My Entry In This Week's Spoonflower "Quirky Amphibians" Design Challenge Sure Has Big Feet!11/4/2021 When one of my sons was much younger, small creatures used to just present themselves to him. Once, he found a little wounded bird sitting in a puddle of water and it allowed him to pick it up; when we lived in Hawaii, he lovingly kept a collection of carnivorous plants (I know, not creatures really, but they sure seemed like it); another time a tiny frog suddenly appeared in the sand castle he was building and just sat there looking at him. My son wanted to keep it, but I told him he had to return it to the nearby pond which he very reluctantly did. So my "Fun Froggy with Big Feet" design (below first pic) brings back those memories to me! I often think back to that little frog and my son (maybe because he's off at uni now!)... I've entered this cute guy in this week's Spoonflower "Quirky Amphibians" Design Challenge...I think he's kinda quirky! Voting is open until Nov 9 2021. Would love your vote! Check out the Voting Page HERE. Oh, and although I've entered my "Fun Froggy with Big Feet" design, I couldn't help creating a cute coordinate pattern to go with it! So here is my "Fun Tadpoles" design too! After all, where there are FROGGIES, there must be TADPOLES!! Both these co-ordinating designs are now available in my SPOONFLOWER SHOP on Fabrics, Wallpaper and Home Decor in 3 sizes (or click the images below to go directly to them in my Spoonflower Shop!
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I've adapted my "Two Moths" design for this week's Spoonflower "Indoor Garden Wall Hangings" Design Challenge. AND I couldn't help but also add my coordinating "Butterfly Landing" design to my Spoonflower Shop too (see below). Both together might just make the perfect Tea Towel or Wall Hanging GIFT SET! Check out my "Two Moths" design and the Voting Page too!
This Week's Spoonflower Design Challenge: "Take A Hike" (One of My Favourite Things To Do)!6/24/2021 This week's Spoonflower Design Challenge is "Take a Hike". Hiking is one of my favourite things to do (I live on the West Coast after all!) So I thought my "Land of Plenty" design would be perfect since I designed it to celebrate our natural world. I entered the brightly-coloured version, but it also comes in a lighter pastel version (see below!) and in Tiny-, Small- and Large-Scale versions too! If you would like to check out the entries this week, head to the Voting Page! Public voting ends June 29 2021! AND you can also check out my Spoonflower Shop while you're there! SALE ALERT! Spoonflower's BUY MORE SAVE MORE Sale is still on until tomorrow Friday June 25! You can get up to 20% OFF of Fabric, Wallpaper and Home Decor!
How could I not enter this challenge? As a very proud Canadian who lives on the beautiful West Coast on Vancouver Island, I decided to revise one of my very first fave designs inspired by the Salish Sea, the system of coastal waterways that surround where I live and which is home to all kinds of amazing-looking fish, including many varieties of rockfish (such as Quillback and Tiger Rockfish) and flounder. Did you know that baby flounders have eyes on either side of their heads like most other fish, but as they mature one eye migrates to the other side so adult flounder have both eyes on one side? Weird, eh? Check out all the entries at this week's Voting Page!  “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! 
My son saw my brand new butterfly pattern and said it was "trippy"! What do you think, is it trippy? Maybe not trippy enough??! I think I will call this one "Free Spirits", a nod to the free-spirited optimism of the psychedelic 60s! Let me know what you think! This design is now available to license and if you are interested to license it for your products, just contact me!  Just Entered My "Tiger's Eye" Design in this Week's Spoonflower "Feline Frenzy" Design Challenge!8/1/2019 I just entered my "Tiger's Eye" pattern design in this week's Spoonflower "Feline Frenzy" Design Challenge! Don't look her (or him?) directly in the eyes! This beautiful creature is available to license! Check out the Voting Page and vote for all your favourite designs or link to this design in my Spoonflower Shop. It's not yet for sale, but if it places in the Top 50 it will be available next week!   The Doc Cotton Marketplace is now LIVE! Doc Cotton is a London-based company offering 100% organic and ethically made-in-the-UK (in Peckham, London, specifically!) clothing and tote bags featuring unique pattern designs by independent designers...including me! All garments are made to order. I invite you to check out my brand new Doc Cotton Shop which features a curated selection of gorgeously-printed products. I hope to be adding more in the coming months...so check back often! AND a SPECIAL OFFER: the first 5 customers that buy from my Shop using the discount code "unblink10" will get 10% off their order!    I just started a brand new pattern design course from Victoria Johnson Create Explore called "Create Collections" and have been developing colour palettes and drawing new motifs (butterflies, moths and florals so far!) and thinking about how different types of patterns co-ordinate to make a larger pattern collection. Sometimes it really helps to have someone guide you through their process which really makes you think more deeply about your own design process. So, I started with these two placement prints. I might adjust the colours a bit as I get more into the collection, so stay tuned for more to come! Repeats!
I just entered my "Butterfly Breeze" design in this week's Spoonflower "Pollinators" Design Challenge...Although not as effective as bees, butterflies are still very good pollinators! Check out the Voting Page to see all the amazing entries!  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!    This week's brief in Folio Focus 2018 was to create some fun farmyard characters...So here is my "FAMILY FARM" collection of pattern designs featuring affectionate roosters, hens and cute little chicks! I can see these guys on some fun kitchen linens, stationery or childrens wear! Contact me if you would like to license these designs! To see all my newest pattern designs, I also invite you to check out my IG at: https://www.instagram.com !  Working with some new colour palettes I created while doing a creative exercise in the Colour Gang yesterday, I created this new UNICORN design with a couple of coordinates! This mini-collection is available to license!  Someone commented that they thought my "Snake Eyes" pattern and coordinate (in that Pop Brights Retro colour palette) would look great on notebooks, so here they are on a journal set! What do you think? BTW: I couldn't resist trying out my "Chirp Chirp" pattern design on a journal set as well!   Had a great time with the two Retro Colour Palettes from last week's Colour Gang creative challenge...Earthy and Pop Brights! Here is a new pattern I am going to call "Chirp Chirp" (with coordinates). Please do tell me which one you like best! I'm on the fence with this one!   |
AuthorJackie Tahara of UnBlink Studio Archives
June 2025
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All images on this website are Copyright © Jackie Tahara. All rights reserved.
If sharing, pinning or blogging my images, please always credit me and link back to my website. Supporting artists is a good thing to do! Thank you!
If sharing, pinning or blogging my images, please always credit me and link back to my website. Supporting artists is a good thing to do! Thank you!