This week's Spoonflower Design Challenge is "Australian Flora". Being Canadian, I wasn't that familiar with Aussie flowers (although I did visit there and stayed for quite awhile many years ago), but when I did some research of Aussie plants, I just loved the flowers of the eucalyptus. So I designed my stylized "Eucalyptus" pattern and tried it out in several different colour ways. I love all the colours, but finally decided to enter the orange/pink/green one into the challenge. Did I choose the right one? What do you think? Check out the Voting Page to see all the other designs and vote your faves! Voting ends April 23 at 3:00 EDT.

One of the things we talk alot about in The Colour Gang is, obviously, COLOUR: where and how to get inspiration for colour palettes, what colours are on-trend (or will be) and why, what colour palettes do we like to work with and are characteristic of our unique styles, and how different colour palettes can change the look of a design completely. So one of the things we love to do is try our pattern designs with different colours, for example (which do you like best?!)...

OH and I thought you might like to see some of the photos of flowers from my garden that inspired this collection!

Wallsauce is an online wall mural and photo wallpaper company and they have a new comp in association with Rise Design & Shine! The brief is to design 2 wall murals based on the theme of Nature. The designs must relate to each other and may form part of a new collection! I chose to design for kids rooms. Wallsauce will shortlist designs, and then it will be put to a public vote! Wish me luck! Here are sneak peeks of the folk-inspired designs I submitted!

The last few weeks in The Colour Gang, a members-only online community, has been all about trends and colour! It has been great reading all the trend reports generously provided to Colour Gang members by WGSN and designing to them. Here is a sneak peek of a brand new pattern collection (just the beginnings!), which I designed with one of the trends in mind. Unfortunately, I can't share the reports, but be assured they are soooo inspiring! Which do you prefer: Yellow/Green or Pink/Blue??!

Hello! I just submitted this super colourful pattern design which I call "Summer of Love" (stay tuned for more in this collection!) to this week's Spoonflower "Maximalist" Design Challenge! No one was really sure what "maximalist" really meant, but this is my interpretation: lots and lots of crazy-bright coloured florals! If you have a minute, I would love your vote (and again, thanks to all of you who have voted for my designs in the past). Click here to link directly to the voting page!

Here on Vancouver Island which is usually milder than the rest of Canada, we've had an "unusually" long winter. February 2019 was the coldest on record apparently and we actually had lots of snow (I know, I know, it's nothing compared to our Eastern provinces but everything is relative, right?)! But today it is finally feeling like the cold snap is ending. So to celebrate, I am posting one of my newest surface pattern designs. I call it "Fruitastical" and it features some ripe fruits you probably won't see anywhere because they are a bit fantastical, but it does make me think of Spring!

I decided to turn my "Geraniums" journal cover design (see my Feb 15 post) into this botanical repeat pattern. To me it looks a bit Art Nouveau which pleases me since I'm a big fan of William Morris. Funny enough, when I did the repeat with the blooms in the original Hot Pink, something was urging me to try it in Deep Red. So I did. And you know what? Although I love the Hot Pink on the journal cover design, I think I prefer the Deep Red in the repeat pattern. It really makes me think of statement wallpaper or big velvet couches...So I decided to enter the Deep Red one in next week's "Moody Florals" Design Challenge on Spoonflower. Voting is now open until March 5 2019 3:00 EST.
​VOTING TIP: There are over 800 designs to choose from, so to make it easy to find mine you can do a Page Search on the voting page. Just make sure ALL the images have loaded (by scrolling all the way to the bottom), then do a Page Search (Ctl+F on PC, Cmd+F on Mac) and search my studio name, unblink.

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!
ADDENDUM: Just wanted to let you know that this design came in #26 out of over 700 entries in this Spoonflower challenge! Thanks to everyone of you who took the time to vote! A happy result for my first Spoonflower design challenge! More to come...

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!