Woodland Woodchucks win Contest

To my delight, my design Woodland Woodchucks won first place in Spoonflower’s groundhog contest, making this my sixth #1 win! I feel flattered and grateful that it was so well received – a big thank you to anyone who liked it enough to include it in their votes! I made a small collection with some patterns in many colours matching the main design, some of which are shown below.

I’d like to point out that groundhogs vary in their fur colours and patterns. Some have white markings on their chest, many do not. Some groundhogs have lots of light mixed with darker fur. I drew little triangles and dots on their tails to imply this trait and the texture of fur. According to Wikipedia, “Despite their heavy-bodied appearance, groundhogs are accomplished swimmers and occasionally climb trees when escaping predators or when they want to survey their surroundings.” Last but not least, of course I took the liberty to stylize the animals, as I did with everything else, consistent with my style.

These are photos of the fabric taken by Spoonflower:

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Woodland Woodchucks – a spring design

Where I live, it’s the middle of winter with temperatures in the minus range, short days and not much colour around. It may not be surprising then that for this week’s Spoonflower contest theme (groundhogs), I drew a cheerful spring scene in a bright palette in my usual graphic stylized way. It features groundhogs (also known as woodchucks, a name I prefer) and various other animals. The design has a forest environment but also hints at grain fields, an aerial view of woods and a swan pond. There are daffodils and lilies, seedlings and grasses, clouds, rain and rainbows. The fox is chasing a groundhog up a tree (foxes are their predators), one is flying a kite in stormy spring weather, two are emerging from their dens, and there are babies around as well. Each icons has a paper texture look to it.

If you’d like to vote for my groundhog scene this week, please click on the image; it will take you to the contest. Thank you!

Fruit & Mushroom Count on Etsy

Today I received a message from a Spoonflower customer of mine, Jenelle Botts, who had recently purchased yardage of my ‘Fruit & Mushroom Count’ design. She kindly sent me a link to her Etsy shop Spools & Drool, to a page with a baby blanket she made with that fabric. I’m so pleased with this lovely blanket – you can view the listing here (click image). Thank you, Jenelle!

Antarctica Collection

Last week I made some coordinates for my “SOS Antarctica” design which I never introduced here. I made several colourways of the stylized sky/water, as well as two chevrons and scattered florals. These designs are now for sale (clicking the image will lead you there).

#1 for SOS Antarctica

I am delighted that my most recent design “SOS Antarctica” (see previous post) made it to #1 in Spoonflower’s penguin contest! I’ve been very lucky in the past few months in placing in the top 10 most weeks, but placing first remains an unexpected treat. Thank you to anyone who included my designs in their votes! Here are Spoonflower’s photos of the fabric:

You can view all contest entries and their vote tallies here: http://blog.spoonflower.com/2015/01/announcing-the-top-10-penguin-fabrics.html

My 50th-Contest Anniversary Design: SOS Antarctica

I can hardly believe it but it’s true: yesterday, I entered my 50th Spoonflower contest, theme “Penguins”. Ever since coming across Spoonflower, I’ve been entering their contests almost every week, and to this date I still haven’t come across one I like more. One thing that is very important to me when entering design contests is retaining the rights to my design. Except for certain contests like Fabric8, Spoonflower only obtains the non-exclusive right to print the design on fabric, gift wrap or wallpaper, for which the designer receives a 10% commission. Most design contests I have seen require entrants to give up all rights when winning (even excluding personal use), often even when entering a contest without winning. I like to hold on to my designs in order to be able to submit them to companies for potential licensing.

Here is my penguin design, a carefully researched variety of Antarctic flora and fauna: penguins, albatrosses, snow petrels, blue whales, collosal squids, leopard seals, icefish, krill, algae, hair grass & pearlwort. I was happy to see that there are at least two flowering plants at home in the antarctic, lending themselves well to this design – I drew them, stylized of course, from different perspectives.

Happy Birthday with Mice & Society 6 Promotion

Society 6 is having a free shipping promotion until January 11 – if you click here, you will get to my shop in promotion mode.

I have added a new birthday card design for this occasion: vintage-inspired mice serving cake and candy with hand-lettered text:

 

 

Elementary Math Collection & Fabric Image

Math has never been my favourite school subject (actually, that’s an understatement!) but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to enter this week’s math contest at Spoonflower. I felt the urge to draw a math design that was full of colour and icons that might appeal to children in particular. In the top left, you see my entry for the contest, Elementary Math Lesson. The other designs are coordinates: an abacus, numbers and fruits/mushrooms as a counting tool – I have put them all on Spoonflower as repeat patterns. There are various matching chevrons I made as well.

Since this design placed #4 in this week’s contest, here is Spoonflower’s fabric image – thank you so much to all who voted!

Nutcracker Cheater Quilt: fabric images

My Nutcracker Cheater Quilt design made it into the top 10 in last week’s nutcracker contest! It was based on my Nutcracker Winter Forest design but completely rearranged into a geometric cheater quilt layout with linen texture and contains additional icons, including a rocking horse and castle towers. Thank you to all who included my design in their votes! This design is available for sale on fabric, gift wrap and wallpaper (click on photos).