Sorry for the little rant…whew! As I calm down and really reflect, I must admit part of the problem might be my pack-rattish nature. I like to keep things for possible future use and I swear they do get used…one day. For example, the jar you see above is a big glass Nutella jar. We go through at least 2-3 jars a month, so I’ve got a collection of them to hold pens, markers, pencils…and my corks. I started carving more little cork stamps because I like the texture and inconsistency of the image. Also, I happen to have a lot of corks handy! I guess you can say I’m really into reuse, especially all these Italian home items we go through…Nutella…wine. I shouldn’t complain, right? Another thing I’ve been collecting are toilet paper rolls. There have been so many crafts done with them, I figure they’ll be put to good use, one day…

On the digital front of my creative projects, I am working on a new blog justgraphic.com where I will post all my surface pattern designs. I wanted to keep them all in one place and be able to post more often with random musings, so that’s the reason for the separate blog. Not to mention I already had the domain name. Please let me know what you think and add it to your RSS readers. I just put in the first post, but will be adding a lot of patterns, waiting to be digitized.

My first experiment was setting up my big cartel shop with the cute kitchen prints you see above.  I can only list 5 products with a free account, so I suppose it’s not a long term solution.  However, I did want to try it and it is certainly very simple to add products and set up shop.  Creating these graphic art prints sort of replaced last weeks notes to myself art print, but I did get to illustrating one this week – Smile!

Again, due to listing costs I won’t be listing these prints into my Etsy shop anymore…will have to figure out a way to share them somewhere.  Although it’s nice to be part of the Etsy community, there are so many shops it doesn’t seem like listing there helps you to be seen really…you have to get people there no matter what.  In which case, isn’t it better to just list items in your website and have a Paypal button?  I wonder…

In other musings, I also created a new digital stamp set of owls and gave them funny names like big mister, chubby and wiseguy… I liked them so much, I had to use them for a repeating pattern.  Here’s a little peek of the pattern as I play around, but not done yet. What do you think?

This weather also makes me pretty lazy and groggy feeling and real work assignments are starting to pile up! However, I seem to have no issues working on creative distractions, such as the doll panel fabric design for the latest Spoonflower theme. I have seen many cute girl doll designs and matrioska doll panels, so really wanted to go in a different direction for my design.  I thought it would be nice to create something for a little boy and have been tending towards eyes closed, mouth open type of faces.  I designed a singing doll boy, winter themed and although it is compact enough to be cut to exact shape, I added the snowflake background so I can make a doll/pillow.  What do you think? Bit blurry in this graphics but you can also see it within the spoonflower designs.

I still have to learn a bit more regarding colors printed on fabric, because many times the swatches arrive looking quite different from the intended design colors.  Either way it is exciting to be able to create your own fabric designs and get them printed.  I will be testing this design out and making little pillows for a plushie show this December as well.  BTW, did you know Spoonflower now allows you to buy fabric direct from their website?  A whole new world of fabric designs, so cool.  I just put up my birdies pattern for sale here.

I always find it somewhat calming and relaxing to tackle a small task.  One step at a time, right?  So here are my happy germs…a random pattern swatch!

I am loving the creation of repeating of patterns and experimenting with variations. For this rooftop pattern, I keep tinkering with the sizes and window placements.  I know it’s been done before, but still fun to do your own.  Maybe I can print some fabric from this as well!  Here are a bunch of color variations I created. What do you think?

Infinite possibilities of infinite rooftops! This pattern is also my last minute entry for Illustration Friday – infinite theme. I’ve been busy and distracted with so many other things this week, but it’s nice to stop and just do something else – not on my list of to do’s!

I’ve seen so many great designs and professional fabric patterns from independent designers, it’s really fantastic that so many people have been empowered. There’s also a great community as well – designers who are all passionate about textile design. Very cool stuff! The internet has given all of us the possibility of communicating worldwide and now there are companies popping up to help with business and manufacturing – Spoonflower, Etsy, Lulu, Blurb…to name a few. I wonder what other innovations will pop up via the internet for independent designers and artists? It’s definitely a fast changing world out there and supremely exciting!

After creating my birdie pattern and realizing it would make great fabric for PJs, I signed up with Spoonflower and ordered a swatch to see how the colors will turn out.  It’s so exciting to be able to have such power of creation upon my hands…woohoo!  Also, there was a special theme presented for competition on Spoonflower, a fabric design with spoon and flower design(s) incorporated somehow.  I decided to take part and created a spoonflower bud pattern.  A simple repeating design with bright colors that I think would make a nice tablecloth or napkins! What do you think?

Being online for a large part of the day, I must also mention the many blogs out there that inspire with words and photos. You can see my blogroll on the sidebar, but there are many more in my trusty RSS reader.  I’m always excited to see what others are up to and I think we fuel each other with our creativity. I also follow theme websites such as Illustration Friday and Inspire Me Thursday. They offer a weekly word or phrase to be interpreted in any way you see fit. There’s also Creative Every Day and Monday Art Day…what blogs and theme websites do you find inspiring?

All this inspiration can sometimes feel like information overload.  Thankfully, we all have that trusty tool called a sketchbook.  I have always found myself jotting down lists of ideas.  Very stream of consciousness and seemingly random as my mind leaps around a lot. Unfortunately, inspiration isn’t executed upon all the time, maybe just a few here and there are followed through to the end. In reflecting on this, I realize that I’m an idea person. I just love brainstorming most of all. No limits, no boundaries, just spout out anything and everything.

I thought it was such a shame that my lists of ideas usually get left behind and forgotten. I’m already on to the next idea after all. But wouldn’t it be better if I shared my lists? No worries on how silly some might seem…I would rather give it a chance – for the possibility of promoting some creativity somewhere.  I offer it all with no strings attached because it seems better that an idea can be nurtured rather than lost forever – effectively unused potential.  Think of all the amazing things that could be created if the right idea was matched with the right person to execute it? It makes me happy just thinking about sharing ideas, so moving forward I will do just that along with posting the one idea I personally do follow through with. So here goes…

In Good Company is the theme this week at Inspire Me Thursday and honestly the first thing that came to mind was the movie, In Good Company.  (Duh!) But from there my stream of consciousness went on…

• your hands gripped together, like in the movie during the speech by the big boss, good graphic poster
• something about people, family and friends together
• I like hugging, snuggling – even with your pets, kawaii!
• drinking wine and hanging out – the wine glass and bottle make me think of merry jolly times
• anything together especially in cold weather, seems like a good time to snuggle
• thinking of warm colors – tans, browns – earth colors – in the midst of the cold white snow
• roasting chestnuts over the fire, even smores over campfire
• camping, always good company around you, cozy
• animals in their burrows, very cozy together – babies with mommy in burrow smushed up together
• baby sleeping with teddy bear or hugging blankie or sibling babies cuddling
• babies in yin yang formation
• idea of fitting together perfectly
• ultimately the feeling of comfort, security and love with something else = in good company
• the holidays come to mind, xmas especially

I could go on, but I stopped on something I wanted to illustrate, fluffy birds snuggling together on a cold winter day!  I decided to make it a repeating tile because patterns are just so darn cool.

Cute little pairs of birdies looking cozy for you.  I hope you feel in good company on my blog, because I do appreciate your visits and comments.  Thanks for sticking around on this amazingly long blog post.  Ciao ciao!

After the patterns, I decided to get off the computer and do some painting.  I finished painting the white ceramic turtle I bought in a local pottery shop in Greece way back in June! Finally!

I also thought of an embroidery design for a dress with a hole in it (behind one of those cream felt leaves) – courtesy of Romeo’s giant paw, our resident feisty Labrador who likes to jump all over me.  Sticking on some type of applique or embroidery can help to salvage clothing with tiny holes or blemishes.

Then I finished off the entire afternoon painting the first few pieces of my Super Babies series for a future show at Monkeyhouse.  My hand was cramping up by dinnertime as these are small 4 inch by 4 inch pieces, but it was sweet pain because I love these little superheroes so much!

I’m thinking of doing some little baby girls to add to the series and diversify.  I went to bed last night with a million other ideas swirling in my head and wishing I could hurry up and wake up already.  I hope you can have a fabulous and productive day as I have…create, enjoy and be happy!

It turns out that the inspiration this week on the Inspire Me Thursday website happens to be the word pear!  Not to mention our family has been munching away on a basket of tiny pears – even our turtles ate some of them.  Then I was browsing on iTunes and instead of reading “Pearl Jam” I only saw the word pear and stopped.  So I guess this Thursday is a celebration for all the pear coincidences and appearances around me lately.  I decided to create a little kawaii pear design pattern.  I actually created this yesterday (Thursday, Italian time) but had to wait until the next morning when I could get a picture of my mug in use above!

I love adding faces on things at the moment.  Just adding that bit of emotion and expression makes me happy to see the pattern.  I like how cute and ready to eat they turned out, maybe I should add some horror-filled faces!  I’m thinking of doing more with this pattern and creating some paper goods as well…any ideas or requests?  BTW, have a fabulous Friday and lovely weekend!  Woohoo!