Ringing in the New Year with... Peace, Love + Paper Party Hats!

Peace, Love + Paper Party Hats!
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Designers were asked to celebrate their New Year traditions in this week's Design Challenge! With everything happening in the world today I thought that spreading some peace and love as my holiday tradition would be a great way to ring in the new year!

Happy New Year everyone!

Voting will open Thursday, December 17th, 2015 and stay open for two weeks instead of one (Spoonflower is skipping a contest in observance of Christmas). Please Vote Here!

Knit + Purl

Knit + Purl ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

The Spoonflower designers were asked to... 'Create a knitting-inspired design just in time for the cozy holiday season'.

A handmade 'I love you' stitched from the heart!

I was so excited to squeeze this design in this week, it was such a fun design topic! 

Voting will open Thursday, December 10th, 2015. Please VOTE HERE!

Silly Squid + Cephalopods

My first design entry in a few months after moving from Florida celebrates these fascinating undersea creatures. Cephalopods are the classification that includes the squid, nautilus, octopus and cuttlefish!

Silly Squid
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights Reserved.

 

Silly Squid + Cephalopods
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights Reserved.

Aspergillus Fumigatus
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights Reserved. 

This week Spoonflower asked designer to create a pattern using microorganisms. This is my artistic interpretation of the fungi that causes an eye infection! Weird, but true!!

It's in my purse!

'You can tell a lot about a person by what's in their purse.' Spoonflower's prompt this week was to create a pattern using the items in your purse!

It's in my purse! ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

I don't know what story is told by the items in my purse, but here it is! Of course artistic license has been applied here with the artwork on the items like the notebook, makeup bag, phone case and purse. (I drew the items with the artwork that I wish I had!)
Voting will open Thursday, July 9th, 2015 and continue until Thursday, July 16th, 2015. VOTE HERE!

Old-Time Lemonade!

This week's design... Lemonade!

'Old-Time Lemonade' ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

The Spoonflower challenge this week involves designing around the theme of fresh lemon juice, water and sugar coming together to make this delicious summer drink.

I chose to make a design with a retro feel. Vintage lemonade pitchers, lemons and their blossoms in a simple fresh palette. The chalkboard texture was added to continue the vintage feel!

Voting for this challenge starts today… Thursday, June 25th, 2015, and continues until Thursday July 2, 2015!   Please VOTE HERE!

Kitchen Power… Watercolor power tools for Spoonflower!

'kitchen power' ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Let's face it, the only power tools being used in this house are in the kitchen!

Spoonflower's design prompt this week was to create a watercolor power tools design to be previewed at the fat quarter size (21" x 18"). Voting opens on Thursday, May 28, 2015.

Please Vote Here!

'Woodshop 101' Spoonflower top 10!

Detail of 'Woodshop 101' (Spoonflower photo)
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved

'Woodshop 101' (Spoonflower photo)
 ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved

Fat Quarter bundles including my 'Woodworking 101' available at Spoonflower.com
(Spoonflower photo) ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved

Thanks for the votes… last week's design made the top ten at Spoonflower! Now available for sale in 10 different fabric choices from Kona Cotton to silks, wallpaper and gift wrap as well as fat quarter bundles!!

Woodshop 101 for Spoonflower!

High school woodshop class is the inspiration for this week's design…

Woodshop 101
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Voting will open on Thursday, May 7th. Vote Here!

Garden Border Print for Mom!

Mother's Day is just next week and this week's design is for my Mom Claire!

Claire's Garden
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

My Mom loves flowers and she taught me the names of so many when I was growing up. With eight kids, various dogs, hamsters, turtles, fish and even a rabbit, things could get a little crazy at our house. In all of the chaos, my Mom found joy in her flower arrangement on the kitchen table. (It was sometimes the only thing that she could control and it brought her to a happy place.)

As I'm writing this memories of my childhood and picking flowers with my sisters from the woods next to our house are flooding my mind. Lily of the valley grew wild along with the 'turks cap' tiger lilies and the Queen Anne's Lace was everywhere... we loved to pick them for our beautiful Mom.

My sisters and I have raised our kids with fresh flowers on our tables as a reminder that we should appreciate the little things.

Love you Mom!

In honor of Mom, Spoonflower asked it's designer's to create a floral border print design to be previewed at the one yard size (42" x 36"). This type of print could be used for skirts, dresses, aprons or even for home dec use!

Voting will open on Thursday, April 30th. Vote Here!

The Island Life for Spoonflower!

Let's head to the islands!

'The Island Life' ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

This week's design challenge at Spoonflower celebrates islands. The best part of any island adventure for me is the unusual vegetation and birds. I don't live on an island but do live in the tropical zone of Florida where I have seen the Roseate Spoonbill, Sandhill Crane, Wood Stork, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret and White Ibis right in my own backyard. It still shocks me each time I see them. My husband and I moved here from snowy New Hampshire 15 years ago with our girls and each time I see these amazing birds I get so excited. Below are photo's I've taken, most are from the pond behind my house, with the exception of the flamingo which was taken at Lion Country Safari about 30 minutes from where I live.

Sandhill Cranes

Flamingo from the
Lion Country Safari
about 30 minutes away!

Snowy Egret

White Ibis

Great Egret with
Roseate Spoonbills
in the pond behind.

Voting opened on Thursday, April 9th and continues until Thursday, April 16th!  Vote Here!

Balloon Rides for Spoonflower!

'Balloon Rides!'
©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

This week's contest was to create a flying machine-themed design! I completed a similar assignment for this theme in my Lilla Rogers Make Art That Sells e-course, I used some of the icons from that finished piece and added some new icons to complete this pattern.

Voting will open on Thursday, April 2nd. Vote Here!

Southwest Baby Fabric for Carousel Designs at Spoonflower!

'Native Southwest Baby'
 © 2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Spoonflower teamed up with Carousel Designs for their Southwest Baby Bedding Design Challenge last week! Designers were to create a southwest-inspired fabric design to be used in a baby bedding collection.
I chose to design a sophisticated geometric pattern with a soft palette that could appeal to parents for their baby boys or girls. The hand drawn elements are composed to feel like traditional native american designs on blankets and rugs. I think this pattern would be great for babies, teens or in any grown-up space!

Voting opened last Thursday, March 26, 2015, and continues until this Thursday April 2nd 2015. Vote Here!

Nana's Vintage Kitchen!

This week's design challenge at Spoonflower was to create a 'spoon-themed' design.
I started my research by opening my kitchen drawers and began sketching what I found.

Nana's Vintage Kitchen ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs

Designing my pattern with only spoons seemed a little boring so I incorporated some drawings that I originally did for MATS4A last fall of the cool gadgets that I had inherited from my Nana. (My daughter Hanna especially likes the hand-mixer).

I assembled all of my drawings in photoshop and made an organized collection of the items using only their grey outline. I felt that there were so many shapes that the color palette had to be simple. I chose the smoky blue/green color because it worked well with the grey and really made the white pop. Plus I liked it! I've learned from the MATS (Make Art That Sells) classes that I've taken from Lilla Rogers over the past year and a half that I should be designing something that I would buy!

Voting opens on Thursday, March 12th. Please Vote Here!

'Bitsy and the Unicorn Princess' - Plush pattern design for Spoonflower!

'Bitsy and the Unicorn Princess' (cut + sew toy) ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

The Challenge: Spoonflower asked their design faithful to create a cut-&-sew pattern to make a plush mythical creature toy. The sewing pattern, with instructions, was to fit on a fat quarter of linen-cotton canvas (27" x 18").
My Solution: When I researched Mythical Creatures I found a few options to explore. First was a mermaid, but I had just designed one for the counting challenge. The other natural choice… a unicorn. I researched horses for body shape and drew a few with the profile of a realistic horse but when it came down to it, my original rough sketch looked like more fun.
I did my usual process to complete my illustration:  1. rough sketches in my sketchbook  2. then photographed them with my iPad  3. drew over my sketches to clean them up in the Adobe Ideas App. (this converts them to a vector image)  4. opened the sketches in Photoshop and chose a color palette  5. assembled the icons  6. finally lay out my icons on 27x18" file with a logo and cut lines.

Bitsy 

The Unicorn Princess

Voting opened on  Thursday, February 19th and continues until Thursday morning February 26th. Please Vote Here!

'Itsy bitsy ditsy sheep' makes Spoonflower top 10!

'itsy bitsy ditsy sheep' fabric photo from Spoonflower.com
fabric design ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

To celebrate the Year of the Sheep and the Chinese New Year, Spoonflower's contest challenge last week was to design sheep fabrics using a ditsy style, or scattered, small-scale, non-directional repeat.  I entered the design below and it came in their top 10! 

Top 10 'Year of the Sheep' Fabric Bundles with my 'itsy bitsy ditsy sheep' fabric.
 (Photo from Spoonflower.com) ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved.

'itsy bitsy ditsy sheep' (8x8") ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs

Penguin Portraits for Spoonflower!

Yay penguins!
The Spoonflower guru's asked their faithful artists to design a penguin-inspired fabric to 'celebrate our feathered friends from the Southern Hemisphere'!

Penguin Portraits! ©2015 Patty Rybolt Designs. All Rights Reserved. 

This was a fun one… I did a little research on penguins and then started drawing. I had limited time for this design so I wanted to keep it simple. Sometimes it's hard to come up with a concept for a prompt but this was easy for once, I had a clear vision for this design from the start. Clean shapes that were layered using a limited palette, and of course add texture.
I typically come up with a concept and then draw about about 20 versions of each item in black and white (this gives me design options when I'm assembling my icons). I chose my palette in the photoshop phase using only 4 colors (blue, green, orange, pink) with black and white. I have found that limiting the palette helps to give the pattern a balanced look.
I designed each penguin icon, the fish background pattern, the trees and the patterned fish and opened a new file where I assembled the final pattern! Simple!

Voting starts on Thursday, January 8th and continues until the morning of January 15th, 2015! Please vote!!

'Retro Thermoses and Lunch Boxes' in Spoonflower top 10!

Thank you for voting! My 'Retro Thermoses and Lunch Boxes' design for the Thermos challenge came in the top 10! Thanks to Spoonflower for the weekly challenges...

'Retro Thermoses and Lunch Boxes' ©Patty Rybolt Designs. Photo by Spoonflower via Flickr!

'Retro Thermoses and Lunch Boxes' ©Patty Rybolt Designs. Photo by Spoonflower via Flickr!

Kittens in mittens

Spoonflower's design this week is cat-themed, again.
I'm more of a dog person myself, but here it is…

Kittens in mittens on ice!  ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. 

'Kittens in Mittens' is the theme provided so I put my kittens in mittens on skates then put them on a pond in a forrest. I don't know, where would you put them?

Voting starts on Thursday, December 4th, 2014. Please Vote!

'Ink' in Spoonflower top 10!

#3 last week… Thanks for voting!

'Ink' ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights reserved.
Photo by Spoonflower via Flicker!

'Ink' Fat quarter bundles! ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights reserved.
Photo by Spoonflower via Flicker!

'Ink' ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs.
All Rights reserved.
Photo by Spoonflower via Flicker!

Retro thermoses + lunch boxes for Spoonflower!

'Retro thermoses + lunch boxes!' ©2014 Patty Rybolt Designs. 

The challenge for this week… thermoses! 

     I decided to go with the old school thermos and lunchbox combo and did my research mostly on Pinterest. Many of the Pinterest images have copyrighted icons on them I just used the shapes as reference and added my own icons of old cars, planes and camping themes. The Polar Bear was added just because he makes me happy!

Voting starts on Thursday, November 18, 2014 , and continues until until December 3rd, 2014. Please Vote!