inspire*inspire

Impossible Things

Today I love this delicate papercut from mrYen's Etsy shop

Pastel goodness

More on the subject of pastels (Perhaps it will help bring spring a little sooner)... Here are a few sorbet-colour goodies that I covet right now:

1. Mosaic rug by bernabeifreeman for Designer Rugs, 2. Silver pencils at Paperchase, 3-4. Cushions at Habitat, 5. Limited Edition ECAL Birdcage at Vivre, 6. Bowl at Anthropologie, 7. Wise guys paper owls by Mibo studio.

Enjoy!

Salt Lake temple

Designer, Cameron Moll, has handcrafted this incredibly intricate letterpress poster of Salt Lake temple, character by character over the course of about a 100 hours.

 

 

images via cameronmoll.com

Prints of the poster can be purchased, signed or unsigned, here.

Night Owl Paper Goods

This brilliant two-person stationary company is dedicated to creating charming paper goods with attention to details and the environment in mind. Established in 2004, the company is known for its lovely letterpress cards and folksy wooden stationary. With a new range of valentine's cards and up to 80% off sale on many goods, now is a good time to visit the Night Owl Paper Goods website!




Card images by nightowlpapergoods.com

Gwendolen studios

Following up on the 'Top Drawer' feature, here is another creative company I came across and fell in love with, at the exhibition.

Young artist and illustrator, Anna Wilman, was given her grandmother Gwendolen's sewing machine. She was inspired by the well-loved 'Bernina' and started adding free flowing stitch lines to her colourful illustrations. In may 2005 'Gwendolen' was launched, with the first signature range of cards, appropriately named, 'Gwen'.

The talented Anna went on to create further designs, such as the 'decor' card range, based on Gwen's eclectic boudoir and collection of vintage furniture, shoes, bags and beautiful dresses.

Other ranges include 'shoes', 'animals', 'circus', 'little birds', 'Amilia' and several more. All featuring a unique and creative use of texture, patten and colour to create breathtaking designs, with a very distinctive style.

 

And a newly launched range of gift wraps:

 

As with the 'Rosehip' website, you cannot shop directly from 'Gwendolen studios'. These are trade only websites, but you can search for a stockist near you or contact them to find out who else sells their products.

Rosehip: cards and paper goods

As promised, here is a full, detailed feature post on the first of several lovely creative businesses I have encounter at the Top Drawer exhibition yesterday.

This year, British businesses were 'tagged' as such at the exhibition. So those of us with eco-awareness could choose to buy locally manufactured products and do our bit for the environment. 

I would, therefore, like to start by introducing Rosehip; a Bristol based company, with a great range of cards and paper goods, all designed and manufactured in the UK. It also happens to be an eco-friendly company; using either paper which is 100% recycled or from well managed sources, biodegradable packaging and a printing company that's Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accredited. And that is before I have even started talking about their gorgeous designs!

Featuring British businesses, designers and artist has become a subject close to my heart. Up until I have started this blog, I was fairly oblivious to the world of blogging and to other blogs out there. But since embarking on this little project, I have become more aware of blogs that are similar in style and concept to this blog, and it has occurred to me that most of them are originated in the US, and as such, they tend to promote US based businesses.

So I think the time has come to expand this notion to our side of the pond and help small creative, independent enterprises gain more exposure on a wider platform and reach an audience that may have, otherwise, remained completely unaware of them.

Not to get too sidetracked from the subject of this post, here are just a few designs from the Rosehip A6 notebook collection:

 

And some sweet wrapping paper designs, that will make you want to keep your presents forever unopened:

All images from rosehipcards.co.uk

Be*inspired!