"A Day in the Field" Fabric

I've been back at designing fabric again.  The theme for this design was to be inspired by pen and ink/watercolor drawings.  I did a larger scale than I normally do, and I really like it.  I learned some new things about Illustrator, which is always a plus.  I don't know if these flowers exist, since I made them up as I went.  I'm sure there is something that looks close to them out there somewhere?

Another thing I tried differently was the random pattern (which I have done before) with some white space in there to keep it from getting too busy.  Wouldn't this make a great over-sized tote or purse?

Important Dates Artwork

As part of my master bedroom decor, I whipped up this easy poster print.  The idea comes from A Steed's Life, but as usual I have tweaked it to my liking.  All I did was type up our family's favorite dates in Photoshop, get a 16"x20" poster printed at Walmart, and pop it in a barnwood frame.

Done!  I love using poster prints because you can get a pretty huge print for pretty cheap.  This size was only about $12.  The font used for this is a free font named Modern No. 20.  I love the personal touch this gives our room.

Sweet Scallops and Christmas Bells Fabric Swatches

Sweet Scallops (Boy)

These are the rest of the fabric swatches that I got in my last order from Spoonflower.  It's always so fun to see how my designs print up.  The scallop fabric turned out particularly well, in my opinion.  I tried two different colorways this time around, boy and girl, thinking that they would make great baby prints, but they could definitely work for older kids and other projects.

Sweet Scallops (Girl)

I also finally got a print of my Christmas Bells fabric.  It turned out as expected, which is always a good thing.  I'm not sure what to do with it, besides make a holiday quilt.

I Heard the Bells

This morning, I finished the zippered pillow I was talking about on Tuesday, so I will be able to post a new tutorial for it next week.

Houndstooth Fabric Test Swatches

I love getting mail from Spoonflower.  I designed a simple houndstooth pattern for my mom, so we could do custom colors of brown and black.  I also printed a fat quarter of the pattern large-scale on linen canvas to make either a pillow for my couch or a new wallet, or both if I am lucky.  I also tried out a few other fun color combos in small-scale.  Two of the color combos had to be tweaked, so I don't have the samples of them yet.  However, the Orange Dream version turned out really well the first time:

This is an 8"x8" test swatch on the new Kona cotton.  Love it!

This last photo is the brown/black combo in a full yard printed in the small scale.

I am really excited to get started on some projects with my new fabric!  These designs are also available to the public for order.  You can get brown/black large scale, brown/black small scale, orange/white, jade/grey, and aqua/butter.  I also got some other test swatches that I'll be showing off early next week.

New Look for 2012

 I've finished the new graphics for the blog and my Etsy shop!  If you are viewing this in a reader, pop on over and take a look.  I went with a bit simpler design this time around, and a much more subtle color scheme.  Also, I traded the pinstripes for herringbone.

There are also two new domain names that will point you here: http://design.audzipan.com and http://anthology.audzipan.com, which are sub-domains of my http://www.audzipan.com domain, which sends you to my Etsy shop.  Thanks to my brother Tom for the help with that.  Here is the matching banner I did for the shop:

I love being able to do all my own design.  I'm so glad I got the Adobe suite while I was still in school.  It's been invaluable to me over the years, although my version is getting a bit outdated.  I'm loving this new look, and getting excited about a bunch of new projects this year.  I'm right in the middle of finishing a new batch of place mats, so until they're done, I will be sewing like a machine!

I Heard the Bells Christmas Fabric

For the small-print bells fabric contest at Spoonflower, I designed this Christmas fabric.  I used lyrics from the song, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day".  I am anxious to see how this prints up, since I used my color swatch fabric to choose the colors, and they seem a lot different on my screen than they did on the fabric.

I love how the banners turned out, and the holly berries.   I'm excited to see how the voting on this contest goes.  If you'd like to vote in the contest, click here and follow the link on the right to the contest.  Voting ends next Wednesday, 12/21.  There are a lot of fun entries!

A Windy Day- Kites Fabric

This colorful kite fabric is one of my most recent additions to my design library on Spoonflower.  It isn't for sale yet, since I haven't ordered a swatch yet, but I entered it in the Fabric of the Week contest last week.  I didn't make the top ten, but I was very, very close with my best finish so far- I came in lucky #13!

I am having a lot of fun learning about designing patterns, and I think I am getting a much better grasp of it.  I am very confident with designing the components of the pattern, but I still feel like I have more to learn about the overall flow of the design.  I just wish I had a little bit more time to work on my patterns.

I do have a really fun advent calendar that I have been working on over the last couple of weeks, which you'll get to see tomorrow.

Another Set of Swatches

Autumn Acorns

I love getting mail from Spoonflower!  This time around, I ordered a fat quarter of Autumn Acorns, a new test swatch of Firework Show, and an upholstery twill test of Pretty Birds (with the design scaled down to 2 inches square, 288 pixels/inch).

Firework Show

I'm not quite sure what to do with the acorns fabric.  It may have to stick around in my closet until next year.  It was fun to see what the upholstery twill is like with a design printed on it.  I can see a lot of potential for future projects there.

Pretty Birds

Note that in order to get the design this size, you will need to change the size of the design to 2 inches by 2 inches.

Pretty Birds Fabric

This is my newest fabric design.  I entered it in the weekly fabric contest on Spoonflower, with a birds theme.  The colors were restricted to black, white, and the darker blue, plus another color of your choice.  I chose the lighter blue.

I have to say, this is my favorite design to date.  I did it all in Illustrator and was very pleased with the results.  I did do some sketching first, but I didn't scan the sketches in and trace them, I just used them as a reference.  I really think this may be the method that works best for me, and it wasn't nearly as time intensive as my shark fabric, although I still like that one, too.  Which reminds me, I got the test swatch of the sharks a few days ago.  I will have to post a picture of it later this week.

Shark School Fabric

 
Hey all!  I've been busy working on a lot of little projects lately, but none of them are completely finished yet, except for this.  This fabric is a design I created to enter in Spoonflower's weekly design contest.  The theme for this week was Sharks, and the contest opens for voting this Thursday.

I put a lot of time on this one, just ask my husband.  This time around, I tried a different method than I have used on previous designs, which is usually to do some sketches by hand and then use the sketches as inspiration for computer-only drawings.  I drew everything by hand first, then scanned the drawings and basically redrew them in Photoshop.  I had to pull out my drawing tablet for this one, and I got a lot better at using it.  I like the hand-drawn feel this design has, but I'm still not sure which way I prefer yet.

On my next design, whatever it may be, I will try doing the drawings by hand, then trace them in Illustrator and see how those turn out.

So here's where I ask you a question.  What kind of fabric designs would you like to see?

First Spoonflower Test Swatches

I got an awesome bit of mail yesterday.  My first batch of test swatches from Spoonflower arrived!  I ordered tests of all the designs I have uploaded.  I changed some of the background colors on the Lions, Tigers, and Bears, which I think was a good move.  I approved three out of four of the prints for sale, so not too bad on the color from design to print.  These are the three I approved:

Lions, Tigers, and Bears Big Circles

Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

Double Scoops Ice Cream

My favorite one so far is the Lions, Tigers, and Bears Big Circles, although the other two printed really well also.  The fabric that I didn't approve for sale is the Fireworks Show:

The background didn't come out as dark as I wanted, and the pink isn't bright enough either.  All the other colors look good, so I think in the future I will just have to be more careful with the reds.  Here's what the design looks like on Spoonflower: Fireworks Show.  I ordered one last item in this batch, which I hope will help me avoid future color problems.  If you love color, prepare yourself for this.

Shabam!  A full yard of color swatches with the RGB codes for the computer!  I am totally geeking out over this.  As you may remember, I got the Spoonflower Color Guide, which has a few colors, but the Color Map is so much better, even though it costs about sixteen times more to get.  I am so excited to get cranking out more designs, I can hardly take it!  It's so amazing to see your own designs in print.

Ice Cream Fabric

Spring is having a hard time making its way to my door, so I decided to draw some double-scoop ice cream cone fabric to make it seem more like summer.  I know it's a simple design, but I really like it.  It just worked out really well for me.  I think I am getting (a little bit) better with figuring out how to get patterns to look how I picture them. 

I still feel like I have a long way to go to get to where I'd like to be, but I do feel like I'm getting better with each design.  This may be one that I get as a test swatch. . .

Spoonflower and Project Selvage

One of my secret ambitions is to be a fabric designer.  It is still sort of secret because I have only just started.  Above is my first fabric design, titled "Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!", and it is made as a baby boy print. Spoonflower is an awesome website where you can print your own fabric in any quantity.  It is a little bit more pricey than normal ($18/yd; a little bit less if you print your own designs), but when you need the perfect fabric, it is so worth it.  You can also get upholstery weight fabric, which gives me all sorts of vision for custom furniture.

I recently read a tweet about a contest on Spoonflower that was sponsored by Michael Miller.  It is called Project Selvage, and the winner gets a contract for a line of baby boy and girl fabrics with Michael Miller, plus some money and a trip to Quilt Market 2011.  I figured this would be the perfect way for me to get started on my secret ambition.  I am not expecting to win, but I figure I have to start somewhere, and everything I do builds my portfolio.

I debated sharing this before the outcome of the contest, but I was so pleased with how the print turned out that I just had to post it.  I have to order a test swatch before I can sell it on Spoonflower(gotta approve how the design looks printed), so if you would ever consider buying this, leave me a comment and let me know.  I will probably order a test just for fun, so I'll show you how it looks when I get it.

Kitchen Repaint and Hallway Coat Rack

Today's topic is home decor. Specifically, my home's decor. We recently moved into our house, and it was brand new to begin with, even though we didn't build it. Over the months, we have painted a couple of rooms, finished part of the basement, and worked at getting a sprinkler system and grass in the yard.

We recently finished a project that I have wanted to do for a couple of months. In the hallway from the kitchen to the garage, we put a coat rack along the wall. It looks so wonderful, and it really is quite useful. Here is a photo:
I can't take all the credit, though. It was my neighbor Jennifer's idea.

I am to the point that I want to paint my kitchen, but I can't decide what color. Blue? Green? Something else entirely? I feel kind of burned out on picking paint colors. Here's what it looks like (ignore the inspector guy, and imagine our stainless steel fridge):
What do you think?

Progress Report: Our First Two-Color Process

We have been diligently working on our first two-color process! The screens have been exposed and rinsed; now we just need to calibrate and print. The screens turned out really well, even with the things that I thought might get in the way. Let's review:

1. Screens were coated with 6-month-old emulsion. Recommended shelf-life for emulsion once it is mixed= 1 month.
2. Screens have been coated and sitting in the cold storage room (aka darkroom) under a fleece blanket for 4 months.
3. I usually rinse out the unexposed emulsion using the garden hose with sprayer attachment in the backyard. This set-up is great in the summer. Under a foot of snow, not so much. Turns out, the sprayer attachment on the kitchen sink works just as well, if not better!

Overall, this round of screen-making was a huge success! Everything got blown out that was supposed to, but nothing that needed to stay. I couldn't have asked for more. 100% perfect.

And here's what you have all been waiting for: what is actually on the screen. I am not going to post the artwork, but it was all completely drawn by me in Adobe Illustrator, including the text. I will, however, describe in detail the design.

Picture if you will: a shield, topped with a crown, flanked by a unicorn and a stag with a mane, with a banner beneath that reads, "allgrey 2009". The shield (or crest) includes a sword, stripes, a four-pointed star, and double-layered stripes. Whew!

Can't quite picture all that? Don't worry, I will post photos of the final product. Printing will commence tomorrow.

Wondering what "allgrey" is? Allgrey is the name of my newest product line. Targeted directly to men, we are imagining sophisticated, classic, and simple, yet cool enough to wear!

Check back tomorrow to see the finished product, and another Etsy shop spotlight on Friday.

Robot Tees

I thought for today I would share our most popular shirt, the Robot Tee. This shirt was designed and printed in-house. Currently, it is available as an unfitted adult tee (in black and brown) and a fitted women's tee(royal blue or peach). We are ready to start the photoshoot for kid's tees, which come in various colors of green and blue, ranging from size 24M to XXL in boy's. These t-shirts will hopefully be posted to our website during the week. We are also working on our first two-color process print.