Category: Lastest Designs

I have moved away from the geometric approach used for the last two challenges ( here and here) and this week gone for a more literal picture look. A bit like I did for the 2020 Halloween challenge.

The prompt this week is From my Window but my Chicago garden is very bleak and lacking life at the moment. So I decided to create my ideal view, a garden path meandering down past an apple tree to a gate with rolling hills beyond. A garden gate with adventure on my doorstep. If only…

I went with a rich lively color palette.. probably because everything here is still so drab and brown! Roll on Spring.

Down the Garden Path

The design makes a fun tea towel

Creatures that are rumored to exist, Cryptozoology and the prompt for this week’s Spoonflower challenge.

I went for a monster of the deep… a Loch Monster. My design process was inspired by pixelated images that have been “captured” over the years. A good addition to my fantastic animals collection!

I was lucky enough to grow up very close to the sea and one summer I spent everyday honing my bogie board skills. Now this was the in Wales (UK) and the temperature of the sea was a bit on the YIKES side but I can still remember the thrill of catching and riding the waves.

My entry for the Boardsports challenge celebrates that thrill.

To Catch a Wave

I can see this pattern on a beautiful four poster bed in some country mansion on stunning grounds with peacocks strutting their stuff around. This week’s Spoonflower challenge is Rococo and here is my take.

Softly Goes Rococo

Update

Stunned to win this challenge, thank you for all your lovely votes XXX

There is something about old keys I find fascinating and they were my inspiration for the Talisman Challenge where the prompt this week was to design a repeat pattern with an object with magical powers to bring good luck.

This is what I rustled up Oh Lucky Keys and I have added it to my It’s My Life collection ( lets face it anything which is a bit out there ends up there!)

Lets hope My Lucky Keys unlock the secret to winning the challenge …hahahah. Gosh that is so corny I am embarrassed to have typed it!

Now I have exposed myself …. go on… humor me with a vote!

Gosh where to go with a prompt like Patchwork for this weeks Spoonflower challenge? I settled on imagining a granny with a huge bag of blue fabric scraps and how those pieces be patched together to make something beautiful. Whimsical trash to treasure if you like.

Grandmas Patchwork Bedspread

Doesn’t it make a fabulous duvet cover!

I may have potentially entered something that is going to completely bomb in the challenge… I am sure there will be lots of beautiful and intricate patterns!

The 2021 Chinese New year will celebrate the Year of the Ox and this week the Spoonflower challenge is to create a repeat design to celebrate that magnificent of bovine creature, you guessed it, the Ox.

I went with a traditional Chinese lucky color palette of red and gold with my sweet Oxen dotted among whimsical leafy elements.

Are You an OX?

It fits nicely in my Whimsical Fantastic Animal collection

I have been taking part in a doodle a day challenge on Instagram and each day drawing to a prompt. I don’t quite know how it has happened but a little cat has featured in quite a few of my doodles. I don’t own a cat and am more of a dog than cat person, but that cat must be buried somewhere in a dark crevice of my gray matter and it keeps popping out of my ipencil.

So for this week’s Spoonflower challenge I decided to further embrace all the cat doodles I have been creating and work them up into a repeat pattern for the Yellow and Gray prompt. I hate yellow and gray together but the prompt is based on the Pantone colors of the year.

My repeat pattern features a sweet white cat reading the newspaper, enjoying a dance, taking a nap, playing with yearn and getting mucky with paint.

To Be a Cat

Voting starts January 28th and oh how I LOVE your votes and so will my sweet little white kitty!

So….. I second guessed myself for my entry for the Re-imagined Damask challenge and ended up banging out another design at the last minute. ( check out my original idea) There is nothing like a time crunch to put my design skills through their paces… it actually added a fun dimension hahaha! Maybe it was fueled by a glass or two of something lovely. The Love of Wine was born!