Sweet Xmas!

My personal tradition for Christmas is to make my special cookies for my family and my friends. Every year, about a couple of days before Xmas, my kitchen is turned into a kind of chaotic pastry shop that churns out hundreds of sweet and colourful cookies!!

The aspect that changes in this personal tradition of mine is the decoration for cookies and this year I have find out a pattern to make cute paper bags. Of course, I had also decorated them with some special Xmas stamps, which I made for this occasion. Then, also little felt handmade mascots have been added to each bag, just in order to give a last kawaii touch!

And, my little Xmas gift for you is to provide the pattern of these paper bags: you can download it and use for your personal uses. The tip is also to print it out and use directly to make the paper bag, you can also photocopy it in bigger size in order to have a larger bag (in case of very greedy friends!). I wish you a Merry Xmas!

The art of the well spleeping

According to my personal experience of new mom, new-born babies can sleep even 20 hours in a day. Of course, this is not a continuative lapse of time, because they actually want to eat every two-three hours (it would be too fantastic to sleep as well for at least 8 hours!), but they are very gifted for sleeping in any case...

 

... during the sleep, the little ones grow - that's true! Actually, the sleep is not only important because the babies dream and rest, but also because it seems that the specific growth hormone (the somatotropin) is produced during the sleep, especially during the night! So, the sleep time is almost holy for them!!

 

As far as the sleep is important to such extent, this activity should helped with all the possible ways. Fifi is very helpful in cuddling my daughter Gemma (they already are best friends!), but also some cute toys help me in this task. The Gemma's favorite ones are a cute white Ange Lapin and Sophie la Giraffe: they are also the favorite ones of mine... what a coincidence! this is the same also for other thousand of French children. For that I took decision to made a couple of stamps of Sophie la Giraffe and Ange Lapin to which I would like to tribute!!

My new special xmas stamp sets

As every year, December comes very fast and Xmas always arrives in a flash... Yet even in this short lapse of time I have made a couple of hand carved rubber stamp sets that will be perfect to decorate gift and wishes cards...

They are a cute Christmas Tree, composed by the tree, a star and a glass ball, and a kawaii Gingerbread man, formed by two stamps (the outline and the inner to be colored). You can find both the tree and the gingerbread man on my etsy shop, I hope you like them and I wish you happy holidays!

Welcome to Gemma!

It is with my greatest pleasure that I am announcing the birth of my daughter, Gemma! She's born the 25 November, she's cute, healthy and wise (at least for the moment...). I am not able to express with words the happiness that Gemma brings amongst us!!

In Italian, "Gemma" means both the "gem" of a flower and "precious stone": we have chosen this name in order to give a good augury to our little one, to wish her to blossom as a beautiful flower and to show to the world her preciousness.

 

 

And in order to welcome Gemma, I have prepared a certain amount of bombonnières (it is a tradition in Italy to give a little gift box with some sugared almonds inside to the family and friends) with an heart-shaped box, with hand stamped her name upon (I made a little hand carved rubber stamp). I have added also a little felt smiling heart to be used as a pin. And, if you'd like to make the same bombonnière for your child, you can find here a pattern for the hearth-shaped box and for the felt heart!

A special creator for a special event!

Amongst my best preferred crafters and artists, it couldn't be lacking Grandmother Anna, who is the grandmother of my partner and a very special creator for me. Actually she is a true master of knitting and, since I met my partner some years ago, she started to made amazing wool cloths for me! Her ability not only in knitting, but also in conceiving projects, inventing styles and selecting materials have always surprised me! The unique scarves, capes, and sweaters made by her really helped me during last winters, keeping me warm even in the strong Parisian weather!

 

 

But, I am not alone in benefitting of her skills, and this is the reason why I took decision to introduce my dear Grandmother Anna in this post. Latterly, she doing amazing cloths and other wool creations for my forthcoming daughter! Blankets, sweaters, hoods, socks, bibs... everything that she will need! This is the very special event that I would like to share with you, the readers of my blog: I am waiting a baby and soon I will start to share my life with my little (and well-dressed!) one!! I am really, really looking forward! Thank you very much Grandmother Anna for all you're doing for us!!

Japanese vinyl toys mania

Thanks to Miki and to her amazing on-line shop, I was recently able to hoard a couple of really kawaii vinyl toys... and now I feel and irresistible need to collect them all! The first about which I am talking about is the Takochu, which is a cute, little, and colorful octopus! They exists in many, many colors dans they could be also collected into a pile. Maybe, their name takes inspiration from the Takoyaki, which are a typical Japanese ball shaped snack made with minced octopus. Or perhaps, it could simple mean "octopus" (Tako) "smack" (Chu)... I honestly do not know...

 

The second one is the Manju Kun, which remembers a typical Japanese sweet (the Manju) made with rice flour and filled with anko, a cream made with boiled azuki beans and sugar. According to wikipedia, the Manju are derived from a similar steamed sweet, the Mantou - Mochi in Japanses, that existed in Chine since ages. As in the case of the Takochu, thanks to their great variety, Manju Kun take many colorful and original aspects and, for that, are really cute to be collected!

I love this way to turn traditional food into contemporary, cute characters. I have discovered only recently these amazing vinyl toys, but searching on the the net I have found out that they are "cult" characters since many years, when a real invasion of these cute and colorful mascots has started. Also some groups of fans exist, which gather pictures of entire collections that can be admired on the web. My idea was to tribute to these amazing vinyl toys, making two rubber stamps: one for the Takochu and another for the Manju Kun... by this way, I can have fun to create numberless colorful friends, with which to decorate diaries, letters, and everything I'd like with a super-kawaii touch!! I hope you like them, check them out on my etsy!!!

Hot air balloons hand carved rubber stamps

By now, the Summer flew away, leaving behind an inescapable trail of melancholia, which prepares us  to face the cold and long Winter. Thus, I considered that in this period we need a touch of color and funny  to bring some happiness in these grey and rainy first days of Autumn... 

  

...for that, I have made some sets of cute and colorful hot-air balloons! Round, hearth-shaped and animal shaped hot-air balloons, these sets will be able to provide a touch of color on all your papers, letters, notebook and fabrics... I hope you like them, check them out on my etsy!

And the lucky winner is...

I am very happy to announce that Randomizer has choosen the lucky winner for my special ice cream giveaway... that's the number 4, Holly Nelson, who loves the "mint choc chip" as flavour of ice cream! My congratulations Holly, please take contact with me for the delivery of your stamp set! My congratulations again and thanks to all the partipants!!

Ice cream stamps set summer giveaway

I will never get tired to repeat it: nothing is better than a delicious ice creams to quench the hot weather during summer... also Fifi seems to agree with me, as seen the passion she puts in licking her special strawberry sorbet!

And I dedicated to this great classic, summer food, which is able to bridge the adults' tastes with the desires of the little ones, this new set of hand carved rubber stamps. This set contains various types of ice creams, the pop, the cone, the cup and so forth. Furthermore, I added to this set a small stamp having the shape of a smiling face, in order to give even more fun to ice creams!

Likewise all other hand carved rubber stamps, it is very funny to create colorful patterns with which to decorate cloths and fabrics: in this case, I used the small ice cream pop to print out a summer patter on my t-shirt! Now I can really feel the freshness even during these last days of the hot summer!!

Would you like to have this stamps set? You can winn it participating to my new ice cream giveaway! To participate to this giveaway is easy: subscribe as a follower to my blog (if you are not yet a follower) and write a comment from now to September, the 1st at 13h00 (Rome, Paris etc. hour) in which you  write which is your best favourite flavour of ice cream or, in alternative, the strangest flavour you ever tried. Then, to each comment I will assign an ascending number (1,2,3, and so forth) and randomizer will find out the lucky winner of my ice creams... good luck to everybody!!!