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!

Many of you have seen my “Floating World” pattern design before and asked if it was available on fabric, so I decided to enter it in this week’s Spoonflower “Vintage Kitsch” Design Challenge (one of my favourite themes so far I think!) If it is voted into the Top 50 it will be immediately available to purchase on fabric and lots of other products next week (see below), but even if not it will still become available but will just take a bit longer. If you would like to check out all the fun designs this week, you can link to the Voting Page here...Groovy! And check out my Spoonflower Shop here if you like!

If you walked into a candy store, could you resist these chocolate bars wrapped in my Mexican-inspired “Bougainvillea”, “Sayulita” and “La Lancha” pattern designs??! Not me!!
Maybe they would have flavours like Mexican hot chocolate or cacao bean...These designs are available to license now, and not just for packaging! Contact me for more info!

Sometimes I have patterns that I love but feel the need to "revisit" by either changing some of the layouts of the motifs or maybe, just going wild with a re-colour! My folk-inspired "El Campo" Collection is a wonderful example of this! I re-arranged the motifs in two of the patterns and gave it a completely new, bright and happy colour palette. I would love to know what you think of this collection now!

My submission to this week’s Spoonflower Design Challenge “Bird’s Eye View”! I wanted to make it completely abstract and have a bit of a terrazzo feel. I was imagining a suburban-scape in a warmer climate (thus all the swimming pools!) Check out all the entries and cast your vote at the Voting Page!

The next Design Challenge in the They Draw & Cook's Handpicked series is "Birthday Bash" and will be curated by Ceci Butler, Owner and Creative Director of Design House Greetings. I couldn't resist...I had to submit my "After Hours" repeat pattern which I recently re-coloured with these festive, summery colours! I thought it would be perfect for celebrating someone's birthday, right?! You can see my submission on the They Draw & Cook website here!

This months creative challenge in The Colour Gang is "Indigo"! So I couldn’t resist re-colouring my “Handprints” Collection in various shades of blue! Check out how different it looks in both the original colours (on the right, below) and in beautiful blue (on the left). I think blue is my fave, which do you prefer?

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!

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".

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!

I just received Issue #40 of Uppercase Magazine in the mail and am happy to see my submission for the cover contest was included on page 37! Have a look at this wonderful magazine (one of my favourites) and all the wonderful submissions. Thanks to Janine Vangool for including it!
Oh and BTW: due to many inquiries, I decided to turn this cover illustration into a really fun repeat pattern which you can now purchase on all kinds of fun products, including totes, t-shirts, furniture and more. Check it out in my Society 6 shop!