new sales force - wonderful people that we've worked with before - people who know Cartolina inside and out.
- We've negotiated strategically with carriers so that we can offer the best shipping prices to our buyers. No high priced, cross-border shipping prices here!
- We built a new shipping department onto the studio so that we are efficient (and have a stylish place to work of course!)
- We've published fabulous new paper catalogs and built a simple to use online ordering system.
- We've upgraded all our data bases and inventory systems so that going into 2013 we have the most efficient and sophisticated fulfillment, billing and shipping system I could ever have imagined.

We are ready to roll!
info@cartolina.com

New catalogs for you!

The new Cartolina wholesale catalogs have just arrived. If you're a retailer and would like one of our catalogs just give me a shout and I'll pop one in the mail to you!

Hot off the press!

We have so much new product at Cartolina - every day we're getting deliveries - boxes and boxes of vintage inspired goodies. And, we have brand new catalogs - hot off the press. Email me for wholesale info!

WOOF

Here's something new!

I was asked by the clever people at Blanket to design a dog tag as part of their Donation by Design program. If you don't know about Blanket, here's what they do: Blanket ID tags are for your pet. Their super pretty tags come with a unique ID number that you register on their website and if you pet is lost or stolen the Blanket ID system broadcasts emails to local SPCAs, shelters etc. When your pet is found the finder simply enters the unique number on the Blanket website and you are notified so that your pet can be returned safe and sound. 

Blanket also has a huge charitable element to their organization and this is where I come in - I donated the vintage WOOF design on the tag and, every time one of my WOOF tags is purchased, $5 goes to the organization that I have chosen - which is BEAR AWARE! If you know me, you know how much I love the bears that wander past the studio windows every day in the summer. They’re incredible animals and I’m hoping through the sales of our WOOF tag at Blanket ID I can help protect them.

If you'd like to know more about Blanket please go to their site here and learn more - it's a great organization and really the ONLY WAY to protect your pets! http://www.blanketid.com/

You can buy my WOOF tag here:

http://www.blanketid.com/shop/cartolina/

Yay for Will and Kate!

Another sneak peek!

Here's another peek at our new boxed notecards and mini cards. We sell tons of mini cards - florists love them - so much nicer than the ones they usually offer! These ones are a repeat pattern of really old tea cups - I think these will be very popular!

Loads of new product at Cartolina!

We've been working like mad to get all our new Cartolina product printed and stashed away in the stock room ready for the buying season which starts in mid December. I'm super excited about 2013 - feels like it's going to be a great year. 13 is my lucky number - I was born on Friday the 13th :-)

Happy Thanksgiving Neighbours!

From the Cartolina iPhone app http://www.cartolinaapps.com

Artemis Spokane

Such a lovely display of Cartolina Cards at Artemis in Spokane WA. Kris just reopened her shop in a fabulous vintage building downtown and it's truly awe inspiring. If you are in the area you must visit. Here are some pictures of the store .

Happy Halloween!

These super cute Cartolina Halloween magnets are available from IPOP, right here 

This is a new Cartogram design on the Cartolina app  http://www.cartolinaapps.com

Introducing Mailroom!

I am so excited to introduce you to our latest iPhone app - MAILROOM!

We have been thrilled with the success of all our iPhone apps - never in a million years would I have guessed that they would be so popular - thank you to every one of our users!

So over the last year or so I have heard from a number of our creative users that they are using the Cartograms from the original Cartolina app to send short messages to their customers and clients - and they really wished that they had a little more room to write something other than a short cryptic thank you. 

So we developed Mailroom especially for all you creative entrepreneurs and visually obsessed who want to send something just a little more fun - a little more 'Mad Men' - to your customers and clients. There are 21 stylishly vintage templates with lots more room to type your message. The app is $1.99 at the app store. 

I hope you love it - and use it!  It's your business letter, only better!

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.