Milk and Paper
I am a bit obsessed with this little website called Milk and Paper. I think it is because lately I have developed a taste for the Anglo tradition of wrapping presents prettily with all the bells and whistles, and it’s really hard to find nice simple paper, cards and string in France. We don’t even have brown paper bags! Milk and Paper have brown paper bags and so much more. I love the little take-away boxes, the baker’s twine and the cute little stripy bags.
The website is in French but google translator does a pretty good job at translating, and Milk and Paper deliver internationally.
-Emilie
Tiny Prints — cards for every occasion
After months of renovations, we recently moved into our new house! Hooray! Can you believe it was my sixth move in 8 years?! Insane. I’m so happy to finally be settled and to not have to move again any time soon. Phew!
After all the moves, I figured everyone must be a bit confused about where to find us, so I decided to send out cards with our new address. I turned to Tiny Prints, the fantastic online resource for stationery of every sort. Of course they have a wide selection of moving announcements, so choosing my favourite was the hard bit. I ended up picking this yellow moving dots design (pictured) by one of my favourite of their designers, Petite Alma. So cute!
Tiny Prints has cards and stationery for every occasion and has an enormous selection. Plus, customising your cards is super easy and their customer service team is extremely helpful.
-Courtney
Personalised notebooks from Sloane Stationery
Esther and I each received the loveliest gift from Nathalie at Sloane Stationery – a personalised tabbed notebook for keeping our thoughts and ideas all organized! Super clever and oh so useful. And I love that it says ‘Courtney’s Thoughts and Ideas’ written across the front. My husband will surely know to keep out of this one!
Sloane Stationery specialises in handmade books, photo albums and small leather goods, placing great importance on the quality of the paper and leather of each product.
-Courtney
PS – Whenever I get a nice, new notebook I always have the dilemma of not knowing what to write or how to start (not wanting to mess up that beautiful new notebook). Does this happen to you?
Happy UK Mother’s Day!
Happy Mother’s Day to all you mamas in the UK! Hope you have (had) a splendid day!
xoxo Courtney
PS – Mother’s Day card (above) from Rifle Paper Co.
Cute cards and prints from The Krafty Fox
UK designer Katy Fox recently sent us an email introducing us to her Etsy shop, The Krafty Fox. Katy designs greeting cards and prints… which aren’t necessarily for children, but that bicycle print looks really cute in my boys’ bedroom! And I love the birthday bunting greeting cards — so cute, and also so affordable!
-Courtney
KLT:works
When my second baby was born, my uncle sent me a couple darling little onesies ‘made by a local artist’ in my hometown of Mount Vernon, WA (north of Seattle). And when my third was born, he sent me a couple more. It wasn’t until recently that I sat down to investigate the ‘local artist’ who makes these great designs. And what do you know?!! — it’s none other than the well known Kristin of KLT:works (check out her home tour and interview on Bloesem Kids and Kenziepoo). What a small, small world this is! All the way from my little home town…
In addition to sweet little onesies, Kristin also makes darling mobiles, handmade plush toys, letterpress prints and tees (Ivy has this owl tee and it’s super cute!).
-Courtney
ONE YEAR AGO WE WROTE ABOUT:
• Can’t beat the cuteness — Noonies from Lala’s• Papaw ointment — an Australian treasure
Cute Party Invites from Little Baby Company
As I’ve mentioned here and here, I am a huge fan of Rifle Paper Company. I love all of their designs — every single one! So I was really excited to spot some of their birthday invitation sets at UK-based webshop Little Baby Company. I ordered the Circus themed set and it arrived the next day. Perfect for the upcoming ‘birthday party season’ we have in our household every spring (my three kids were born in April, May and June)!
Little Baby Company also stocks some of the Rifle Paper Co. prints as well, including the Animal Alphabet print which I love.
-Courtney
Laikonik — paper goods with a Polish twist
We’ve reviewed the beautiful Laikonik once-a-year books before, but they have only gotten better in the meantime! How beautiful are these Polish folk art designs, screen-printed in beautiful whites or strong reds on soft grey linen? The once-a-year books have 18 pages for photos, where once a year you can insert a picture of your child. At the back of the photo is a place for a short description of important happenings that specific year. At the end of the 18 years the book will be a short but strong documentation of childhood, beautifully documenting the changes over the years and growth into adulthood.
Kasia from Laikonik made a personalised once-a-year book for Ava, and it is such a beautiful and thoughtful gift! It came with a screen-printed hemp bag to protect it, and Kasia even wrapped the book in matching screen printed wrapping paper — gorgeous.
Laikonik also offers other beautiful paper goods, like the photograms, a mini photo book that gives space to four photos and a letter, which is a wonderful gift for far-away loved ones.
xxx Esther
Kid’s Artwork Letterpress Cards
I found out about Jigsaw Graphics from a friend of a friend of a friend! Don’t you love those connections?And I am certainly so thankful for that introduction, as I have just received the cutest letterpress cards with my son’s handwritten name and drawing on them. Seriously cute. What a great idea — they will make such sweet thank-you notes with his name and dinosaur on them.
Details for how to purchase your own cards can be found on their site, and the customer service was superb the whole way through. I’ll definitely be buying more…
p.s. Check out the rest of their letterpress stationery cards. Also quite cute!
-Courtney
Petite Alma E-Boutique
Petite Alma, the very talented design studio responsible for our (fabulous!) website design, has launched their very own e-boutique. And isn’t it lovely? Their shop includes paper products of their own design as well as other darling toys, objects and stationery products. I am in love with it all! So many great little gift ideas and gift-wrapping too!
-Courtney
Cheerful! In 3½ months
Did you know that the 3rd Monday of January is considered the most depressing day of the year? I had no clue. Apparently ‘Blue Monday’ happened on the 16th this year, and I can state that for me, it wasn’t unhappy at all. In fact, I quite enjoyed myself! I went to the ‘Kleine Fabriek‘, the Amsterdam Children Trade Fair, where I met loads of interesting people and discovered many new, cheerful products. And I was quite happy to discover that my favourite Dutch publishers, SNOR, finally published their first English edition: Cheerful! In 3 1/2 months, with loads of beautiful illustrations, and one assignment a day for 3½ months, which will surely make you happy. Like:
- ‘Find a car without a parking ticket and buy one for it’,
- ‘Ask a stranger what he/she thinks of you (beautiful/attractive/intriguing/astounding/stubborn/charming/worth gold)’,
- ‘Walk up the stairs backwards’,
- ‘Buy 12 boxes of coloured pencils and fill each box with 12 pencils of the same colour’.
Feeling Cheerful, already? Cheerful! In 3½ months is available through BijzonderMooi.nl.
xxx Esther
The Wild Unknown
My sister gave me this calendar from The Wild Unknown for Christmas this year and I am IN LOVE with it. I love the hand watercoloured feathers (twelve of them for twelve months) and the fact that all the months are on one big page so there’s no flipping pages to look forward or back. I think I will keep it forever… despite the fact that it only ‘works’ for this year.
PS — I just checked and there are only ten of these limited edition calendars left. So hurry and snap them up!
-Courtney
Date Reminder Calendar from Flora Douville
I’m usually so good at remembering birthdays and other important dates, but lately I’ve been slipping! (Does ‘baby brain’ ever go away? I hope so!) Anyway, I just bought myself this Date Reminder Calendar by French artist, Flora Douville, and I’m really hoping it will help. Isn’t it beautiful?
I’m going to hang this in my office right above my desk so there’s no way to forget. And maybe it will even keep me organized and encourage me to send birthday cards BEFORE the birthday!
-Courtney
2011 Calendar from Ink+Wit
Every year I wait until it’s too late to buy a new calendar — and by the time I think to do it (usually January 1st when it becomes a must!), it seems my favourite ones are all sold out. So… this year I am somehow VERY on top of it because I am the proud owner of the 2011 Letterpress Calendar from Ink+Wit. I love that you can hang up the individual calendar pages, maybe even frame them when the month has passed. And don’t you just love that fox? He’s also featured on the lovely Foxy Friends linen tea towel as well!
-Courtney
once upon a fold…
If you are a ‘paperphile’ (aka ‘paper – lover’) or even just a paper craft enthusiast you must check out Aussie online boutique upon a fold for its brilliantly curated collection of papery goodness! This gorgeous little shop showcases paper artistry from all around the world, particularly from Japan where ‘paper’ is big business. From beautiful jewellery and pretty stationery to fun paper planes and perfectly engineered pop-ups, they carry pretty much any papery bit that can be folded, scribbled, written, read, created, coloured and displayed! You cannot help but be inspired — even me, the ultimate non-crafty! On a side note, we did try to emulate these cool storage milk cartons to make some money boxes but alas, we failed miserably. (Let me know if you have better luck than we did!)
- Sara
Thank you, Dallas
Dallas Clayton is my friend. I’ve never met him (yet), and I don’t think the feeling is mutual (even though he says he loves strangers), but I really feel strongly for him. Because his books are SO beautiful. Because his ideas are SO different. And because he really, really brings out the best in me.
Dallas Clayton’s new book, An awesome book of thanks, is like a modern day prayer. I just read the book to my kids, and we were all SO thankful by the time I finished it!
Thank you world, thank you sweet children, thank you magic rocks, thank you Saturn, and Venus, and Mars, thank you girelephants, thank you kites to fly, and thank you, thank you, thank you Dallas Clayton. My friend.
xxx Esther
PS You can read the whole book on his website here — trust me, it’s awesome!
Darling Clementine
How cute are these designs?! They’re inspired by 1950’s finger puppets… and are part of a 6-piece Marionette Card Set from Darling Clementine. Cute for children’s birthday cards or stationery. (I think I’m going to hang my set up on a wall in the kids’ room!) Darling Clementine is a new-to-me design studio or ‘paper empire’ as it says on their site. Check out all of their designs — I also love the Noel Darling Christmas cards.
(First seen on the Famille Summerbelle blog)
-Courtney
ONE YEAR AGO WE WROTE ABOUT:
• Babyccino party recap• I had it all
• Moveables — stickers that don’t lose their stick
Win a complete set of SmartGarlands from Hip Hooray!
Remember the SmartGarlands I recently raved about? Cute, colourful, waterproof, eco-friendly… etc. Well exciting news — our friends at Hip Hooray are offering a give away of a complete collection of SmartGarlands (value of US$100!) plus free shipping to the winner anywhere in the world! The collection includes 10 SmartGarlands — designs for every season and every reason: birthdays, baby showers, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, you name it. See the whole collection here, and to enter just leave a comment below by Thursday, November 11th, and we’ll pick one winner at random. Good luck!
Also, Hip Hooray has extended its worldwide free shipping offer to Babyccino Kids readers through November. Just order at least 3 garlands and at checkout use code babyccinousa for shipments in the US and babyccinoworld for shipments everywhere else on the planet!
This give-away is now closed. Congrats to Michelle in Canada for being the lucky winner!
ONE YEAR AGO WE WROTE ABOUT:
• Babyccino Birthday — Print Art Kids• Do all kids love birthday parties?
• Babyccino Birthday — Courtney’s top 5
Summer or winter, always in bloom
Esther gave me these Blom paper flowers recently and I think it is such a neat gift. You can use the paper flowers in so many different ways — arranged in a bouquet or strung up as bunting (as pictured), or arranged as gift tags on presents, cake toppers on cupcakes, etc. The paper flowers come in a set of three cards with five flowers each. You simply press out the flowers and then thread them onto the florist wire (included)… and voila — you have instant flowers for any purpose.
-Courtney
Insourcing the Birthday Party — Customized Decor by Love the Day
If the idea of throwing a birthday party for your kids at home sends you into a total panic, I understand completely. For me, nothing causes more constricted breathing than the thought of having twenty some odd kids over to spend two hours at my place sugar-infused and running wild. I do have to say though, there is something really nice (and financially sound) about having a party at home — I mean isn’t that what we all grew up with?
A friend recently tipped me off to this adorable Etsy shop called Love the Day when she threw a princess-themed tea party for her daughter last month. Love the Day offers customized paper party decor and will help to develop a complete party theme — making everything from invitations, to banners, to cupcake holders to customized water bottles and these adorable chocolate wrappers, and it is all VERY reasonable and with a quick turnaround. The designs are all emailed to you directly and all you have to do is take them to your local print shop to produce the goods. If I do decide to bite the bullet and bring the party home this year, Love the Day will be the first stop in the process.
-Dina
