One of my favorite outdoor leisure activities is to potter around my garden and the fruits of my labors are often inspiration for my designs as I shared with you last week. Tropical Surrealism Challenge

So this week for the Sports and Leisure design challenge I designed a pattern with thoughts of cultivating a flower garden – I love Gardening

Just imagine it on a throw pillow on a garden bench.

Voting starts July 30th

Update

Yay got a top 10 placement, rolling in at 7/484 with 222 votes!

My “I Love Gardening” pattern is available in two different sizes, a 12″ repeat and and a 4″ repeat, perfect for making face masks.

I am not a big fan of surrealism and there is nothing like a prompt outside of your comfort zone to push your design skills. I really wracked my brains this week on what to create for the Tropical Surrealism Wallpaper challenge and my epiphany came while wandering barefoot around my garden with my iphone, snapping photos of the flowers I have managed to grow this year.

My day lilies were looking rather fabulous and the Pistil part of the flower conjured up images of a hand reaching out from the petals.

My surreal concept was born!

I ended up creating two colorways and as usual had a dilemma over which one to enter.

Voting starts July 23rd

I love to be next to water, whether it is a babbling brook, dipping my toes into the freezing lake Michigan here in Chicago or simply watching the waves roll in on the coast.

Even better is to be “on” the water, and for my “Day at the Lake” I turned to simple white rowing boats and lily pads. Row, Row, Row your Boat. I can almost hear the gentle splashes and drips from those oars.

The design is perfect for a laid back lake house …from placemats to bedding

Voting starts on Thursday 16th July

Update

Wow this is the sixth week in a row I have placed high enough to earn an automatic proof! This week I came in at #21 out of 615 entries and got 201 votes, thanks everyone who took the time to scroll though all those designs a pick my “little o design” as worthy of a vote!

I came up with two design for this weeks Spoonflower design challenge, Colorful Reptiles.

My first intertwined chameleons, geckos and snakes and I called it lizard licking (!)

and my second I went for a lizard skin texture.

I dilly dallied about which one to enter and turned to the Spoonflower Fan Facebook group for a bit of good old fashioned honest critique. The skin came out as the winner so in it went. I have a feeling the design is going to bomb but there we go!

Prove me wrong and go and vote!

Update

I seem to be on a roll with these design challenges as this is the fifth week in a row I have placed high enough to earn an automatic proof of my design!

I came in at 51/657 and got 164 votes. Thanks so much if you voted, I am in a happy mood for the rest of the day now!

I have a selection of beautiful blue glass bottles filled with sumptuous essential oils and these were the inspiration for my entry into this weeks Spoonflower’s design challenge, Aromatherapy.

I ended up producing two version of my design, a light one and a dark one which I selected to enters. It was a last minute switcharoo so hopefully I picked the best one!

There are literally loads of different essential oils used in aromatherapy but I chose lavender, rose and eucalyptus to feature in my pattern. My seamless design “Smell those Aromatherapy Oils” features a soft soothing color palette and plays with transparency. It’s a shame it isn’t scratch and sniff!

It looks lovely as a pillow

Voting starts on July 2 .. yikes are we into July already.

Update!

Hooray my design placed coming in at 36/684 and receiving 159 votes.

This weeks Spoonflower challenge prompt is Ice Cream Trucks and I ummed and ahhed about what to create.

As a kid I always bought blue raspberry lollies and that was the inspiration behind my first design.

and although I love it it didn’t really shout “Ice Cream Truck” so I went a more obvious route.

If you look closely you will see I actually incorporated my blue lollies as a background texture element!

The pattern is perfect for kitchen linens like placemats and looks equally happy and fun as bedding. What kid wouldn’t want to dive into and ice ceram bed?!

As always voting starts Thursday so why not sit down with something frozen and tasty and vote for I spy Ice Cream Trucks

Updates

Placed by the skin of my teeth but so grateful for all your votes. I Spy Ice cream Trucks came in at 60/629 receiving 125 votes

I created a whimsical montage of pelicans eating and catching fish for this weeks Spoonflower Challenge “Large Birds”

It would be a fun design to use for decor items in a beach house

Voting start on Thursday June 18th

Update!

My Hungry Pelicans got 45th place out of 769 designs, receiving 169 votes.

I have been playing around with tessellation recently and already have a couple of patterns accepted by Patternbank, check out Frenzy and Tessellated Dogster

So when the prompt of quiet space came up as a challenge my mind immediately went to the calming nature of positive and negative space that can be created with a beautifully tessellated shape.

I went for a soft flowing shape…no hard angles for an eye to stop abruptly at. And of course the design had to be a soft calming blue with the hint of a watercolor wash.

Presenting Tessellated Tranquility

Not sure on the reaction of this one…it may well bomb, but as always you will be a friend forever if you vote for me! – voting starts 11th June.

Update!

Tessellated Tranquility came in at 39/820 and received 141 votes you can buy it here

Sweet beavers collecting sticks to build their dams – Busy dam beavers, my entry for the Canadian Wildlife Spoonflower Challenge

I cracked open my watercolor paints for this weeks Spoonflower Design challenge – Midsummer Festival and created a hand painted design evocative of pretty floral crowns. “Meadow Floral Crowns“

Once I got going I just let my paintbrush run wild and ended up producing an entire collection of pretty summer floral patterns.

Update!

My design placed 63/739 and received 134 votes. Thank to everyone who voted

You can buy the fabric here