Some Spoonflower Weekly Contest Results

So I didn't think there was a way for me to find out how I went in the Spoonflower weekly contests, unless I came in the top 10. But I've since found that information in the blog posts announcing the winners! So exciting! I didn't totally suck! (I love not totally sucking).

So first up back in August was Pencil Pals.

 

Ranked 51 out of 171 with 165 votes (the winner got 639)

Then we rush straight to the Christmas designs with Secret Present Gift Tags.

Ranked 71 out of 152 with 77 votes (the winner got 468)

Most recently (also for Christmas) was Gingerbread Gentlemen.

199th out of 207 with 44 votes (the winner got 281).

I seem to be getting worse... although the various statistical analyses that suggest themselves to me are just too much effort!

Still, realising that people who don't know me must have actually voted for my designs is quite exciting. I think I might keep an eye on the upcoming contests and try again.

Thanks to all my friends who voted and helped me with ideas and titles.

In other exciting news, someone has bought a fat quarter of pencils pals! My first fabric sale (not including my dad). Awesome.

Spoonflower contest "Sweets"

This week's Spoonflower contest is Sweets (scatter print). Feeling Christmassy, I stuck to a standard theme of Gingerbread men.

But I wanted my men to be more than just your Joe Average gingerbread man. I wanted them to be classy.

So I present to you my entry, entitled "Gingerbread Gentlemen."

You can vote in this week's contest or look at the fabric in more detail here.

Gift Tags

This week's Spoonflower contest is Gift Tags. These slightly obnoxious presents are my entry. You can go and vote this week. There's lots of great entries, and you just vote for all the ones you like (which I think is a great system).

Today is also the start of Spoonflower's 12 days of Giveaways. Apparently if you enter by following this link thing from when I entered, I get extra entries. Remember people, it's the season of giving.

Rust Monster Pillowcase

Ok so this story begins in October, which is my brother-in-law's birthday, and this year was very shortly after my wedding. So his birthday passes and I haven't gotten him anything. I was going to go a gift voucher but time passes, haven't seen him since the wedding, and since the present is now so late, a gift voucher doesn't seem to cut it.

Since I'm making soft toys, I consider that idea. I ask my sister what kind of animals or creatures he likes. She asks him, and this is the sms response I get: "He likes rust monsters and dragons and trolls and panthers." Nothing too easy to make there. Anyway I wasn't sure if he'd even like a soft toy, so Rhiannon and I discuss that too. He'd probably like one, but maybe something more practical. Eventually we hit on pillowcase. They have a lot of pillows as cushions at their place.

So I made a fabric. I went with rust monsters. For those of you who aren't massive geeks who spent their youth reading and rereading "The Monstrous Manual", this is a monster from Dungeons and Dragons. (Oh crap, I outed myself again.) Thanks to a detailed wikipedia article I found a description of all the different animals that different illustrations of the rust monster were based on, and could go back to the source to make my own version. Consequently I think it is more insect-like than many others, but I'm happy enough with it.

I did quite a few sketches then tried to draw a "cute" version, which I liked and rolled with.

I tried painting the sketch and also colouring it using GIMP. It is much easier to stay in the lines on a computer. I stuck to 3 colours then used this "burn" tool I just discovered to create darker areas, then smudged it all smooth.

Then I copied and pasted and rotated a whole bunch of them. The fabric is available for sale at my Spoonflower shop if you have someone in your life that loves rust monsters. I agree it's a niche market, but you never know :)

Then I made it into a pillowcase. Every single set of instructions on the internet seem to be for making a pillowcase with 3 different fabrics including a contrast band or something so instead I just looked at my trusty Sesame Street pillowcase and copied that. I figure, it's lasted this long, it must have something going for it.

Wrapped and ready to go! Happy super-belated birthday!

Christmas Dice Fabric

Hooray for free shipping day at Spoonflower! It motivated me to finish two new designs, and I treated myself with some other fabrics too.

Christmas polyhedral dice!

Green dice on red.

The green hasn't come out as well in my photos as it actually is. I blame the blinding hot sun of today.

And red dice on green.

The dice and the spacings are larger on the second one.

I ordered a fat quarter of both on Organic cotton sateen. Prepare for nerdy present bags this Christmas, nerdy family members!!

Both fabrics are for sale in my Spoonflower shop, which now has a banner!

School Fabrics

Spoonflower is so awesome. I have a new addiction. It is so immensely weird and cool and satisfying to see something you imagined as a genuine real life fabric.

I picked up my samples from the post office today. I'd ordered the Pencil Pals before, my Donald-in-Mathmagic-Land-inspired entry into the "School Supplies" contest, but it failed to arrive. The envelope arrived, slit open at the end with no swatch inside. I told the lovely Spoonflower people and they gave me credit for it, which was super nice. I was happy to finally see it!

One thing I'm finding it hard to get the hang of is size. I don't know how big I want my design to print. This one I did in two sizes to find out. This one might be a more useful size.

Plus my plane shapes fabric swatch came too. There's actually another column of shapes that don't fit onto the swatch - the trapezium, parallelogram and ellipse. Sometimes you just can't stop the maths stuff from being in your brain.

Also two things which I won't show you yet. One will have to wait until I get it installed and one until after the present is given. Yay! Secrets!

These 3 designs are now FOR SALE at Spoonflower. I have a "Shop" now, apparently. You should check it out, it is to be found here. I'd better get it a banner because right now it has my name hovering in a big white box!

Plane Shapes Soft Cube

Who doesn't want their kids to play with toys that teach them stuff about maths? Crazy people, maybe. So anyway I can't even remember how this idea started but I've been playing around with Spoonflower, as I mentioned before with my Pencil Pals design, and I've been working on these shapes for a while.

I designed them with the idea in mind of making a soft cube toy, and maybe later a dodecahedron (I have 12 shapes ready but only the first 6 in swatch form yet).

Excited about ordering organic cotton, I ordered them in the organic cotton knit, and then realised what a fool I was when they came! I don't know, but I'm pretty sure a real stretchy fabric won't make a nice crisp cube. So I used some iron-on interfacing that I had. Actually that has turned out pretty well because the panels have a nice soft knit feel but a solidness behind that.

On the downside though in the process of interfacing, some of the fabric stretched. The square is not so square anymore and the circle is not so circular. So next time, not knit.

Still I'm really proud of it. Time to order some more swatches and make another one. Or try the dodecahedron challenge.

Luckily since this guy is finished, I'm allowed to buy more swatches. I've set up a new self-control system - I must finish 2 craft items before I can buy resources for another. There was a period of ebay-related incidents.

Ok it isn't finished finished, but it's blog finished (fabulous expression, courtesy of Ric-Rac). The reason is that I'm thinking about getting a rattle to put inside. Although I'll have to finish two more things to buy the rattle. Darnit.

Vote for me! And maybe some other people too...

The "School Supplies" competition on Spoonflower is now open and I have entered! Very nervous about this because although I like my design, it is always scary putting something out there. I think I still have a long way to go getting my stuff to look right for fabric. Some of the others are just awesome.

You don't have to sign up to vote, and you just vote for all the designs you like which is quite fun. I've been enjoying voting in the recent competitions. So Vote Now! Please :)

Playing with Spoonflower

I've loved the idea of Spoonflower ever since I first heard of it. Getting to design your own fabrics sounds like loads of fun to me. So I recently started to have a bit of a play and ordered my first swatches last week (details of that order to come soon when I've made up the project). I'm also planning to enter a fabric in one of their weekly contests.

The contest theme is "School Supplies" and this is my intended entry. Very inspired by Donald in Mathmagic Land. I sketched a lot of different ideas first but this one flowed easily so I rolled with it.

I will be entering soon. At the moment the title is "Helpful Pencils" but I'd love some better ideas for what to call it. Or any other constructive feedback to improve it or future designs.

Entries close on August 21st and after that there will be voting for the best design. At which point I will beg for your votes :)