The Leaping Thought

Thinking outside of the book


Vintage pulp fiction covers become 3-dimensional in these staged cutouts reminiscent of pop-up books.


"When separated from their original stories, the figures take on fresh roles in entirely new situations. Yet they retain their intended purpose of storytelling. Characters and objects originally created as two-dimensional illustrations are raised from their pages and given new life in three-dimensional space. The figures return back to two-dimensional objects, this time in the form of a photograph."


By artist Thomas Allen. You can see more of his eye-catching work at the Joseph Bellows Gallery.


The piñata redefined


Makes you wonder why no one thought of it before.

"Need to vent in prep for an ominous birthday? The chocolate piñata cake will help you do just that. Hollow dark or milk chocolate cakes have a small wooden mallet tucked into the box, so when you get home, you can hammer the thin chocolate walls to reveal many tiny treats inside. Taste your way through chocolate truffles, caramel patties, and nut clusters made from butter and premium European chocolate. The piñata cakes were inspired by the shop’s 20th anniversary. Shop owner Nur Kilic says, “Forget smashing the champagne, smash the cake.”

You may get yours at Serenade Chocolatier.

A fairy tale you can wrap yourself in

From Swedish design blog Design & Inredningsbloggen comes this whimsical blanket.



"Once upon a time there was a blanket. This blanket has several sheets containing a traditional bedtime story. Each "page" adds a layer of linen making you warmer (or cooler) and comfier, hopefully guiding you and your partner into a pleasant night´s sleep."

Big and little girls everywhere are sure to love it.

Chalk Therapy

There ain't a blackboard big enough to hold all of mine but I'd be willing to give this cheap psychobabble version a try.

Via Gabekphoto.com


And with a pop, the day is done...

If your kid is anything like mine, who guns for the wrapping before he ever shows interest in the gift, then this poster-sized calendar is for you. The challenge will now be to keep them from popping the whole year in just one day.



Made in Brooklyn of the good ole US of A, it has the days of the week as well as all major holidays marked and comes in English, German and Japanese versions. Get yours at bubblecalendar.com

Sweet stirrings


You can make these delicate little spoon biscuits, originally designed by Shin & Tomoko Azumi for Project Pappilan, by following the recipe below.

From the Czechdesign website,

"Project pappilan was created by the faculty of Design and Arts at the Bolzano University in Italy. Giorgia Graziadei, a second year student, came up with the idea to ask the designers from all over the world to invent and bake biscuits that would have innovative shapes and flavors."

Ingredients:

black dough (15 spoons): 50 g of plain flour, 5 g of cocoa powder, 15 g of unsalted butter, 20 g of dark brown soft sugar, 1 tablespoon of honey,1 tablespoon of milk

white dough (15 spoons): 55 g of plain flour, 15 g of unsalted butter, 20 g of white caster sugar, 1 tablespoon of honey, 1/2 tablespoon of milk, 1/2 tablespoon of natural vanilla extract

coating: black chocolate, white chocolate

preparation: Set the oven at 170°C. leave the butter at room temperature. In a bowl, mix softened butter and sugar. Add honey and milk (and vanilla extract for white spoons) in the bowl to mix it well.

Add plain flour (and cocoa powder for black spoons) into the mixture to make smooth dough. Prepare a sheet of baking paper and make the dough 2 mm thick using a roller on the paper. Cut out the spoon shape with the spoon shaped cookie cutter.

Bake in the oven for 6-10 minutes until slightly golden. Take biscuits out one by one and place them onto a small spoon and shape it carefully while it is still hot.

Allow biscuits to cool down on a rack. If you like, dip the biscuits into melted chocolate (white or black) and dry well.

Text and recipe via Czechdesign. Images from tna design studio