Recycled Creativity Revisited

Taking some time for surface design...

A couple of years ago, I recycled an old fabric design into a new entry for one of Spoonflower's design challenges.

It was also the last time I entered one of them, before the ones that I'm posting about right now.

  

Surprising, in a way, since I had thought – with not blogging regularly  – that I would have more time to fiddle with surface design as well. Turns out that a lot of things didn't pan out the way I anticipated that they might last year.

Which is not to say that I had actual plans that didn't get executed. I quite literally had no plans, so whatever got accomplished in 2024, I'm actually quite fine with it all.

Anyway, to get back to the topic at hand, the first Spoonflower challenge last December was called Cabincore Wallpaper. The aim was for designs "that encapsulate the essence of cabin life, blending comfort with a touch of the great outdoors." Even though I wasn't enthralled with the theme, I thought I could do something with it.

Growing up, I lived in two houses that actually had a bit of a cabin vibe to them. The first had a family room that featured wood shakes on two walls, which was put in by the original owners. In the second home, my parents were the ones who decided to panel the basement walls in quintessential faux woodgrain.

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Maybe because of all that "woody-ness" from my youth, I am loathe to feature brown wood anywhere in my own home. So for a design challenge that is supposed to invoke cabin life, what would I go with?

Wood, of course.

But this is a surface design for a wallpaper, so it doesn't have to look like real wood, in either colour or substance. With that in mind, I thought about concocting something with a stylized wood grain. My first attempt was tossed into the garbage bin after wrestling with it for a day. Truly, I am a big proponent of saving creative attempts – and in fact, doing so and taking advantage of that is the overall theme of this post – but this one wasn't up to snuff in so many ways.

I realized that part of the problem was that – not for the first time – I wasn't feeling totally "into" it and therefore did not have the requisite mojo. To address that, I decided to look back into my design archives for some inspo.

"Spin Me Good" wallpaper design...

Because this is a wallpaper challenge, the underlying elements have to be bigger. Therefore, my main sources of recycled creativity would likely come from previous wallpaper designs. I ended up here, from a 2018 black and white challenge... specifically, design #3.

I eventually named it, but it remained a private design and has never been proofed. I saw potential in how the concentric circles could be interpreted as the rings on a cross section of a tree.

With a little bit of help from PSP's deformations and tiling effects, I ended up with this seamless tile.

The genesis of my Whirling Wood Grain surface design...

And yes, the first colour that I chose was a reddish shade of brown. Eventually, it was lightened up and after a few iterations, I got this:

I thought I was done at this point...

Even though I worked with this lighter shade of tan for several days, I felt the urge to explore a different colour altogether.

The first one I tried was grey, which looked fine, but perhaps too sterile for the theme. No matter the season, I believe cabin life should always have a "warm" vibe, so it was back to the drawing board to choose some colour. I settled on an olive green shade for its close association with tan/brown. My first attempt is this one below.

Colorized to green...

I eventually deemed it still too dark. Apparently there is a trend towards dark wallpaper, but I cannot imagine it being a good choice for cabin life, with dim lighting often being prevalent in cabins as it is.

Taking a closer look, I decided that lightening up the background would suffice. I still wasn't totally sold on it, but I eventually ran out of time – not to mention interest – to make it different, so what you see below is what I eventually entered. It's called Whirling Wood Grain (Olive).

My eventual entry...

For a design that I personally wasn't in love with, it did about how I expected it would in the challenge. (Ironically, it has received more attention than my Ode to the Canadian Penny design, which I like much, much better and that would also make a terrific cabin wallpaper.)

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Immediately following this design challenge was another wallpaper challenge to promote Pantone's colour for 2025: Mocha Mousse.

For this, I went back to 2021, when Pantone's colour of the year was actually two selections: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating Yellow. Shown on a pillow sham at right is my alternate entry – Almost Argyle – for that competition. (My actual entry was Feel Like Playing Jacks.) 

In the same manner as described for the previous design, I took the main elements and tweaked them with the colours that were permitted; Mocha Mousse was the main one, but the following shades of cream and brown were permitted alongside: Cannoli Cream, Cream Tan, Safari, Sirocco, Chanterelle, Baltic Amber, and Chocolate Martini.

Third attempt...

We were given the hex codes for the above, but no "paint chips" to see what they looked like, so it was a bit of a trial and error to arrive at what would be a pleasing mix for the existing design. My first attempt was too monochrome. I deemed it to be blah and reassigned the colours on the various shapes, settling on three others besides the Mocha Mousse: Chocolate Martini (the darkest shade shown above), Sirocco (the second lightest), and Cream Tan (the lightest).

Sixth attempt...

I worked my way up to a sixth iteration before deciding that I was mostly satisfied. Mostly. I had taken away stuff and added stuff and was still not entirely finished, but it was close. After being reminded that Mocha Mousse was supposed to be the dominant colour, I rejigged some elements and arrived at my eighth and final iteration.

If you haven't figured it out, Mocha Mousse is the colour of the interior of all the diamond shapes. (I ended up naming this Mocha Mousse & Friends Argyle.)

This was my entry...

Even though I had only had four days to work on this one before the deadline, I must say that I ended up liking this entry much more than the one for the previous challenge. (Must have been getting into my "vibe".)

After I submitted, I discovered that the next challenge had the same theme, only for fabric, with different complementary colours... so it was back to the drawing board once again. This time, I found myself diving into my 2020 archives, to a limited palette challenge from early that year involving shades of "classic blue". The alternate that I created for that competition was Yarn Cross Stitch in Classic Blue.

I won't bore you with details of the process, but what I did was revamp the "stitch" elements – to convert them into petals – and then replaced the shades of blue with Mocha Mousse, Laurel Oak (the bluey-gray one), Buffed Beige (the lightest one) and Coffee Quartz (the darkest).

Here is the design that eventually became my entry:

This one is called Mocha Mousse Blossoms...

In the two weeks that were allotted to the voting process, it got sufficiently "favourite-ed" by members of the Spoonflower community that it jumped into third place out of all the fabrics that I'd ever designed... right behind my Pride & Prejudice Text (in White) and Pride & Prejudice Text (in Black). (Voting-wise, the final number was disappointing by comparison, but I'm still learning the craft and have no expectations of challenging for any top spots!)

Entries were pictured thusly for voting purposes:

Fabric on a chair...

The themes of the next two challenges did not ring my bell, but the one after caught my attention: sophisticated stripes. The design prompt in this case was to "reinterpret a classic and create an entry that makes a sophisticated statement." 

I like stripes, even when they're as simple as this:

Yellow & Gray Stripes Spoonflower sheet set...

Back in February of 2016, I came up with the following stripe-y pattern, the inspiration for which was discussed in this post:

Inspiration design...

I liked the distribution of stripes in terms of number and size, and wanted to put some different colours to it to create something new. However, knowing that I have no talent for creating beautifully coordinated palettes, I had to consult visme for inspiration.

I can honestly say that I had forgotten the official name of the design challenge at this point, but when I scrolled through the colour palettes, the one that spoke to me was actually called "Sophisticated and Calm"... coincidence or what?

image courtesy of visme.com...

My first design using those five colours, called Sophisticated Stripes & Dots, is shown below. It's simple and has a 3D vibe to it.

Design #1...

I liked it enough to keep it as an actual design, but with time to play with the concept, it evolved. A couple of days later, I had the beginnings of my eventual entry.

The beginnings of my final design..

Similar to how the cross-stitches were employed, I drew a small slash and put some dots underneath at both ends to create the illusion of eyelets. Through the magic of a mirrored pattern repeat, it looks like ribbons joined with laces. Over the next hours of playing with it, I added another row of dots to the black "ribbon" and narrowed the beige trim along its edge. The final step was to add some contrast detail to the eyelets, all of which you can clearly see below.

Final design shown on wallpaper...

For voting purposes, entries were shown as wallpaper, but I think the design makes a striking fabric choice as well. (It's called Laced Up Ribbons.) Here it is as part of a bedding ensemble.

Pillow sham & sheet set (all mockups courtesy of Spoonflower)...

This time, favourite-ing by the Spoonflower community boosted this design above my black P&P fabric into second place. (It was eventually supplanted by my entry into the Novelty Paisley challenge, which was subsequently exceeded by yet another, Egyptian Inspired Art Deco.)

I hadn't entered one of these competitions in over a year, and then suddenly it was five within three months. All of it possible because I had ready made inspiration to draw from... which is a reminder once again that we should never toss away our creative efforts. You never know what circumstance might arise to make something relevant and useful.

'Til next... 🇨🇦🍁