Studio Update

Things have been ramping up here at CCreech Studio! The kids are back to school and my time is opening up a bit more.

As you saw from a previous post, I have been working to add more mini journals to the Etsy shop. I had a chance to get some new colors of scrap leather this week, so the process continues! Keep an eye out for more, including these in a landscape orientation:

In addition to journals, I have been getting back to my fabric designs on Spoonflower! A recent contest there on botanical sketchbook designs started the creative wheels rolling. Having just completed an international sketchbook exchange earlier this year, I had plenty of material to inspire new designs. I have created a number of botanical designs as well as some coordinates.

I am currently waiting to proof 15 of these new designs to make sure they print up properly. Once those are ready and approved, they will be available for sale as fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap. Here is a sneak peek of six:

Another collection will include designs and coordinates based on my red poppies drawing. Some of these will be for sale in this round of proofs while others will be proofed at a later date. 

And finally, I have a collection based on my small-mouth salamander drawing in various shades of blues and grays. These have yet to be proofed, but I love how they are coming together!

These designs would be fantastic for various home decorating projects, but also for scarves or other accent pieces. Spoonflower just recently brought back their Poly Crepe de Chine fabric, which works really well for scarves and more. Also, keep these in mind for gift wrapping for the upcoming holiday season! 

If you don't see something for sale or have a question about scale, just ask! I am happy to work with you to refine a design to a different scale and get it proofed and ready to order.

I will continue to work on and refine fabric designs, but will also be starting another round of the international sketchbook exchange so stay tuned for new drawings, new items in the shops and new designs! 

New Nature-Inspired Fabric/Wallpaper/Gift Wrap Designs!

After relocating homes this summer, I am finally getting back to work on my other creative outlets, including my Spoonflower fabric!  Designs are also available as wallpaper and gift wrap.

I am working on a number of new designs based on my sketchbook exchange drawings. These would be fantastic for a number of projects including tea towels, pillows, bags, and more.

Here is a preview of a some of my favorites:

 Poppies

 African Daisies on Olive

 Small-Mouth Salamander

You can keep an eye on new designs by heading to my Spoonflower page, going to the left-hand side menu and choosing Designs not for sale to see the latest. I have to proof designs by ordering a swatch before they are released for sale, so please let me know if you see anything that you like!

More Jotters! Wrapped Edges and End Papers.

These are for you, Anita! :)

My friend Anita made a comment on yesterday's jotter journal post about my edge-fraying problem. We both agreed that wrapping the edges of the fabric around the card stock would be a good solution. I wasn't sure if it was worth the time to do that and include end papers since this is such a quick project. However, I decided to try it today and it worked beautifully! It really did not take much longer to do and I think it gives a much more finished look to the journals.

So, in today's experiment, I created two new little jotters. Both were done using my Tree Stripes fabric in cotton silk. It has a lovely sheen and gives a slightly fancier look to the finished product. 

The first is about 3" x 3.5" and in addition to wrapping the fabric around the edges, I also sewed the pages in a bit differently, adding a large, decorative bead at the bottom for a little embellishment.

 

After gluing the card stock to the fabric, I trimmed the edges an prepared to glue them down. I also cut end papers to fit. What isn't shown here is that I had to trim diagonally across the corners leaving about 1/8" fabric so that when the edges were folded there wasn't too much bulk.

 

 I glued the fabric edges down using my glue stick and after they dried a bit (under some waxed paper and a heavy book), I trimmed up the little bit of extra sticking out in each corner.

 Finally, I glued down the end papers, again using my glue stick and pressing it under some waxed paper and a heavy book to dry.

 The finished product! The quarter is in the photo for scale.

The second was inspired by the work of Louise Thompson, an artist from New Zealand, who makes incredibly beautiful and often miniature leather-bound journals. Check out her sites - she has a blog as well as an Etsy shop. Her shop is under the name Bibliographica. If you enjoy bookbinding at all or miniature things, you will really love it.

Anyway, my mini jotter is just 1 1/4 " square. It was made using the same cotton silk fabric in the Tree Stripes print. 

Both journals have 32 pages of blank paper inside for little lists, notes, doodles, or thoughts. Also, the mini is very handy for my 4-year-old daughter who is using it as a book for her stuffed animals. :)

NOTE: I did both of these earlier today off and on with interruptions from the kids, drying time, etc. It really was a quick project. I can see me doing lots more of these.

My first Jotter Journal Attempt!

What do you do with your extra fabric swatches and scrap pieces?

I discovered one great way to use them - create a jotter journal! What are jotter journals, you ask? They are little notebooks, quickly made, that you can drop into your purse or work bag to jot down notes, grocery lists, to-do items, etc.

Being a list-maker myself and accumulating quite a stack of Spoonflower swatches from recent proofs, I decided this was the perfect way to use some of them up to create fun, unique little jotters.

I first came across this idea at The Creative Place, an art and craft blog by Ashley Connelly. She recently posted a wonderful tutorial on creating these so I finally gave it a try. Here is the final result!

 

 

Ashley's tutorial gives all of the step-by-step details, but I modified my project a bit according to what supplies I had on hand as well as the fact that my machine sewing skills leave a bit to be desired. My supplies included:

• Kraft cardstock - cut to approximately 6" long by 3.5" wide
• Plain white computer paper - 8 sheets cut to approximately 6" long by 3" wide
• Fabric swatch - I used a swatch of quilting weight cotton in my Orange Star blossom print. Because of the small journal, I have just enough of the swatch leftover for another jotter of this size.
• Glue stick - craft size...it's a little wider than your average glue stick. Ashley used spray adhesive.
• Waxed bookbinder's thread - about a 5-6 inches. This is for sewing the pages to the cardstock. It is what I have on hand, though you could use embroidery thread, yarn, or other decorative cord. Ashley sewed her pages in on her sewing machine.
• Heavy needle with a big eye - mine is a bookbinder's needle that I had from a kit I bought one time.
• Two bulldog clips, or other binder clips
• Scissors
• Credit card for smoothing the fabric.

I won't go into each step here, but I followed Ashley's tutorial, substituting my supplies as needed. 

  

RESULTS and TIPS: 

I found that the glue stick seemed to work just fine for adhering the fabric to the cardstock. Definitely make sure you get glue all the way to the edge of the cardstock and make it an even layer (no clumps of glue or it will bleed through the fabric.) One problem I seem to still have is a bit of thread here and there peeling away from the very edge. I'm not sure what the best fix is for that aside from folding the fabric over and gluing the edge to the inside of the jotter. But then you need to create end papers to cover the exposed fabric edge and it becomes a more involved project. Perhaps it is not a huge deal for an informal jotter like this?

The other big difference in my project was that instead of using a sewing machine to sew the pages to the cardstock, I simply cut a length of my waxed bookbinding thread, poked 6 holes, evenly spaced, in the pages and cardstock, and hand-sewed the pages in. 

I put two small knots on the outer threads to hold it in place. You could get fancy and leave a longer tail on the bottom and add a decorative bead to it if you wanted. Or, you could also sew in a little closure that wraps around the journal horizontally. The bookbinding possibilities are endless! :) But for this simple on-the-go jotter, I thought a few well-placed stitches in the center would do just fine.

I am looking forward to creating more of these little gems with other fabric that I have. I might even get crazy and put some of my good drawing paper and create an on-the-go sketch journal! Lots of great ideas brewing. Let me know if you give this project a try - I'd love to see your results!

FREE Standard Shipping for 24 Hours! Spoonflower Custom Fabric.

Check it out! Spoonflower is offering FREE standard shipping on all orders for 24 hours!

My shop offers custom fabric designs featuring my original illustrations available in 9 different types of fabric including a wonderful organic cotton sateen, new cotton silk and a limited quantity of cotton poplin. 

Take a browse through my shop to see if my designs fit any of your project needs! 

Here are just 3 of my 51 currently available designs. If you see something and would like it in a different scale (smaller print or larger), just let me know.

Happy shopping!

Fabric Fun! More on Spoonflower...

I have been having some fun on Spoonflower again :)

I am practicing creating better repeats in my patterns and have two new ones to show you:

This one features my new autumn leaf drawing. See the other leaf designs, which are in my Trees collection!

Also, I have been playing around with my graphite drawing of Orange Star blossoms and created a 'ditsy' or scattered print:

Check out the rest of the Orange Star designs!

 

More Spoonflower Proofs! Organic cotton sateen is so smooth...

Here is the latest batch of proofs from my Spoonflower fabrics. All of these are now available for purchase.  

• Maple Buds on Light Green
• Raspberry Plant on Green
• Crema Stripe
• African Daisies - Blue Stripe
• Small Bird Feathers on Blue

I chose to order all of these in the organic cotton sateen, which has a lovely glossy finish and smoothness. It would make for terrific pillows, place mats, or clothing items. Of course, all of the other fabric styles are available for these, including quilting weight, organic cotton knit, upholstery weight twill, linen cotton canvas, silk crepe de chine, cotton voile, cotton silk. NOTE: They included a small swatch of the new cotton silk and it looks dreamy! I can't wait to order some.

 

All of these are swatch size except for the maple tree buds in green (far left) which is a fat quarter. I think they all turned out rather well, and I was particularly impressed with the 'Crema' stripe (center) which was an entirely digital design. It printed up beautifully! Oooo - what a luxurious book cloth it would make!

Stay tuned next week for a few more swatches that I ordered, including a sample of my Spring Rain Daffodils and more Maple Tree Bud variations.

Need Your Vote For My Mossy Frogs! 'Ditsy' Print Contest at Spoonflower.

Spoonflower's contest this week is for small-scale, scattered prints, called 'ditsy' prints. I entered a variation of my Mossy Tree Frogs (see below). 

I would love to get a vote from you! Just go to the contest page and click on the fabrics you like. You can vote for as many as you want, so browse around and remember to click on my mossy frogs! Voting goes through next Wednesday and the winner (as well as top 10) are announced next Thursday, October 6.

Thanks!

Need Your Vote in the Bird Fabric Contest!

Spoonflower hosts a number of design contests and this week's is for a palette-limited bird design. Three colors were set by Spoonflower and a fourth color was chosen by the artist.

I altered the colors and arrangement of my Japanese Crane drawing to meet the design requirements and entered it!

Here is what it looks like:

I would love to have a vote for my design if you are so-inclined! See the 'Vote for Bird Fabrics' link at the end of this post. 

You can vote for as many fabrics as you want, so feel free to browse through all of the entries and click away at the ones you like. You can vote through next Wednesday evening and the results will appear on Thursday, September 15th. Thanks and happy bird-browsing!

Vote For Bird Fabrics

FREE Swatch Day today at Spoonflower!

Today is FREE SWATCH DAY at Spoonflower!

You can pick from any design in the Spoonflower marketplace today and order one, free swatch. Not only are there many, amazing designs to choose from, there are a number of wonderful fabrics, too, so go out, browse and order!

NOTE: I just saw that the free swatch day is between 12 noon today and 12 noon tomorrow, Aug. 19. So wait until this afternoon to order!

Enjoy!

FREE Swatch Day at Spoonflower! This Thursday, Aug. 18th

Guess what? This Thursday, Aug. 18 is Spoonflower's 3rd annual free swatch day!

Having just joined Spoonflower earlier this year, it is the first time that I have had a chance to participate in, as well as order, a free swatch.

You can find my designs at my profile here: CCreech Studio - Fabric Designs or just click the Fabric Designs on Spoonflower link in the navigation bar at the top of this page.

Even if you are not interested in one of my designs, this is a great opportunity to stop by, have a look around and see what piques your interest.

If you have any home decor or other sewing projects coming up or just want to see what it's all about, mark your calendar and get your free swatch!

P.S. I'd like to send out a big THANK YOU to the individual who purchased a fat quarter of my Japanese Crane design this past weekend. You are my first official customer! :) I hope you enjoy the fabric!

Fabric variations! Trees and Feathers.

Isn't it fun to play on the computer? I've been working on creating some variations for my fabric designs in Spoonflower.

I have created several different backgrounds for my Maple Tree Buds. I love how the buds line up in the repeat and think it would make a terrific home decor fabric for pillows, placemats or table runner, or chair cushion cover.

 

I have also been playing around with the feather illustration and created a few new variations (see different background colors in my Feathers collection):

 

 

All of these designs are not yet available for sale until proofed by me. I would love to know what you think and which you like best!

If you are interested in any of them in particular, or think another background/colorway would work better let me know! 

Working on some more fabric designs - flowers, lions. stripes, oh my!

I have been doing a little more work on my designs in Spoonflower - adding some slight variations to my botanicals can transform a pattern. For example, this new design featuring my purple cyclamen could be used in a number of ways, but I can see it as a delicate scarf!

 

Another example is my rose with buds - can you tell I like stripes?! :)

 

I also have gone back to black and white with this lion study in pen and ink. I could see this being used as-is or paired with a solid fabric for a quilt, tote bag, place mats, kitchen tea towel and more.

What colors or patterns do you like in your home or for projects?

New Fabric Swatches from Spoonflower!

I recently received my latest batch of fabric swatches from Spoonflower. I wisely read the instructions online this time and ordered the swatch sampler, which was much more reasonably priced per swatch. I can get up to 30 designs on one large sheet of quilting weight fabric. I think this one contained about 27 designs and it was around $39 total with shipping. Much better than $5.00 per swatch, individually.

  

I think they all turned out pretty nicely, with a few favorites like the purple cyclamen, the tulip and daffodil variations with different backgrounds, and the woodland peonies. I also like how some of the frog prints turned out. Ok, I really like pretty much all of these. :) Most of these are now for sale in my Spoonflower profile (I may revise the windmill prints before posting for sale...), so feel free to check them out there for a closer look! I'd love to hear what you think and am always open to suggestions for improvements, different sizes, etc.

A little closer view - loving those tulips!

The purple cyclamen looks especially nice, I think. And I love the idea of using that large, single woodland peony on a pillow or tote bag.

Other project ideas? I'm thinking bookbinding (covers, perhaps embellished with some beading), a bag or purse, maybe a table runner or even a nice scarf. So many ideas, so little time! What fabric projects do you envision with these, or what fabric projects are you currently working on?

Fabric designs - what do you think?

I've been having a fun time playing around with some of my illustrations and creating new pattern designs to upload to Spoonflower. 

The two newest ones are below - just click on the image and it will take you to the Spoonflower page where you can see the pattern, scale, what it would look like on various yards of fabric, etc.

What do you think? I would love to hear comments on the patterns, if you like them sized as-is or prefer smaller/larger? What projects could you see using fabric like this? I think of the obvious things like pillows, table cloths, place mats, etc., but also things like book covers and bead embroidery pieces. What creative ways do you use fabric?

Maple Tree Buds

 

Spring Rain - Daffodils in Bloom

Playing with Spoonflower - what kinds of fabric patterns do you like?

I've been having a great time playing around in Spoonflower and have added a number of my drawings to the public design gallery for my page there:

http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/ccreechstudio

Scroll down the page to see the drawings that are in the gallery. 

Click on a drawing and see what the fabric pattern looks like. You can see the rulers in yellow on the top and side of the pattern to see how large it would appear on the fabric.

Which ones do you like best? 

I am able to change the scale of the pattern on my end, so if you think something would look better smaller, or differently arranged, or larger, I would love to know. You can comment here, or right in Spoonflower at the bottom of a fabric page. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by!

Spoonflower Fabric

I recently discovered another print-on-demand service that sounded really intriguing to me. It's called Spoonflower and they print your uploaded designs on a variety of fabrics. How neat! 

I went ahead and created an account - it's free - and uploaded a number of my drawings. You can order test swatches of your designs to proof colors/size to make sure they look how you expect them to, and then you can post your designs for sale in the Spoonflower Marketplace, or place an order for fabric for yourself, etc.

I received my swatches for 6 designs yesterday and am so excited! They look fantastic. The picture above shows what I created. The fun thing is that online in Spoonflower you can adjust the size and set of the pattern. So now that I know my drawings print up beautifully, I (or anyone who orders) can choose a smaller pattern of the drawing or a larger pattern (up to a certain limit).

They offer 7 different fabrics to choose from and what you see in the photo above are swatches of the quilting weight fabric on the left, and then I chose the upholstery-weight twill for the African daisy, and the linen-cotton canvas for the daffodil (and that is a larger sample called a fat quarter.) I absolutely love the weight of the twill and linen-cotton canvas and can see lots of interesting crafting possibilities using my botanical drawings to create pillows, tea towels, bags, or even art pieces with beading done on some of the heavier weight fabrics. The creative juices are flowing!! What fun things can you see doing with custom fabrics like this?

Now that I have seen the proofs, I have made these 6 designs available in the marketplace. You can see my profile and available designs here: http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/ccreechstudio 

Happy creating!