Brown Paper Boutique Cards & Stationery

I love this collection of greeting cards from London-based boutique stationery design brand Brown Paper. Cousins, friends and designers Sarah Silver and Juliette Collins joined forces to develop their Brown Paper, which is run form their little London studio. Their ready-made card collections are lovingly crafted with a mix of imagination, energy, enthusiasm and attention to detail, and each card is printed in England and hand-finished by Sarah and Juliette. The pair also have a bespoke stationery design service and have some lovely designs in their portfolio.


What immediately caught my attention were these fabulous gold foil blocked dog cards. I'm a sucker for scottie dogs, and think the Brown Paper Scottie card is just too cute! I also love the glitter apple and pear cards, but really, all of the Brown Paper designs are very nice.


To see more, check out the Brown Paper website, online shop and blog.

Melbourne Finders Keepers Market wrap-up

On Monday I mentioned that I'd share a few photos from the Finders Keepers market that happened here in Melbourne last weekend, and as promised, here's my round-up. I knew from previous visits to the Finders Keepers that it was going to be full of amazing local handmade and designer wares, and I wasn't wrong. The venue (the Royal Exhibition building) was also very fitting. It was also packed! A friend and I thought we'd be smart and get there early Saturday morning, but as you can see, we weren't the only ones! But that's not such a bad thing, as it was great to see so many people supporting independent designers. Anyway, here are a few photos of some of the lovely stalls on Saturday.

The venue - Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne

Emily Green's stall, rocking those beautiful necklaces we all love so much!

Illustrator Emma Leonard's lovely stall

The BLANK stall

The Poppies for Grace stall

Beneath the Sun's stall

The Bespoke Press stall (I finally caved in and bought myself an ampersand print!)

The lovely Truth Be Told stall

Little Wonders by Darling Clementine

Have you seen the new Little Wonders range by by Norwegian designers Ingrid Reithaug and Tonje Holand of Darling Clementine? It's so very adorable. Designed with kids in mind, the range features cute woodland animals adorned accros cards, a print, a porcelian set, a calendar, placemats, napkins and trays.


I don't know about you, but I kind of think they're suitable for big kids too (mainly because I want them all!). To see more, check out the Darling Clementine website and online shop.

BLANK

This past weekend we were lucky enough to have the Finders Keepers market come to Melbourne. I'll be posting some photos of the event here this week, but today I wanted to share some images from one of my favourite stalls from the market, BLANK, a simple but beatifully designed range of packaging and project supplies. Created by graphic designer Danie, BLANK was born out of a desire to bring creativity, personality and fun into making, baking, giving and decorating. BLANK came about when Danie baked a batch of brownies for a friend and struggled to find a box to present them in, so decided to create her own!



Danie makes and sources supplies such as gift boxes, bags, tags, stickers, wrap and embellishments, as well as craft and party supplies. This range of packaging and project supplies enables customers to create and decorate just the way they like, which is why I think the BLANK stall at Finders Keepers was so popular – we do like to craft, after all! I picked up some neon gift tags for myself, and the blank Matryoshka doll sets seemed to be pretty sought after.



To see more from Danie's range, check out the BLANK online shop.

A trip to the Mornington Peninsula

I thought I'd round off the week with a few iPhone snaps I took on our recent trip down the Mornington Peninsula. In all of the excitement I think I may have overdone it with the Instagram filters, so I promise to give them a bit of a rest for now and go back to my trusty ol' Olympus!



If you're ever looking for an out-of-Melbourne day trip or a weekend away, the Mornington Peninsula is a good place to explore. We headed down the Nepean Highway and stopped off at Mornington, checked out the cute beach huts at Mount Martha and then slowly crawled down with the Easter traffic to Sorrento, which is a cute historical seaside village. If you have time you can keep going to Point Nepean National Park, which is located at the tip of the peninusla. Having been there before, we instead opted for a visit to the Red Hill Brewery to sample some local craft beer! We stayed overnight in Rosebud and the next morning popped down to Rye for breakfast and had a mooch through the beachfront markets, before driving across the peninsula to Flinders, another cute little historical little town that has some great shops, including Curio & Curio, which is filled to the brim with neon cushions, prints and homewares. Gorgeous! And of course it was then on to Tyabb to do some vintage shopping (you can read all about my vintage shopping adventures here). Overall it was a nice overnight break, and I always enjoy getting out of the city every now and then.

Well, that's all from me for another week. I hope I've given you some day-tripping inspiration if you're a Melbourne reader, and if you're further afield, I hope you've enjoyed this virtual trip to our part of the world! Oh, and if you are in Melbourne this weekend, don't forget that the fantastic Finders Keepers markets is on at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton. It's always such a great market, so I encourage you to go along and support Australian designers and makers! Enjoy your weekend, and see you back here next week x

Stämpel Studio

Bendigo-based designer Andrea Shaw started her Stämpel Studio label in 2010 as a way to create colourful, unique, functional and handcrafted homewares. Andrea studied textile design at RMIT and has worked for a few years as a professional designer for a couple of local Melbourne accessories labels designing textiles and jewellery. The philosophy behind Andrea's work is to create original and beautiful product from disused and often overlooked raw materials such as timber offcuts destined for burn off or land fill. Whenever raw or new materials are needed, environmental factors are always carefully considered.



Andrea's Stämpel Studio range includes beautiful and unique painted jewellery hangers made from timber offcuts (which are functional as well as artworks in themselves); necklaces made from macrame and timber and leather offcuts; scarves made from secondhand fabrics; handmade flower vessels made from timber waste; and hand-knotted jute macrame plant hangers. What brings all of Andrea's work together is her love of sustainable and reclaimed materials, as well as her great use of colour. Who wouldn't be happy displaying their jewellery using one of her amazing hangers?!



I admired Andrea's Stämpel Studio products when I spotted them at last year's Harvest Workroom Christmas market, and for us lucky Melbournians, Andrea will also have a stall at the superb Finders Keepers market that is happening this Friday evening and all-day Saturday at the Royal Exhibition Building. Exciting! For more info on the market visit the Finders Keepers website, and to see more from Andrea check out her online shop and blog.

Jacqui Lee for Hello!Lucky

I love the new wedding stationery designs that Jacqui Lee designed for Hello!Lucky. Jacqui is a freelance illustrator based in Vancouver, Canada, and this is her second collaboration with stationery, letterpress and design studio Hello!Lucky. The new designs feature cheerful colour palettes and Jacqui's cute hand-painted characters. Jacqui's inspiration for the imagery came from spring (hence all of the bright and fun elements), and each suite has it's own different personality.

I think my favourite of the designs has to be the Flora & Fauna suite, which is just so sweet and cute. How about you; what's your favourite?

If you'd like to see Jacqui's complete range of wedding designs check out the Hello!Lucky website, and to see more of Jacqui's work visit her website and blog.

Crispin Finn

Crispin Finn is a collaborative project run by London-based graphic artists Anna Fidalgo and Roger Kelly. The pair are obsessed with creating design, illustration and typography in red, white and blue. A background in screen printing led to Anna and Roger's focus on restricted colourways and also allow them to exercise their love for economy and simplicity in the work they create.



Anna and Roger describe themselves as hoarders, collecting a large and unusual selection of ephemera from their travels, and this is a big influence on their work, particularly their Rat Pack series, which groups together various objects and ephemera. The pair also have a series of film prints that recreate various objects and ephemera featured throughout Jaws, Annie Hall and Breakfast at Tiffiny's. What a unique take on the traditional film poster!



Nearly everything Anna and Roger make is printed by hand, and they design and print items ranging from their annual year planner to editioned prints. I really love the simple red, white and blue colour combination that has become part of the Crispin Finn identity, and the fabulous bold and graphic imagery that Anna and Roger have perfected so well.


If you'd like to see more from Anna and Roger, visit theh Crispin Finn website and blog.

Bron Alexander

Bron Alexander is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Waikato, New Zealand. She fell in love with graphic design in the early 1990s while working at her local museum. Bron likes to experiment with design and taking on freelance projects, and is most happiest creating illustrations for her family and her growing collection of prints (as well as surfing the breaks at Raglan!).





I like the folk art influences in Bron's work, with elements such as little flowers and Babushka nesting dolls, and I especially like her coffee pot prints (of course, they include Cathrineholm coffee pots!). At the moment Bron has a series of digital prints for sale, but in the future would like to extend to making stationery items.





All of the prints shown here are available through the Endemic World online shop, and are also available to purchase from Bron's own website. Click here for more details.





[Images: Endemic World]