Jeu de Paume Decorating: London Vintage

I've talked about the quirky-yet-appealing Jeu de Paume books before.
From this website, "PAUMES is a small and dynamic family-run Japanese publishers, working in close contact with artists and designers in Europe on different editorial projects. With a poetic and original approach, édition PAUMES explores the environments of those who stimulate the creative industries, and in doing has produced a set creative "bibles" that overflow with inspiration."
Newest edition: London Vintage
See more jeu de paume books, pictures and how to order here

Father's Day Free Printables

It's not too late to make some of these great items from Canon Creative Park, a website totally devoted to paper craft and photos. They have an entire section devoted to Father's Day, including templates. Gift wrap, gift ideas, cards and more.

DIY: Princess Pavillion Tent

What kid wouldn't love this adorable Princess Pavillion tent - completely designed and handmade by Lier.
She used a round card table and pretty fabrics for details like doors, windows and a potted plant.
She says, " If anyone wants to make
this, hit the garage sales for used quilts/duvet covers or
sheets- they are the cheapest way to procure large pieces of fabric."
I imagine most of us have spare sheets and scrap fabrics that would work too.
I have talked about the generosity of bloggers before, and this is a perfect example.
Lier provides complete instructions on how to make this tent, plus more instructions on how to make a similar tent into a rocket ship. Plus - she provides links to more tent projects.
For more, visit Ikat Bag's blog.
via Ohdeedoh.

Bookmarked: Fantastic Toys Blog

Seriously...if you come from a place called Mushroom Hill wouldn't you be destined to be like Timothy Haugen of Fantastic Toys?! You'd even have to have a mushroom in your banner!
Seen here: Birthday Party Set, Paper Peeps and Easter Cone.
Fun, fun, fun! Paper toys and other "goodies". Enjoy!

Paper + Wire = Art

Gorgeous work by Fleur de Courge.
Amazing works of art with paper flowers, wire and other found objects. I love these beautiful floral arrangements with wire vases and paper flowers.
Some of her other pieces of art that I love are the bells. I also love this sea glass and rock mobile.
Her work is beautifully photographed and you can see lots more (prepare to spend some time) here.

Wedding Table: Herbs & Linen

You don't have to be planning a wedding to appreciate some of the creative ways used to make each one unique.
The ultra talented Chelsea created this organic theme using linen for table clovers, vintage utensils, white dishes and Mason jars for glasses.

The green and white color palette is fresh, clean and I can just smell those herbs right through the photo!

More on Chelsea's blog {frolic!}

Chelsea also has a beautiful photo styling site: chelsea fuss

Making Flowers from Paper

Here is my first attempt at making paper flowers.
I see these all over the place on the internet and I thought it looked pretty simple.
Plus - as you have seen - I love bare branches for decorating.
I used these little branches I collected at my mom's house (where there are a million trees on her property) and glued these pinkies on with a glue gun. I think they ended up looking like camellias

I did this vignette on my mantle a few weeks ago (yes, it's time to change it!) before any of my flowers started blooming when I was in desperate need of something "floral" to weed out the winter cobwebs.

Off came the dark greens and pine cones and wintery things and out came white and pink just for spring.

If you would like to know how I made these just let me know and I'll post a tutorial - or at least I'll attempt to.

In the meantime, do you like these little cuties?
Here's a tutorial for making these paper flowers from Marie Claire Idees.

Spin Spin Handmade Linen Leaves Tea Towel

Who wouldn't want to have tea right this very minute if it meant using the lovely linen tea towel from Spin Spin Handmade!
By the way, I think we Americans really missed the boat when we dropped the tea tradition. Does anyone (other than the Plaza) serve tea regularly in the US? I remember that a China tea set was a very popular gift for a little girl when I was growing up. I think I still have mine at my mom's house.
I think our lives would be so much better if we took a break every afternoon for some tea and snacks. Don't you?

Small Magazine Summer 09 Issue

For those of you who are not familiar with Small Magazine, it's an online magazine/catalog of children's clothing, accessories and nursery decor with some great features. The photography is just wonderful and they do find some out-of-the-ordinary products. Everything from basic to upscale items and products for kids and babies.
Read the Summer 2009 issue of Small Magazine here.

DIY Recycle Project: Cardboard Tube into Lamp Shade

When I first saw this lamp I thought it was wire, then I found out it was paper!
Isnt't this a clever way to recycle?



Patricia has used the cardboard tube from paper towels to make this graphic-y looking lamp shade.
I like the plain cardboard look - but since (I think) it looks like wire I wonder if you couldn't paint the cardboard with metallic paint - if that's the look you want. Or any other color for that matter...what do you think?

What you need to make this project:
2 paper towel cardboard tubes
scissors
glue
paper
tape
glass hurricane (to cover)
You can get the complete instructions for this project here at A Little Hut.

Art Print Giveaway

Show Regina some blog love and enter her giveaway to win one of her beautiful art prints.

Clever Toys from Kidsonroof

Kidsonroof are Romy Boesveldt and Ilya Yashkin who design clever toys while living in the south of France with their 3 kids.
I can see children spending countless hours playing and creating - and learning! - with these toys.
Click on the picture to visit their shop.

Bookmarked: Spagat Online Sketch & Scrapbook

Beautifully photographed and inspiring blog from Sidsel:

Spagat means doing the splits in Danish, and it´s also the name of my Graphic Design Studio. This blog is where I post about stuff I design and stuff that inspires me - and I hope it will inspire you too.

Bookmarked: she.likes.cute Kawaii Crafts

I have so many blogs bookmarked that I would be embarassed to tell you how many.

I thought I might share some with you, my lovely readers.
From she.likes.cute's blog:
The girl behind she.likes.cute is Alenka Wagenaar. She is a crafter, designer and illustrator who lives in Deventer, the Netherlands. This blog is all about the cute things in her life.

Jeu de Paume Decorating

There is something very appealing to me about the jeu de paume style of decorating.

I've never been fortunate enough to own one of the beautiful Jeu de Paume books but I've seen them all over the Internet. I could spend hours looking through them.
They are published in Japan and the colorful style is beautifully photographed.

I am planning to redecorate the spare room on the third floor. It was my son's room and now I want to fix it up for the children so they can have their own space when they stay over. I can really do anything I want up there because it is completely separate from the rest of the house.

I am really looking forward to creating a space that can be fanciful and colorful and magic and that they will love.

So, here is some jeu de paume inspiration for your enjoyment, randomly picked out of the blogosphere. Click on each photo to go to the source.

There's also a Flickr group devoted to this style of decorating called Jeu de Paume Inspired.

How to Decorate a Camper

I wrote this post back in July about a great red-white-and-blue decorating scheme for a camper. I had never seen a camper decorated so beautifully!
It's been one of my most popular posts and I just happened to have come across more great ideas like these:

"Dorothy" designed by Sarah Pratt





























Goldilocks & The Three Bears, designed by Mark & Joe Stead


















Pleasantville by Liam Mooney





















These are Airstream campers that are available at The Grand Daddy's Airstream Penthouse Trailer Park. I did a quick conversion of the $945R to US Dollars: it's about $108.84 per night and up, depending on the season. Hmmm....Cape Town anyone?

Creative Solution: Inspiration Wall

As if this wallpaper wasn't a great idea all by itself!
Alenka Wagenaar (aka Kitty) took this already-great idea of picture-frame wallpaper (I found this paper at Kleurmijn Interieur) to the next level.
She painted the wall first with magnetic paint then covered it with this terrific wallpaper. This allows her to change her wall without harming the paper.
See her inspiration wall on flickr.
Visit her appropriately-named blog, she.likes.cute.

How To: Make a Zippered Pouch

Syko (one of my absolute favorite artists!) has provided a neat tutorial on how to make a zippered pouch like this one.

Link: How to make a zippered pouch.

Creative Organizing: Day of the Week Tags

What a simple yet creative idea for organizing your children's (or your own) clothing!

Just think how much easier your mornings will be when you have a whole week's worth of outfits ready to go!
Great for moms.
Here's an idea: If you have a little one who likes to pick our her own outfits, you could do this one night at a time for the next day. This way there's no taking all morning to put an outfit together.

Bonus: These tags are available as a free download here:

Living Locurto's creative organizing free printable day of the week tags.

Great blog, too!

Handmade Children's Things: Haciendo el Indio

I want one of each!

Haciendo el Indio makes things for children. Like these handmade linen dolls.
Their names are Zorrini, Simberlina and Pequeno!

The shop also features unique wall art, stationery, accessories and lots of other really, really cute stuff.
All by illustrator and designer, Cristina Serrano, from Milan.

Haciendo el Indio Handmade Things for Children

Handmade Kawaii Linen & Felt

These little guys are cute enough to eat!
Evangelione makes these little guys from linen and felt. She also makes the most amazing miniatures for doll houses.
Handmade kawaii pea, lamb, elephant and linen cherries (for those who like twins) found at Evangelione's Handmade.

Butter the Elephant Mothers Day Wool Felt Applique Plush Doll Pillow with Mini Gift Card

Love Cuore's shop where I found Butter the Elephant, handmade plush doll which comes with a mini card that says "I love you Mom".

Cuore's wool felt elephant available for $18.50.

Cute Handmade Felt Baby Buggy

I suffer from cute overload every time I visit Atelier Sterre's blog.
She makes the most adorable little things from felt - like this baby buggy, or "kinderwagentje".
See this felt baby buggy and more kawaii felt goodies at Atelier Sterre.

Small Magazine Has a Blog!