Spoonflower weekly design contest – Rhinoceroses

There were lots of lovely, bright entries to last week’s Fishing Lure themed contest on Spoonflower.  I noticed that 2 of the designs I voted for made the top 10 this week!  This is one of them; 'Alluring Lure' by Olivia Henry.  I love the colours and watercolour style of the flies…

You can see all the designs in the top 10 here: http://www.spoonflower.com/contests/254  My entry came 71st (with 89 votes) out of 159 entries.  Thank you to everyone who voted! :)

This week’s contest has a Rhinoceroses theme.  I’ve drawn rhinos before at Colchester zoo and have several photos to use as reference, so was looking forward to creating a pattern design for this contest.  Last week I took a long time drawing the fishing flies and wasn't entirely satisfied with the end design, but work on the rhinos seemed to flow much better (and quicker) and I am happier with the finished repeat pattern!

I started by sketching rhinos and a few ideas of geometric, tribal inspired patterns.  Most of my designs have quite light backgrounds so I wanted to try a dark background for this one and decided on using a dark grey.   Often I just colour on the computer but the coloured pencils were useful in choosing a colour palette - it’s a really quick and easy way to try different colour combinations, just by holding different pencils.  I love how these colours look together too!

Here’s the finished repeat pattern…

You can see all the other rhinoceros designs here, and vote for your favourites too!  http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters_temp/new?contest_id=257

Spoonflower weekly design contest – Fishing Lures, Faux Suede and Free Shipping Offer!

Last week’s Sewing Notions themed contest had some lovely entries – you can see the top 10 here!  If you are a member of Spoonflower and vote when you are logged in, you can keep track of who you vote for.  It was interesting to see one of the designs I voted for ended up in the top 10! I came 60th out of 177 entries – thank you for everyone who voted for my design! :)

This week’s challenge has a fishing lures theme, so I was able to make use of the fishing flies I have which belonged to my Grandad.  I actually found this one quite hard to do and it took me a while to settle on how I wanted to draw the flies.  In the end I combined pen line drawings, with coloured pencil and a bit of digital work.

 

Here’s the finished repeat pattern…

Voting is still open (contests normally change over on Thursdays) – as always there are lots of lovely designs to choose from!

Vote for all your favourite Fishing Lure designs here:- http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters_temp/new?contest_id=254

While I’m on Spoonflower news I thought I would share this little swatch I had printed…

The stars pattern, made from my hand drawn stars which were coloured and arranged digitally, is printed on Spoonflower’s new Faux Suede fabric.  It’s lovely and soft, I think it would be great for making cushion covers!

Spoonflower has a great offer on today, I’m planning on taking advantage of it by ordering some swatches of new designs.  I want to use some of my fabric in a sewing project too, I’m trying to decide what to make (cushions or zip pouches maybe) and then which design to use!  (The offer ends 9am tomorrow EDT - that's 2pm for us in the UK)

If you would like to see the designs I currently have for sale, here is my Spoonflower shop address… http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/hazel_fisher_creations

July – free printable calendar

2nd of July already!  I was so busy yesterday I didn’t get a chance to do this month’s calendar, but it’s ready now.  This month I used elements which are in my Hot Air Balloon designs to create a summery design with bunting, blue sky and fluffy clouds.  It reminds me of summer fetes and fairs :)

You can download the PDF here and you can view and print the calendar with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The calendar is A4 in size, but you can scale it to fit different sized paper if you prefer.  You can print onto any type of paper you like, for best results I recommend using your printer's highest quality setting and a good quality paper.

Please note this calendar is for personal use only!  You can print it as many times as you like for your own use but you may not redistribute it in any form (digitally or printed).  You may not modify the calendar or claim it as your own.  If you would like to share the calendar on your blog, Pinterest, facebook etc please include a link back to this page (not the download link).  Thank you!  I hope you enjoy using it :)