How to easily design your own fabric on Spoonflower

I should probably say I am not affiliated with Spoonflower and don't make any money by promoting their website. I just really enjoy designing my own fabric there, and want to share how easy it is!

But first I do have a link you can go to which will take you to a sweepstakes at Spoonflower in coordination with Plum Print..... You can win a custom hardcover 13x11 art book with up to 30 pieces of your child's or your artwork plus $100 in spoonflower credit!

Just click here to enter! 

There are so many ways to design fabric using the tools on Spoonflower website but I believe this one is the easiest by far. You don't need photoshop or any special art tools!

Start with a tiny notebook or an index card.

With any type or color pen draw a small figure. Think cute animals, faces, flowers, fruit, bugs or geometric shapes.......

Go over some of your lines to darken them in a little.

You might even be able to use an image you already have in your sketchbook.

Take a photo of it as close up as possible, or scan your image. (If you are using a camera then try to take your photo in bright, even, natural light, so your background appears all white and not gray on one side and lighter on the other, and hold your camera as level as possible.

If you didn't take your photo with your IPad or iPod or iPhone, and it is not already in whatever device you will use to upload it to the Spoonflower website, then download your image now to your computer using the camera card. 

Crop if needed to remove any edges of the card or notebook that show and to have less white space around you image.

Log into spoonflower.com

Upload your image to spoonflower by clicking on 'add a design'

Click on 'change colors' on the left of your uploaded design.

Click on 'advanced changes' then on '2 colors'

Once the site has broken your image down into just two colors you can change the color of the lines and/or the background by clicking on the square box of color you want to change, and then click on the color from the color choices that you want it to be. For example change your white background to a light blue or peach. Leave you lines the color they were drawn in or change them to a darker black or any other color. You could even make the lines white if you made the background color dark enough. You can easily experiment because if you don't like it, just hit cancel.

Once you are satisfied, Click 'save'

You will be directed back to your design page in your design library. There you can alter it further with the tools at the right of your image........

1. by choosing design size (there is a ruler at the top of your design to show you how big it is. Pay attention to this as it is easy to misjudge the size.)

2. by changing the repeat. There are 5 types. I used half drop. Just click on each one to see how they change the look of the image.

3. by changing the fabric type.

4. by changing the fabric size for your order. I like to change this to swatch size to see how the image will look close up at 8x8 inches.

And 5. Below the image are extras.....You can name your design, add tags, make it public (if you want to either sell it once you have previewed it or if you want to have household items created for you from your design etc.)

You are ready to order!

Or ......

You can now go to roostery.com, which is a site that is connected to spoonflower that sells housewares sewn with spoonflower designs, yours or other designers.  You can get there from the "shop" tab in spoonflower, then click on rookery, the sign in using your spoonflower usernames. Once there you automatically have your own "shop" if you have any public designs in spoonflower, to see it click on "my designs".

You can preview your designs on napkins, pillows, linen towels etc. and order them there so that someone else will do the sewing for you!

I didn't include any photos but you can also order your fabric printed on clothes patterns at the site 'Sprout.com' by clicking on sprout under the shop tab. They also have a program where they will sew the pattern up for you as well. So cool!

Of course, if you want my designs on the pillows above instead of creating your own you can get to my roostery account here, or you can go to my spoonflower account from the links on the right of my blog.

Thanks for visiting! 

And last week i said i may stop linking up to paintpartyfriday because i just don't get around to visiting everyone there, and i felt guilty linking and running. I really didn't say it just to get people to tell me not to go, but since some if you did tell me not to go, here I am again this week... Happy PPF!