Loving stuffs

I guess that it's quite clear by now that I love rubber stamps: more than to hand carve, I collect them avidly and it is never enough for me! Here I want to present you some new entries of my very personal collection:

Firstly, I want to show these stamp sets by Afrocat, with which I am literally smitten because of their simple and childlike style. These sets are formed by very fun interchangeable stamps with which to create a lot of odd and amazing combinations. There are a lot of little box to be collected, for having an idea you can take a look to the website of Afrocat. Obviously, I am really looking forward to have all of them; indeed, more are the stamps, more are the possibilities to create more and more strange combinations!

This is another precious stamp set of a very talented illustrator, Marc Boutavant. I'm really proud to have into my hands these stamps because I adore the illustrations of this artist that is very able to create dreaming and unique atmospheres, as these ones:

Following these inspirations, I wanted to render homage to another bright illustrator, whose drawings have the extraordinary power to turn me in a good mood thanks to her unique style. This artist is able to tie together an unbelievable cuteness with an irresistible "nerd-pride" humour...

This artist is Gemma Correll, to whom I wish to dedicate these stamps in order to show my deep love for her amazing pugs. And, concerning little and odd dogs, here's an other worthy representative of this category: the boston terrier (or, as seen the resemblance, the bouledogue français):

I've created this rubber stamp inspired directly by the wonderful world of All-Mighty, the website of two sister, Erica and Jen, to which also their lovely boston terrier, Mighty, collaborates actively. I suggest you to check it out because this website is full of super-cute stuffs, which all have in common the great passion for this funny animal, whose heartbreaking cuteness make it impossible to not love!

La maison de Memi

Today I'd like to open the door of my house and to show where my inspirations take form...

so this is my little attic under the roofs of Paris, at the 6th floor without elevator of old building from the XIX century... all my stuff is very well ranged: buttons, fabrics and colored felts, books and tutorials, rubber stamps and ink pads, brooches and more and more...

... and upstairs, in a little headroom, I have my sewing machine (more than my bedroom)... for me to live here is really as a dream and I'm going to be sad because I will leave it for a while...

...during this summer, indeed, I will come back in Italy. I hope that the beach and the sea could be able to not make me feel missing of home!

and, I was forgetting my cool neighbour who lives in front of me, at the window as usual, I guess he's a kind of solitary poet or writer... or maybe he's simply my power animal!

The hidden perils under the sea

Summer is coming and, although I do not especially like this suffocating season with her beach crowed of crazy people and the endless days spent roasting under the sun, I must admit, however, that I am really looking forward to have finally a swim! I love to find some relief from the burning heat plunging into the cool water... I love to bask myself into the sea and to leave me to rock up and down by waves... well, until now everything would be really fantastic and would be able to repay me of the time spent gasping among sweating dudes and yelling children, but also the sea, unfortunately, hides under dangerous tricks... I'm talking about jellyfishes, small gelatinous sea creatures that seem to have no other purpose than to make my life a hell! It's pretty obvious that, once sufficiently far from the shore, while gently carried by sea draughts I can finally enjoy some silence and tranquillity, I'm going to find myself suddenly surrounded by a shoal of stinging jellyfishes. They are probably attracted by my whitish skin that does not even want to hear about to get tan and, exchanging me for a their fellow creature, they have maybe not any bad intention... the fact is that it is not at all a good encounter, and although most of the time I'm able to leave away uninjured, I hate those little cocksuckers! Despite my immense hatred, I decided that i will not spoil my holiday with jellyfishes... you will find a full line of summer accessories dedicated to them, or rather to their kawaii version, because, as I always say, the best way to turn what scares us into something harmless is to make it as reassuring as possible through a soft style that exorcise all the ruthlessness! I must admit that I've turned out because these little jellyfishes are really sweet!

Here you will find them in the form of buttons...

and of little pin and brooch..

And also of necklace...

This is my centre-piece because it's virtually impossible to reproduce it similarly, in fact I printed my hand carved stamp over a white marble stone that I picked up from the beach where I usually go when I get home in Italy, I surrounded it all with the soft gray felt ... I'm really happy about the outcome ... I hope you like it too, it's for sale here!

And here another star of the sea: a tender little octopus, much more sympathetic of the jellyfish! Using a rubber stamp carved by me, I created these pretty pins that you can attach to the bag, the shirt and everything you wish ...

have a nice summer!

Vintage children illustrations collection

And now, as promised, here you can find some pictures of old children's books that I discovered in Italy, rummaging in the attic of the house where I was born...

I find that these illustrations are really beautiful, so I decided to collect them in the magazine that I inserted below to share with all of you and especially to ensure that the fantastic work of these artists will not be forgotten and will be preserved in the future.

click on this image to see a magazine with some images that I've collected!

This plunge in the past has made me so nostalgic that I decided to dedicate my latest creations to books that made me company when I was child... here you can find some rubber stamps featuring some characters of the famous Finnish book by Tove Jansson, the Moomin...

and two other rubber stamps devoted to the sweet Memole and her little pet, Pacopaco...

here instead a felt version of Memole and Pacopaco (for sal here)...

and, using some hand carved rubber stamps just done...

other brooches (for sale here and here)...

merci!