And one more...

I was going to make one that says: Today is a good day. But it turned out to be not such a good day, with a very poorly boy home from school. This is what I always tell him... You are loved.

You can download the 'tile' here...

Letting go...

I have a thing for old tiles and beautiful quotes, and especially if the two of them get mixed togehter. A little tacky, I know... But hey, forgive me, I love a bit of tacky too. Today I started on a little collection of printable wisdom tiles that I am adding to my new Onneke Printables on Etsy and that I will also turn into a set of cards to go into my Not On The High Street. My first little saying is like a mantra that you have to repeat to yourself when you get stuck in the same thoughts. Let it go. I'm learning to let go of things, and just working on this today helped hugely. You can download it here, turn it into a card, a print, send it off to turn it into fridge magnets... Do what you like. You could even have it printed on a real tile!

And as I have been so busy with work lately, I am going to let go of that as well tonight. I have got some wine waiting for me and some dark orange and ginger chocolate, and rather than fold the mountain of washing that is piled up on my sofa, I am going to snuggle up in it... Come on... let it go!

The future is printable...

It's been a bit quiet on the blog, because I have been working on new design briefs, new projects, lots of shop orders and even a brand new shop! It's called Onneke Printables and you can find it on Etsy. Here is the twist: Everything in the shop is for downloading only. You buy the file and you print it at home, or at your local or online printers. Why? I hear you say. Because it is the future. Mark my words.



More and more people have a good printer at home and lots of print on demand services are popping up all over the internet. You upload the design and you have it printed on cards, canvas, bags, t'shirts, phone covers etc. And if you are not a designer yourself, you can pop over to Onneke Printables and buy a design there. They are cheap, and the bargain is all yours. You can buy a set of birthday cards and you can print them over and over and over. Or you can pop back to the shop and buy a new design.



So far I have added Birthday cards, Thinking of you cards, Good luck cards, Fathers day cards and Get well soon cards. There is also a Do Your Own Tiny Happy Family Tree, that you can fill in at home with your loveliest handwriting or your favorite font on the computer.





There is a pretty Make Your Own Little Bunting Card...And there are illustrations that you can print out and pop in a frame... You can even download some cross stitch charts. Pop over to have a look, give it a try and make sure to pop back soon as I will be adding all sorts of other designs over the next weeks...

Taking a break - getting inspired

I'm having a little break from work. Well, not really because I'm getting patterns ready and working on some really nice briefs. But I'm having a little holiday from the shop, which is closed until Thursday.

I took the kids to their very first theme park, the Efteling in the Netherlands. Oh man, the excitement! It was a magnificent day with a few thrills and a lot of magic. My very favorite was the Carnival, it's a little bit dated but still so beautiful and it made me remember how much I loved it as a child and how it must have inspired me in some way as it matches my design style so well. You sit in a little cart and it takes you passed all these brightly coloured carnival displays. Each space you go through represents a different country. I could have gone again and again. But there were roller coasters and other rides to do...

When we sat down for a little picnic a neon pink pigeon landed right in front of us. We all felt a mixture of upset and excitement. Surely we shouldn't spray paint birds? But see how incredible it looks! A few white feathers blended in beautifully with the bright pink. It looked like it had come out of it's egg looking just like that, a lone pink pigeon surrounded by it's white brothers and sisters. It would make a great picture book. How it flew the nest and got teased by everyone until it found a home in a theme park that was just as brightly coloured. For now, I have added a bit of neon to my new pattern. I have been doing a lot of work in black and white lately. It was time for a pop of colour...

April

I have been part of a thriving online community of surface pattern designers for nearly a year now, most of us met on the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design e-course (a truly life-changing course). I call them the Design girls, though we also have a few men on board. Working alone is at times brilliant but also hard. It's incredible to have this group of people to ask questions, to show designs, get feedback and see what they are up to. We are all growing and conquering the world in our own way, and supporting each other along the way.

One of the designers, Gill Eggleston (you can find her here) put together the White Book of Surface Pattern Designers which also has it's own website and facebook page and has proven to be very successful already. Another huge talent is Maria José Bautista V, also known as MaJo. She got a group of us together to make a calendar for 2013. I did April and you can download it for free from MaJo's blog and print it out, or stick it on your computer desktop. You could even use it as wrapping paper, if you wanted to wrap up my birthday pressie at the end of April... Pop over to MaJo's blog to get the large file, you can print it up to an A3.