Rubber stamped name cards

Loving these rubber stamped name cards by Andrea Romani. (via Madame Herve)

Wall hanging cuckoo clock

Love this wall hanging cuckoo clock in lime printed on paper by decoylab.

Betsy Dunlap calligraphy

Gorgeous calligraphy by Betsy Dunlap. I have always envied people with lovely handwriting such as this. I was lamenting just the other day how my own handwriting is getting from bad to worse given that I type on the computer all the time.

Paper lace garlands

Learn to make these gorgeous paper lace garlands from Project Wedding.

Fruity Sticky Notes

Can you believe that these yummy looking things are actually sticky notes? Available in “crates” of six from here. (Designed by D-Bros)

Cardboard House - Villa Julia

I would so like to place my desk in this and work out of this at home if I could fit inside. Or perhaps erect one of these at the corner of a busy street to sell pretty cupcakes and lemonade.

Cardboard

It is amazing how creative one can get with just cardbox. Here are a few examples of how you can turn a piece of corrugated cardbox into something quite unexpected. Cardboard blankets by Diane Steverlynck
James Roberts' cardboard hangers available here.

A business card on a piece of cardboard.(via allgraphicdesign).

BioTube Bench by Julian Lwin. (via Inhabitat)

Installation made from honeycombed cardboard panels and rolled up fabric by CJ Lim/Studio 8 Architects at the subway entrance in London. (via Dezeen)

Cardboard office by French artist Paul Coudamy. (via Dezeen)

Another cardboard office by Dutch designer Joost van Bleiswijk. (via Dezeen)

Mister Rob Ryan

Gorgeous papercuts by paper artist Rob Ryan. Do check out his blogs here and here! (Thanks meefedtothemax for the links!)

Muji Craft Box

This craft house box from Muji is simply too cute. Think this will make a holiday cake gift box. Available here.

My Best Friend's Wedding (invitations)

I spent the last few days working on the church wedding invites for my best friend, Elaine. A talented designer herself, I felt really honoured to be entrusted to design Elaine's wedding invitations for her.

Elaine and I have known each other since we were 12, and I can say that I don't know of anyone more similar in interests and taste than her. For the design of her invites, I decided that a simple and classic handcrafted wedding invite would reflect Elaine's timeless sense of style.

We decided to keep the cards simple and focus on subtle elements such as the selection of the font and texture of the paper. While scounting the web for a wedding calligrapher, I chanced upon the work of Laura Hooper. As soon as I set my eyes on Laura's work, I knew at once that we had to engage her to do the calligraphy for my best friend.

Laura is well known for her intricate, unique and delicate style of calligraphy. She offers a variety of services including 29 different calligraphy styles for envelope addressing, placecards, etc., and even draws the most gorgeous maps.

I finally settled on a beautiful Allegro Script , which I paired with a San Serif block-like font, for the invite to achieve a simple classic look. Not long after contacting Laura (who is super prompt in her responses), I received the gorgeous artwork and was on my way to gocco-ing 125 invitations by hand. I also got Laura to handwrite the address of the lunch reception which I screen-printed on tags (above) to accompany the invites.

(above) Screen-printing the cards by hand using my beloved gocco! I simply love the imperfections, blotches and everything behind this labour intensive process!

I finally completed the invites at 4am this morning and sent it out. The bride-to-be loves it and I am one happy friend and bride's maid.

Corner Forest

I really love it when designers turn the most common objects one would usually not bat an eyelid to into beautiful objects. Such as these paper toilet rolls above by yuken teruya.

Yuken Teruya is a artist whose work involve manipulating everyday objects and transforming their meanings to reflect on contemporary society and culture, such as the growing consumerism of contemporary society, depleting natural resources and other problems associated with globalism.

By cutting trees out of paper bags and cardboard toilet paper rolls, he creates meticulous and intricate art works which relate to broader concerns. In each bag and roll, the shape of a tree is created without adding or removing anything, just by cutting out and folding the paper from the bag itself. (via Oh Joy)

Too cool to be true

I think these business cards are just too cool. For more creative ideas, click here.

Paper Trail

Some gorgeous file folders from Paper Trail to inspire one to get organised!

Bright Green Alligator Paper

I came across this gorgeous gift wrap by Carolyne Roehm today and just had to share it. The green is just perfect! The texture and pattern of this wrap reminds me of the bright orange packaging for fruits you usually see at the supermarket. The spring green ribbon is available here.

Cool Cards

I have been swamped with work and nursing a cold this week, hence the lack of the usual dosage of inspiration at laissezfaire. I really dislike being sick. My mind doesn't seem to be working and something which usually takes me a minute to complete takes forever! =(

Will be off to Melbourne for a week tomorrow and hopefully I would have recovered by then. I am really looking forward to checking out the cool sights and smell of this fabulous city. Will definitely keep everyone posted on any inspirational findings there. If you know of a place I shouldn't miss, do dearly let me know!

Meanwwhile, I leave you with some cool business cards I found at Fubiz e. (via Designer's Block). Signing off back to bed...xoxo

Pop-out placemats

These gorgeous pop-out placemats, which doubles up as name place cards, will win your guests over at any event. They are made out of a beautiful, fiber rich paper, white or cream. Lovely! (via Designer's Block)

Mother's Day Giveaway - greeting cards featuring work of Julia Staite

I was recently browsing through pvuk when I came across the work of UK based freelance illustrator Julia Staite. Really love the colours in her whimsical and childlike mixed media collages.

I decided to order some of her work printed on some lovely greeting cards through Imagekind . The cards arrived in the mail today and I was so blown away by the quality of the paper and print. And Imagekind was lovely enough to send me 2 extra sets of prints as a giveaway on Laissezfaire and my baby's blog, Pupsik!

If you would like to receive a set of 5 greeting cards from Imagekind featuring the work of Julia Staite, please drop an email to ztansl@gmail.com with the subject title "Mother's Day giveaway" by 10 May. Please include your name and contact number in the email. I will pick 2 winners at random on May 11th, Mother's Day. Open to Singapore residents only. Thank you Imagekind!

(above) Mother's Day Giveaway

Vera Wang's wedding stationary

Did you know that the wedding fashion diva Vera Wang has a stationary collection? And do I have to say how gorgeous it is? I just love these wonderful vintage and handmade-looking lasercut pattern notes. I can just see these details taken off one of her exquisite gowns.

Book artist Rachel Hazell

I am just fascinated by the labour-intensive work by book artist Rachel Hazell. Rachel designs, writes, illustrates, prints, binds and exhibits book-related work using age-old labour-intensive methods. The tiny booklets she created above are handpainted and handsewn - using a medieval long stitch. Perfect for tiny sketches on the beach or poems with few words. (via Oh Joy)