​For this week’s Spoonflower “Off the Wall Toile” Design Challenge I thought my “Edo” design would be perfect! And it made me nostalgic for the family trip we took to Japan in 2018...what a different world we live in now.
If you want to see all the entries, check out the Voting Page!

Did you know that pineconefish (aka pineapplefish) have light-producing organs on each side of their head, called photophores, that produce a symbiotic bacteria that makes light visible? I didn’t until I started doing a little research for this week’s Spoonflower “Bioluminescence” Design Challenge. So here is my “Pinecone Fish” design entry . Do you think they look like pine cones (or pineapples)? Check out all the entries at the Voting Page!

For this week's Spoonflower "East Fork" Design Challenge, Spoonflower paired with gorgeous ceramic maker East Fork Pottery. The challenge was to create a pattern design using at least one of East Fork's new collection colours Malibu and Tequila Sunrise (I used both)! Here is my "Tami" pattern design, one of a series of new mid-century-modern-influenced (!) designs named for popular girls names of the 50s and 60s. This one is now available in my Spoonflower Shop. And you can vote in the Design Challenge at the Voting Page!

The idea behind this week’s Spoonflower “Pastel Cafe” Design Challenge is to “evoke the aesthetics and atmosphere of a typical Italian or French cafe one might find in the 1950s and ‘60s”! So here is my “Party Time!” entry! What do you think? Does it make you imagine Audrey Hepburn having a romantic birthday luncheon (with martinis, of course)?! Check out the Voting Page to see all the entries! It is also available for sale now in my Spoonflower Shop!

“GO BANANAS!” This is what I named my entry for this week’s Spoonflower “Line Art Safari Wallpaper” Design Challenge!
And I hope you’re not literally going bananas after a month of staying home...
If you would like to see all the entries, check out the Voting Page!
And this fun design is now available to purchase in my Spoonflower Shop on all kinds of fabrics, wallpaper and home decor!

Skillshare (as you probably know) is an online learning community with thousands of classes for creative and curious people (like you and me!) I have a Skillshare Premium Membership and have learned so many useful skills from top teachers. I also save lots of amazing-looking classes “to do later”, “when I have more time”…
Well, yesterday I just decided I to start working through my loooong Saved Classes list and chose Cat Coquillette’s “Design Top-Selling Product Mockups with Your Art” Class.
Here is my wallpaper class project with my brand new “Mod Floral” pattern design on wallpaper! EVEN BETTER, this class comes with 10 FREE MOCKUPS (including this one, all worth $155!) created by Creatsy! REALLY!
If you want to access some new learning during this time of self-isolation, I highly recommend Skillshare! If you sign up using MY LINK you can get 2 FREE MONTHS of Skillshare Premium (free mockups anyone?!)…If you do sign up for a Skillshare Premium Membership I will also get a free month too, yay! Happy getting lost in learning, new ideas and inspiration!!

If you have a minute today, check out today's Spoonflower Blog (April 12 2020) where I've been featured along with 7 other artists in their "Spoonflower Spotlight: 8 Artists to Keep an Eye on This Month" Post! Check out the Blog Post to read some fun facts about all of us! Thanks so much to Spoonflower for including me in this Spotlight!

One of our favourite family recipes of all time is “Pasta Con Mollica di Pane” (or Pasta with Bread Crumbs). It’s a quick, easy, uncomplicated pasta sauce recipe with tomatoes, anchovies, garlic and parsley, sprinkled with toasted breadcrumbs and it is YUMMY! We make it all the time! I originally created an illustrated recipe for this dish and posted it to the They Draw and Cook website where it was noticed and found its way into a 2020 They Draw and Cook Wall Calendar published by Amber Lotus Publishing! I also turned the illustration into this repeat pattern and entered it in this week’s Spoonflower “Noodle Bowl” Design Challenge (I think it makes fun sheets!) Check out the Voting Page here (voting ends April 14) to see all the entries!
HINT: If you want to make this dish yourself (I suggest you do!), check out the illustrated recipe in my Portfolio or at my Illustrator Page on the They Draw and Cook website!

The Nugget Play Couch created by nuggetcomfort.com is a kid’s play couch that is “Part-furniture, part-toy, and all-around the best thing to happen to playtime since, well, ever!" Sounds like my kinda furniture! This week Nugget partnered with Spoonflower for this week’s “Nugget Couch" Design Challenge: to create a pattern to be used on a limited-edition Nugget to come out later this year. Some of the design elements they requested: colour-blocking, non-directional, bright colours (max 8), geometric, fitting into multiple room styles, design for stylish parents who might lean to minimalist style. And also remembering when my kids were younger we read endless books about shapes, sizes and colours, and played with building toys endlessly (I think we had every building toy out there), plus keeping older kids and "stylish” parents in mind, here is my entry which I call, not surprisingly, "Shapes Sizes Colours” (which I also quite like on bedding, pillows, table linens and wallpaper too!) This challenge is a FUN one, so I would be grateful for your VOTE on this one! Have a look at all the entries at the Voting Page!

Hey, I just noticed that I have been featured on the wonderful and world-renowned Print & Pattern Blog (March 2 2020)! The post features my newest "Snake in the Grass" and "Flat Lay Florals" Collections and talks a bit about me and these new designs. I invite you to check out the POST! With thanks to Marie Perkins!

...And now for something completely different...The idea for this week’s Spoonflower “Pine and Mint Throw Pillows” Design Challenge is to use just the two colours of Pine and Mint (plus black and white) to create a design suitable for throw pillows! Here is my entry called “Sweet Pea”! I originally designed this pattern design in other colours but thought pine and mint would work really well! If you would like to see all the entries, follow this Link to the Voting Page!
ADDENDUM! This design won 66th out of 858 entries and as a result, it is immediately available for sale in my Spoonflower Shop on fabric, home decor, wallpaper and more!

So thankful to everyone who voted for my “Spring Ditsy” pattern design in the Spoonflower “Micro Modern Quilt” Design Challenge! The support is always so appreciated, inspiring and motivating! Because it won, it is now immediately available in my SPOONFLOWER SHOP! If you've had your eye on it for your projects now is a good time to buy because there is FREE SHIPPING until tomorrow Friday March 6 2020! Check out the Spoonflower Blog Post about the winning designs!
All the best, and once again, thank you for your support!

It’s National Quilting Day on March 21 so in honour of that here is my entry for this week’s Spoonflower “Micro Modern Quilt” Design Challenge! The idea this week was to design a small-scale, non-directional ditsy print perfect for piecing together into a quilt top...A little insight into my design process: I started out with a more complicated design, but it just didn’t satisfy me, it was too busy, so I just kept paring it back, streamlining elements until it looked “just right” (at least to me!) I call this one “Spring Ditsy” (shown here with a coordinate called "Spring Dotsy"!)
I wonder...Do you work more intuitively or do you pretty much know where a design is going when you start?
If you would like to see this week’s challenge entries, check out the Voting Page!