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I painted this watercolour Partridge in a Pear Tree illustration almost a year ago, blogged here. As the festive season is almost upon us once more, I pulled it out of the 'archives' to create some patterns that I'll place on fabric, gift wrap, tea towels, cards, etc ... though it's taking me some time due to the slow internet connection out here in my temporary 'digs'.

Here are the 3 pattern variations:

I then had to figure out a simple coordinating background pattern, and as I love stripes ...

Those stripes could be a tad paler, perhaps? Still, a sweet pattern for Christmas nonetheless? I'm also going to take the partridge off and keep just the pear tree as an all-year-round pattern, I've decided. I like it.

I wish all of you a sweet, colourful, delightful week. If you feel like getting some Christmas shopping done early and are curious as to how the Partridge in a Pear Tree illustration looks on some lovely home wares and gifts, I have the non-stripey ones up already over at Society6, so just click HERE to take a peek. Or HERE for the patterned version. I'll be blogging the cards and gift-wrap papers over at my Floating Lemons Treats blog this coming week. Cheers.

I am going to have to apologise in advance as blogging is going to be a bit erratic in the next couple of months, as I'm dashing around clearing things up and packing. Yes, packing. More on that later ... Meanwhile, here's a little paint doodle I did a few months ago that I've finally cleaned up and created a pattern with:

And here's the original sketch:

I left all the painted imperfections in this time. I normally photoshop them out, but I liked them here, it's oddly childlike and simple but sweet. Well, that's my opinion ... what do you think?

Wishing you wonderful days of sunshine and all things good. Cheers.

It's been incredibly busy around here lately - getting ready for some huge personal changes, and enjoying the company of visiting family and friends - so busy in fact that I missed posting something here on Saturday. ooops. Have barely had time to breathe never mind draw, so I dug around for something I did a couple of months back, just for fun.

Here is my proliferation of peculiarly painted pets. Not sure whether to continue with these and turn them into a pattern or not ... what do you think?

Have a pleasant day packed with potty peculiarities! Cheers.

I'm still working on different colourways for my Into the Woods collection, but meanwhile, here's another new mini-collection that I've designed for spring and summer. It's wonderfully bright and cheerful, with lots of flowers that pop, and coordinating little florettes (well, that's what I call them) and stripes of curvy leaves ... wonderful for outdoor parties and get-togethers in the sunshine.

I've already placed in onto tons of lovely goodies for the home, kitchen, and on gift boxes and matching cards and wrapping paper. Click here for a peek at a Pop Flowers table setting, and on the links below to pop over to the stores where it's on a whole range of sweet products:

Pop Flowers Collection by Floating Lemons for Zazzle

Pop Flowers pink at Society6

Pop Flowers blue at Society6

Have fun and enjoy a wonderful week. Cheers.

I took a course from Pattern Observer, called Mastering Your Market, at the beginning of the year, but never had the time to showcase the pattern designs that evolved from it. It's about time I posted them, as it was an excellent course and I learned so much from it.

The patterns I created during class were very different from those I was used to designing - one reason I so thoroughly enjoyed the whole process, as it forced me to think and see from another perspective. Here's just one of them, Into the Woods ...

I was curious to see how it would look on bedding, so of course I made a mock-up from it ... what do you think?

I'm going to play with different colour variations to see how it might turn out, but was very pleased with this final result and a good review from it too. Now it's time for me to really go into the woods with the dogs for our daily walk.

Wishing you a fantastic day. Cheers.

Am I getting sick of jelly yet? Not at all! Have had a huge amount of fun sketching it, colouring it, changing it around, watching it wibble and wobble away ... it hasn't been easy deciding what to do with it, but I do love a challenge - you can see a few of my prep sketches here and here.

The assignment for my MATS class was to create a jelly illustration or pattern to go onto fabric, and as I'm still polishing up my pattern design skills, I decided to turn my hand to that. It's now done and submitted, and here's the final piece as well as, under that, the pattern that I produced from it.

Can you see it on aprons and tea towels? I can! I've enjoyed this so much that my next step will be to wish up a couple of patterns that will nicely coordinate with it. Meanwhile, however, my own home is in chaos as the main rooms are being painted, so I'm camping out in one of the guest rooms and ignoring the mess till I can get back in there to sort it all out. Another week or so I'd say. All part of the huge changes that are coming up, which I shall share with you as soon as everything is confirmed and completed.

Until then, there may be a few quirks and trip-ups where blogging is concerned, so thank you for your patience (in advance). Have a delightful week. Cheers.

Another exercise from my excellent e-course, The Art & Business of Surface Pattern Design, that I struggled to complete. The class is really challenging me which I consider absolutely brilliant even if I don't live up to my own expectations. But I'm certainly learning tons.

Remember my Playful Geometrics Giftwrap Collection from a couple of posts ago? Well, not only have I created a mockup presentation for it, but added gift tags and a square greeting card. Of course, this is when my printer decided to play up and print out the most dreadful smudges ... I finally found a way to work around that  ... but I now have to learn more about gift-wrapping as, honestly, I've just hidden all the dreadful mistakes I've made! I'm not going to go anywhere near mentioning my lack of photographic skills. All now on my lengthy to do list.

Anyway, here are the results:

Here's the mockup page for the Gift Tags:

And here's the one for the Greeting Card:

Phew. I'm exhausted! Taking a tea break before getting back to work on my next piece. Cheers!

An exercise for my wonderful e-course, The Art & Business of Surface Pattern Design - this was a difficult one for me, as I decided to challenge myself and not only stick to just geometric patterns this time, but also use colours I wouldn't normally use. It's taken me ages to complete, but I finally have some samples ready as well as the collection in two different colour combinations!

To begin, here are the sketches I doodled into my moleskine journal. Ignore that flower in the front, that was just for play. I didn't want the geometric patterns to look too rigid or formal, so I added a bit of quirkiness to them. There are whimsical warped circles, oddly shaped squares and rectangles, and slightly distorted plus signs scattered around everywhere. I wanted it to have slightly sophisticatedlook but with a dash of casual fun.

Most of the above rough ideas were scanned in and below are the end results. First, the Playful Geometrics Collection 1, based on the Pantone spring summer 2013 colours:

Next, a couple of the above on mockup giftwrap paper sheets:

Then, I (re)created the above patterns using the colours from my Peach Tulip Hues photograph (here's the image in case you're curious: Peach Tulip Hues) ... so here's the Playful Geometrics Collection 2:

And finally, a few of the sample giftwrap paper sheets from the above:

Having completed all that, I'm now no longer sure which colour combinations I prefer. I'm going to be using one of the above Collections to work on further, does anyone have a preference? I do like them both but may go with the second collection as the colours seem more spring/summery, what do you think?

Back to the drawing board! Have a sunny day, cheers.