Santa Claus Rock! Indie Xmas market

During last week-end I've participated to a funny xmas market, held in a wonderful place here in Paris. Indeed, the music centre "Barbara" has organised a indie market to encourage and promote emerging crafters. The Barbara music centre is not far from Montmartre and it is a cool place where to listen good music among kind people and surrounded by a friendly atmosphere. Furthermore, it has a great bar, the "Scopitone", which serves delicious foods and drinks, all under the sigh of the respect of nature and workers' rights with biological and fair-trade products. It was really great experience for me to expose in this market, and I recommend everybody whom are now or will be in Paris to pop in and see it for an indie concert or even only for a drink!

Moreover, among the crafters of the indie market, I had also the pleasure to meet one of my favourite "etsian" creators, Mélanie alias (Oh la la!), whose bijoux literally enchanted me... they are so feminine and elegant! J'adore!! You can find her shop on etsy here and her dreaming website here, I'm sure that you will like her creations as well!

Finally, I want also to wish a merry xmas and a very happy new year to everybody! See you soon at the beginning of the new year with a lot of new surprises from Paris...

Paris, the big snow globe!

Two days ago Paris was rather shocked by a snowstorm, all streets and all roofs became quickly white and my little attic was completely surrounded by the snow, it was like to live in a kind of igloo for one day! And one of my favorite entertainment was to drop snowballs to unaware people walking by downstairs in the street... how naughty am I ?!?

Paris, under this weather conditions, was like a big snow globe, shaken by an unquiet and naughty giant... almost as unquiet and naughty as me that I've spent my whole afternoon in throwing snowballs at people... inspired by these ideas, I took the decision to make an snow globe rubber stamp with which to create a lot of compositions with other rubber stamps... for instance, I created a "snow globed" tour eiffel and a "snow globed" snow man...

Moreover, I turned these two compositions in wintry letter sets, that you can find on my etsy shop... I hope you like them, with this new rubber stamp everything could be "snow-globed", if you have other ideas about what put into the globe, feel free to suggest me!

A French classic: le Petit Ourson Guimauve!

As sundays in Paris there's not much to do, and as the cold that I'm suffering during these last days completely has erased my wish to come out, I've found nothing better to do than spending this whole sunday at home nibbling sweets and candies... the all accompanied also by a mug of hot chocolate... and during this busy and tiring activity I've met a new sweet chocolate little friend, which I discovered to be also a legendary character of the gourmand French universe: le Petit Ourson Guimauve! This is the typical candy of French childhood; it's indeed since 45 years ago that this little chocolate bear is the favourite snack of parisian schoolboys that, after school, have unfailingly a bellyful of them pillaging the first boulangerie they found!

This little bear has two peculiarities. The first is its particular taste. It is not a simply chocolate with the shapes of a bear, as it could seem at first glance; it is indeed a marshmallow covered by a coat of milk chocolate and the result of this mix is quite strange and exotic for me, as I'm Italian and I'm not used at all to marshmallows, but it is really delicious, crisp on the outside, smooth and soft in the middle... the second feature is their packing: for each christmas, you can find special collector metal packs of these candies, designed by talented artists. This year, for instance, the petit ourson asked to Mzelle-Fraise, a young French designer that I love very much, to draw its special metal box. She's drawn a wonderful texture of which you can find some details here:

draws by Mzelle-Fraise

In this new box, there is for the first time the whole bear family: mummy, daddy, and little ones... they're insomuch cute as I wanted to dedicate them this my new stamp set... I hope you like it, you can overuse them without the risk of toothache. You can find them for sale on my etsy shop...

Crafters of sweets

When the most famous Parisian pastry shop, Ladurée, meets up and collaborates with the great Japanese stationary brand, Mark's, some little dreams come to life under the shapes of cute rubber stamp sets. And one specimen of this amazing stamp set series went at home with me to enrich my personal collection, as you can see below!

It was impossible for me to resist to these cute animals, strangely named and decorated in a baroque way... there are also two other versions as much cute as mine, which are going to be the next gift I will offer to myself...

Ladurée is an authentic gastronomic temple, whose luxury style and precious ornaments make this place a unique address here in Paris; it's almost a symbol of the French lifestyle and a compulsory stop for all gourmands that visit the so-called "Ville Lumière". The macaron is the emblematic product of this maison. This small, round cake, crisp on the outside, smooth and soft in the middle, is the perfect mix of tastiness and beauty, an authentic joy for eyes and palate...

I wanted to dedicate this my new hand carved rubber stamp set to these colourful and delicious pastries. My set is purpose made for reproducing the wide range of colours and flavours that belongs to world of macaroons, thanks to three different modular stamps. You can find my macarons rubber stamp set on etsy shop... I hope you like them!

Weird gift ideas

For Him, a set of felt herrings brooches (find it on sale on my etsy)

For Her, a charming chic pair of spats (find them on sale on my etsy)

For little ones, a very special bib (find it on sale on my etsy)

for your christmas tree, some new fabric hand stamped balls (always on my esty)

New Christmas Ornaments

In my former post, I share with you some ideas about how to embellish gift wrapping and wishes cards for our dear ones; here, on the other hand, I want to show you my last creations that can give a steady crafty touch to our houses during this christmas time!

I've reproduced in a funny and zakka style some characters that usually live upon our christmas trees during winter holidays, as for instance a cookie, a little xmas tree, a gingerbread man, and a comet... your find them on my etsy shop, I hope you like them! Furthermore, I have also other christmas ornaments:

Indeed, I get as well inspiration from christmas and winter contexts to create some hand carved rubber stamps with which, as usual, I created other little stuffs. Also in this case you can use this fabric christmas baubles as ornaments for your xmas tree, or, as me, making with then a bunting... it's sufficient to hand them up to a thread! You can find them on sale on my etsy shop...

Christmas is approaching...

The Christmas' fever is approaching and I fear the day in which gift hunt will turn people in a wild horde, able to do battle to death even with the most of unsteady old little man for the last pair of reindeer socks (of the wrong size and of a unconvincing colour) remained in a sacked and almost empty shop... take it easy! the most important thing is not the gift in itself, but the spirit with which we are going to offer...

To give presents is not a duty; it should be a pleasure both for who gives and for who gets, and its aim should be to show the love we fell for our beloved ones. And I think that the best way to show our love is to cultivate it with the most precious thing we have got: our time! Time is necessary to take care of all of those details that make a gift special: as its wrapping, its presentation, its greetings card and its colors. For this purpose, I produced a broad series of Christmas hand carved rubber stamps, which can help you to personalise your gifts and make you smiling while coping with this approaching Christmas... you can find them on my etsy as usual, I hope you like them!

Timeless Vintage toys

Today I found in a shop this wonderful rubber stamp of Sophie la girafe, one of most popular toy for babies not only here in France but also internationally... it's a 100% natural rubber toy created in the 1960s, and produced still now, I really love it, with its retro style and charme "d'antan". This stamps gave me the idea to carve rubber stamps of also other toys, and I thought to create a kind of representative of all toys I love mostly, such as

Monchichi.

With this caracter I created a letter set, that you can find on sale here:

I've also done a felt brooch inspired to Monchhichi, on sale here

Cheburashka

also with this one I created a letter set, on sale here

Kewpie doll

with which I created a brooch, on sale here:

I hope you like old toys, as me, and these creations of mine inspired to them!!!