It's the MailboxTees blog! :: design :: art :: tech :: shopping ::

Awesome 3-D Pop-Up Business Cards

Karen — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:17:00 GMT

Graphic design student Emerson Taylor made these cool pop-up business cards. Ostentatious? Yes? Memorable? Absolutely.

[via swissmiss]

Butterfly Light Is Modeled on Folding A Piece of Paper

Karen — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:13:00 GMT

The idea for this Butterfly Light by Vinta came from folding a piece of paper.

The panels can open and close in increments, to adjust the amount of light. It encourages the user to have a direct physical connection with the light itself in order to adjust the brightness.

You can watch a quick movie about the concept- but I have to warn you it's really just someone folding a piece of paper. So I'm going to go out on a limb and say you can probably skip it. Instead, I recommend this clip showing the light in action.

Super slick! I want one!

Fun with Photos: Yearbook Yourself

Karen — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:23:00 GMT

Have you tried Yearbook Yourself yet? You can upload a photo and see how you'd look through the eras.

I think these are my best three, if by "best" I mean most amusing. Heh.

Stalk In Style With The iPhone Camera Telescope Lens

Karen — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:12:48 GMT

There's been much consternation about the craptastic quality of the iPhone's built-in camera. But this 6X zooming iPhone camera telescope is here to save the day! Or at least, to help you more effectively stalk that chick who filed a restraining order last week.

Unfortunately this thing only fits on the old iPhone, not the 3G. It comes with a strap and makes your iPhone look incredibly dorky, as well as difficult to fit in your pocket (unless you're wearing Hammer Pants.)

The lens includes a docking case to fit around your iPhone, into which you slot the lens. That's it, you simply dock, then stalk. Because that's the use case here, right? I mean the photo quality still sucks, but now you can sit in your car with dark glasses on and take pictures of people from really far away. Smells like stalking to me.

You can get one from ThinkGeek for $17.99. Stalker.

Gorgeous Cup and Saucer Art by Bailey Doesn't Bark

Karen — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:19:28 GMT

This cup and saucer is like art, but the good news is that unlike so much other neat stuff, it's actually something you can afford and buy and have in your home.

Bailey Doesn't Bark makes this lovely piece and so very much more. You can buy this fabulous item from Supermarket for $45, and link to her Etsy shop here and her Dawanda goods right here for so much more.

I Want To Try This: Contact Cement Tape

Karen — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:04:00 GMT

The DIY weekend warrior in me is itching for a project that would necessitate me to try this UGlu contact cement tape. Looks like it would be good for no-mess edging jobs and such, and you get 60 ft. for $6.50. Hmmm...

[via Book of Joe]

This Ming Vase Is Meant To Be Broken

Karen — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:04:00 GMT

This Ming vase is actually composed of a set of 6 cool-looking melamine dishes. I don't get how they stick together when it's in vase form, but I do think it's neat.

You can get one here for €89, but they won't be available until September.

Macrame Jewelry - Much Cooler Than It Sounds

Karen — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:57:00 GMT

These macrame necklaces are really sweet looking. You know, macrame? That thing with yarn that they used to do to hanging plant holders in the 70s? Yeah, well they look a lot better as necklaces.

They're around $100 each, which is kind of a lot for string with knots in it, but then again people who can make macrame into a viable art form should probably be rewarded monetarily for that. You can get them at Ambiguous Horse.

String Chair Is Stringy, But Also, HOT

Karen — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:30:00 GMT

What can I say? I always loved that Cat's Cradle thing. This chair is just like a bunch of strings suspended across a frame, and yet I find it beautiful and mesmerizing.

The closeup is titillating. It's like, string porn. (Which, come to think of it, is probably one of the few untapped porn segments out there. Hmm, maybe I should go buy some urls now.)

But back to the chair: gorgeous, creative, fabulous, and I want one.

[chair designed by Rie Egawa and Burgess Zbryk, via DesignBoom]

Try This, It Works (And Also Only Takes Like 2 Seconds)

Karen — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:39:00 GMT

This kind of weirded me out, because it DOES work, and I don't know why. Try it. Remember, 2 seconds, 4 max.

[via ajb{log}, one of the most original blogs I have ever read, and that's saying a lot]

Pretend You're George Jetson at this Space-Age cineplex

Karen — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 07:45:00 GMT

This Polish cineplex was designed with an over-the-top space-age theme. Walking into this lobby would probably make you forget you don't actually have access (yet) to flying cars, robotic maids, or weekend trips to Venus.

The Warsaw theater complex, called Multikino Złote Tarasy (that's Golden Terrace in English) was designed by Polish designer Robert Majkut and includes a retro-futuristic red, purple, and black color scheme. It utilizes loads of specially designed LEDs to create features like this starry night sky ceiling.

Aside from the intergalactic design choices, the sound and projection equipment are state-of-the-art and as modern as you can get- but even with the best audio, who knows how good The Dark Knight will sound when it's dubbed in Polish?

[via world architecture news]

Iceberg Photos Look Like Giant Candy

Karen — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:36:00 GMT

These icebergs kind of look like giant pieces of candy! And that's pretty much all there is to say about that.

OK I guess I could also express my desire to see them in person and confess that the scientific explanation for why they look that way doesn't make a ton of sense to me.

See and read more here.

Toilet Paper In Your Glue Tube

Karen — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:39:12 GMT

I was racking my brain for a punny title for this but all I came up with is the slightly skeevy "toilet paper in your glue tube" which is a title that makes it appear that "glue tube" is like some weird early 1900s euphemism for anus.

But hark! It's actually not a euphemism, it's actually a tube of glue but instead of glue, it has toilet paper in it. It even claims to be refillable. How? And why? I don't know. I thought you knew.

[via A Rinkya Blog, where you can link to the product page and buy one of these, if you read Kanji]

Sweet Snowflake Flash Drive

Karen — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:13:00 GMT

Cina is a new online design collective from Japan, and they've just introduced six gorgeous products. I'm particularly loving this sugary snowflake-styled 4GB flash drive.

You can buy one at Cina for ¥10,000, which is around US $90.

Big Dreams About Little Things: 15 Hot Prefab Houses

Karen — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 07:59:00 GMT

Sometimes I daydream about getting one of those neat prefab homes and a nice slice of secluded beachfront property and fixin' me up a nice and easy summer home. You know, it would be so economical. So green. So now. Anyway, it's not going to happen anytime soon but things like this pictorial list of 15 really awesome prefabs are not helping to disabuse me of this fantasy.

Just for fun, let me show you what some of my top choices would be...

kithaus

sunset cabin from taylor smyth

loftcube

See the whole (sickening, dream-killing, depressingly awesome) list at cribcandy.

How To Make Your Photos Look Like Mini Models

Karen — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:49:00 GMT

Have you ever wanted to make a photo look like it's made of little mini-models? OK so I hadn't until I saw these pictures but now I TOTALLY want to.

See these here are normal photos that have been modified with a Photoshop effect called Tilt Shift. You can do this to your own pictures and play with the effect by following this handy-dandy 15 step tutorial.

And to all the nice folks out there who take the time to write stuff like this out and share it with the rest of us: YOU ROCK.

[via GeekSugar]

A Chair Made Of Paperback Books

Karen — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:39:00 GMT

This chair, which can be found in Myopic Books in Providence, RI, is made from a bunch of paperback books mounted in a metal shell.

It looks fantastic, but as for sitting in it, it would really depend on what books are in there. I mean it would feel great to rub your butt on a trashy harlequin romance (ripped bodices!) or a John Grisham (all those books are the same, man!) But I'd feel bad cracking the spines with my booty if there were, like, good books in there.

[via Make:]

New Protein Discovered, Then Named After A Pokemon Character

Karen — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:25:00 GMT

This kind of falls into the random WTF?!? category. Is it news? Is it science? Should I care? I dunno. All I know is that some Japanese scientists discovered a new protein and named it pikachurin afer the frenetic alpha-Pokemon character Pikachu.

They said it was because the protein and the 'Chu had similar qualities. Now I don't know that much about science but I really don't understand how a protein could remind you of a fictional yellow anime thingy whose power is storing electricity in his cheeks and having adorably tiny fingers.

You can read more at xorsyst but I've probably told you pretty much the gist right there.

In This Pedicure, Little Fish Eat The Dead Skin Off Your Feet

Karen — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:07:16 GMT

There's not too much more to say than the title expresses. You can now get a pedicure in which you put your feet in a bucket of water with some fish that love nothing more than the taste of the dead skin on your feet. Yummy!

The fish are toothless so somehow that's the explanation for why they can't eat your real skin/flesh (like those gnarly tooth fairies in Hellboy II that gave me nightmares - and by the way, you should only click that link if you want to have nightmares too.) Thus far this is only available in the Washington, DC area but they referenced it on Ugly Betty about a year ago so maybe NYC too? All I know is when I saw that episode I thought they were joking... I didn't realize it was a real thing. My bad.

You can see pictures of Japanese women getting their whole bodies "cleaned" by these gnarly things here, or read the full USA Today article here.

Get A Doll/Action Figure That Looks Like You

Karen — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:30:00 GMT

For $160 some lady named Cyndi will make an action figure that looks just like you. She's got loads of examples, but to be honest some look way better than others. Still, this would be a pretty sweet and surprising gift!

Check out the website here, but BEWARE: The website is pretty busy, and brings to mind a cracked out 14-year-old's MySpace page. You've been warned.

[via Neatorama]