I just entered my "Dream" pattern design in this week's Spoonflower "Bohemian Paradise" design challenge! If you have a minute, I would very much appreciate your vote (voting ends Feb 26). Maybe it might take more than a minute because you'll probably get wrapped up in all the amazing designs in the challenge. You can vote for as many as you like and don't need to have an account. Click here to go directly to the Spoonflower Challenge Voting Page!
BTW: I have been uploading a bunch of new pattern designs to My Spoonflower Shop and they should be "Available for Sale" in the next week or two on fabric, giftwrap and wallpaper, and on home decor products at Roostery.com too! Stay tuned!

MATS Bootcamp is a really fun portfolio-building course from Make Art That Sells. I decided to join up back on Cyber Monday and had to wait until February for the class to start. So, the first February assignment was to design a floral-themed journal cover featuring a specified flower, for me it was geraniums. Tell me what you think...Would you be happy writing your thoughts in this journal, I am curious?

I've been playing with my newest pattern designs the last few days, and visualizing them on pillows and fabrics! I think my Far East Collection would look gorgeous on a set of pillows; my Fanciful Collection would be great for quilters or girl's dresses; my newest tropical patterns, including my Botanical Gardens Collection, Celestun and Hibiscus, would cheer up any wardrobe or interior space, and I think my Koyasan Collection would be so calming in any room! What do you think?! Can you envision these designs on other products? Let me know!

Just out from Palphot Marketing is a brand new range of stationery sets featuring my "Coastal Stories" pattern design collection. Each set comes with 10 notelets and envelopes in a nice little package with shiny metallic details! I just received my samples and I love them! There are 4 different sets to choose from!

​Here is the start of a new pattern design collection that I am going to call "Celestun" because it was influenced by the trip I took a couple years ago to Merida in the Yucatan, Mexico. Nearby is the Celestun Biosphere Reserve where flocks of wild pink flamingos feed on shrimps that live in mangrove forests along the Ria Celestun. 

I am very pleased to announce that Marie Perkins (aka Bowie Style) of Print & Pattern has included me in her prestigious "Designers for Hire" Directory and featured me and my work on the Print & Pattern Blog today! I am honoured to be amongst some of my absolute favourite pattern design heroes, including my teacher at Make It In Design, Rachael Taylor. I invite you to read the Print & Pattern Blog Post about my work, published today on January 29 2019!

Thought I would share one of my latest pattern designs today! This month's theme in The Colour Gang, as I've mentioned in previous posts, is travel inspiration and I chose Japan as my inspiration (since I was fortunate to have visited there last summer!) So here is my "Edo" design named for the name of the ancient Japanese capital where Tokyo now stands. The temples, castles and torii gates are amazing and are part of everyday life all over Japan. I MUST go back! Although I posted them in previous posts, here also are the other two designs in this collection, "Kimono Ladies" and "Cherry Blossoms".

One thing that is great being a member of The Colour Gang is it makes you think about colour palettes and how re-colouring existing motifs can really revise an older pattern design into something fun and new! As an example, I recoloured my "Coastal Critters" motifs (originally designed as placement prints for round plates!) and used them to make some eye-catching, sea-themed repeat patterns. I did try to put all 3 creatures into a single design, but that just didn't work. I also tried using differently coloured creatures in a single design (I tried so many combos) but that didn't sit well either. Sometimes simpler is better. So I finally realized that making 3 separate designs, each with its own creature and monochromatic colour scheme (based on my Japan-inspired "Neon Nights" colour palette from a few posts ago), somehow worked the best, in my opinion! Now I love these! So here they are..."Blue Jellyfish", "Pink Squid" and "Green Octopus"! I hope they make you smile!

I think I tried a gazillion different colour combos for this one. All I knew is I liked the colour of the blue background and that I wanted some neutral-y colours too. I tried to use the Japan moodboards I had created last week (see my earlier post!), but it just didn't work for me! So here is a brand new colour palette for this one! And I guess it was influenced by 2 trips I took recently: one to London where I saw all the dressed mannequins in a show of 1930's fashion at the Textile & Fashion Museum and my summer trip to Japan! Let me know what you think of the colour palette AND whether you think it is a little "weird" looking! I also included a couple photos of the mannequins too.
AND I had to add another Japan-inspired pattern to coordinate with this one...Cherry Blossoms, of course!