spring seedlings

Spring is still a long way off in my corner of the world, but this mini collection of spring seedlings has been in my head for a while.

 

In the forests of Brazil, I spotted this plant. I was in love with the collection of little circles, with the smaller little circles inside, and right away they became seed pods in my mind.

 

 I sketched and resketched my interpretation of these pods.

 



Until they finally became part of this little spring seedlings collection. I dont love the tree, but the rest of them I'm pretty happy with.

 



mistletoe



Today we headed off down the highway, christmas tree hunting. I was a bit hestitant about this. I know when I was really little my dad took us out to get a real tree, but ever since then, they've just magically appeared in my families living room, ready to be decorated.

 

Trucking through the snow, cutting a tree, and forcing it into a vehicle all sounded like a lot more effort than I normally give. But in the end, we succedded. Only a few tears were shed, and only one ornament shattered.

 

And I actually quite like her more than the "perfect" trees. I'm feeling less grinch-like already.

 



Today amidst many other christmasy things, I took a little time to make a little moose couple, under the mistletoe.

 

 

 But I actually think I like him better as a bachelor moose. Something about the lady moose is just a bit off.

 

Now onto christmas parties, and other christmas-y things.  

 

Snippets

 

I'm still here, and still busily creating. I am working on many things, but most aren't ready to be shared yet.

I thought I would share my Christmas cards. They are the same designs I sold last year at the craft fair, and in laziness this year I am using the same cards. I modified them down to a smaller rectangle instead of the larger square.

 

Some of my snowflake designs printed out and ready for wrapping up some gifts:

The snow drift I discovered at my door last weekend when I went to leave the house:

 

And some little quick digi things: 

 

calendar and fat quarter love

 

Seeing all of the gorgeous 2013 Calendars popping up online inspired me to whip one up. Realistically, we're not very good calendar people. We don't keep track of things on the calendar, but its nice to have a quick glance at a calendar now and then. So I'll hang this one up on the fridge. Love it. 

 

 

 

 

Back in October Spoonflower had a sale on fat quarters, I decided to try ordering two designs I had on hand, to see how they came out.

 I dont really love my leaf pattern, but my sister seems to, so I figured I better try it out.

This is one of my favorite patterns, and I am loving having it as a fabric. Smitten.

 

In March I had ordered some in their Heavy Cotton Twill, and I was pretty devastated with the results after I washed it. I rushed one of my fat quarters into the laundry straight away, so I could see the results. Its still drying, but it looks so much better than the heavy cotton twill.

 

 

continuation

Last night, I was a bit stumped while working at my geometric patterns, designed for bathing suit wear, so I finished up my collection at 2 patterns and called it a night.
But all night my brain was swarming with new ideas, so I was excited to get back to it this morning.
My collection has now grown to 6 patterns, and I quite like it.
The only down side is now I want these to be my real bathing suits!

falling behind

I am frantically trying to keep my head above water, and keep up with life, work, and Module 2 of ABPSD.

The class is so jammed full of information, exercises, and inspiration that you really shouldn't have to have a full time job at the same time.

The past two weeks have been all about trends, which I've been finding challenging. I am not a very trendy person, so trying to focus on and design for current trends dosn't come easily. Which means I've fallen extra behind as I struggle through lessons that seem to me like a foreign language.
But now its the weekend, and amidst life I will try to catch up.

Todays brief was to create a collection using geometric shapes, fall/winter trending colors to create a swimwear line.

I didn't have the time to create a full collection, but I wanted to stretch my legs and have a go at it, so I started a collection, with 2 bikini designs. I found it hard to use only geometric shapes and have any originality to my designs. But hopefully theres some inspiration here that I can develop on when I have some more time.

bright and merry

Expanding on my snowflake pattern, turning it into a simple little collection. 

 

 

 

let it snow

Last christmas I had so much fun making this handmade doodle snowflake wrapping paper for my dear mom. I was wishing I had time to make paper like that for everyone!

Gearing up for this christmas, I thought I would try a digital version. I doodled up my snowflakes, scanned them and cleaned them up, and added colors. And more colors. I love how it looks in pretty much every color combo!

Rio t shirt designs

I've been getting back into the swing of things and working on an assignment this week to create t-shirt designs focused on Rio and the 2016 Olympics, aimed at teenage girls.

I travelled to Brazil in September and was much inspired by Brazil, so I used a bit of that inspiration to play with my designs. Their not very olympic-y, focusing more on the city of Rio.

My favorite thing in Rio was the favelas, and I tried to incorporate them into my second pattern.

Its been one of those evenings where the hours have slipped away, and I wish I could keep going, but sleep and other commitments are dragging me away.

tangerine geo foxes

Trying to get back into the swing of things with module two of The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design.

An exercise this week was to work with the 2012 Pantone color of the year, Tangerine Tango.

I started out with some doodles of very geometric foxes, and turned them into a simple pattern.

 

Having a hard time getting into the swing of things right now. I don't know if I've just been looking at these foxes too long tonight, but all I can see is evil dracula foxes.

Struggling to try and find the time, and to capture what is in my head and turn it into something real. 

student showcase

I was quite pleased to see my pattern featured on the student showcase on Rachel Taylor's blog.

Module 2 has started this week, though I havent had any time to play along yet. The course looks absolutely wonderful, and it is doing a great job of trying to tempt me away from my commitments. This week is a busy/sad/fustrating one, though my graphic skills are still somewhat helpful.

So it was easily the best part of my day to see my pattern along with so many other beautiful designs.

And just some choice words to remember what is really important.

 



Hopefully be back soon with some module two goodness and some fun patterns!

day of the dead