I’ve loved these felt letters ever since I guest-blogged for Etsy on The Storque. Made by MiChiMa.

Alphabetty screen printed fabric by Lucie Summers, via LMNOP.

Found alphabet art, via Black Eiffel.

(via Hello Bauldoff < Design Notes)

Why do we love paint chips?

1. They consist of lots of pretty colors.
2. They are free.
3. They satisfy our childhood love of a new box of Crayola crayons.

If you are in need of paint chip inspiration, scroll down…

Cocktail tags by my friend Danny at Daily Danny.

Colors wheels from Design Crush via The Bean and the Bear.

Benjamin Moore DIFFA table from 2008, via Glamorous Green. (Yes, that wall is done with paint chips)

Paint chip booklets by Whimsy Girl via Ukay Ukay.

Pixelated Marilyn portrait spotted at Nerdlike.

Headboard via Design Sponge.

Paint Chip Phonics by Pink and Green Mama.

Paint chip notebooks by Crow Roosters Crow via The Crafty Crow.

Sometimes it’s the small things…right? A fancy sugar cube is certainly a small thing.

French sugar cuties from Ruby Press.

Cinder block sugar cubes spotted on Neat-o-rama.

Puzzle sugar cubes, found on Paperseed.

Sugar cup handles, found on One Floor Up.

And finally, the perfect holder for your sugar cubes, spotted on Curiosite.

And if you want to try to make your own, read here.

Play food is huge in the kiddo market. I’m crazy about Yellow Label Kids’ knitted sweets and Haba’s felt and wood foods. But now I feel like there’s a trend towards foods that look inedible (but really are) and products that aren’t edible but look it. What am I talking about? Look!

  

Food or Faux? It’s faux! This is soap, people! Amazing craftsmanship, but do I really want to wash my hands with a cinnamon bun? Soaps by Soapopotamus .

   

Food or faux? It’s food! Yes, dear readers, these crayons from Luxirare are made from ingredients like sesame seeds, melted marshmallow, yellow Fruity Pebbles, dried banana, and more. Found via Petite Planet. I do think kids will eventually be chomping down on wax if they get to savor these even once.

In my 2D design class in art school, my teacher filled a bowl with scraps of paper on which were written different natural objects or animals. From that object, we had to create a repeat pattern in three different color schemes. I randomly picked sea anemone from the bowl, and, to really date myself, I walked promptly to the library to look up sea anemone in the encyclopedia. Yes, you heard me, this was BGE (Before the Google Era).

It was really that lesson that taught me how pattern and design are organically derived from nature. I kinda want that assignment again—maybe with another sea creature—to see what I’d do with it twelve years later. (Okay fine, fifteen years.)

At first glance, this wallpaper by Paperboy appears to be an abstract pattern, but after a few seconds, you realize you’re looking at shadow puppets. How sweet for a kids room?

Dan Funderburgh takes a sort of different approach and weaves city icons into his more traditional floral patterns. This wallpaper is appropriately called Central Park (notice the rats).