A logo with a white top quarter and a turquoise bottom three-quarters. There is a yellow ribbon going through both the white and the turquoise sections at the top with white cursive text in it that says "Design Prompt." Below the ribbon, in the turquoise section is the #9 in white sans serif font, with the word “Free Software” below it in a sans serif font.
Today’s #SFDesignADay comes to you from 2015 Spoonflower Staff Challenge Winner, Eloisa Docton, better known as natitys in the Spoonflower Marketplace. Eloisa is proof that expensive design software is not needed to create beautiful, bold surface patterns. Eloisa is stopping by the blog today to talk about her favorite free design programs for creating fun, playful designs without breaking the bank! 
Small red foxes play in a forest with bright green trees, some full of green leaves and others with pastel flowers. The forest floor is light turquoise, and so are some additional trees. The foxes appear through the design amidst small magenta and pink flowers.


Eloisa: Before learning Photoshop and Illustrator, I would search online for countless hours online for easy tools that would allow me to create my designs. To this day, I still recommend using these over expensive programs to start off, because they help you make fun creations without the large investment and the big learning curve. These online programs are also easily accessible, and very user-friendly, people of all ages can play with them!

One of my favorite online tools is Canva. On this website, you can specify the size of your image, select from hundreds of free design elements. You can just visit the website and run with it! Before making any designs you create with Canva for sale, be sure to do your homework and take note of Canva’s Terms of Use policies.
Looking for some inspiration? How about these:
A white cat with a bright pink tail, nose, cheeks and stripes on its head, with yellow mouth and black whiskers and eyes sits on a orangish-red background. The name "JUDE" is in the top righthand corner in white text in all capital letters.
personalized illustration designed to be printed onto fabric and sewn into a placemat. ©Fusion Books via Canva.com
The name "Jude" appears in dark pink cursive script inside a wreath of flowers. Two of the flowers are large and pink with turquoise leaves, which have sprigs of turquoise berries coming out of them. The wreath also has two small groups of dark pink flowers and green leaves connect all of the flowers. The whole design is on a white background.
 “Jude” artwork for stretching canvas. ©Canva Layouts via Canva.com
Nine cats sit against a pink background. The top row has three orange cats. The second row has one white cat and two orange cats. The third row has three orange cats. The orange cats have dark orange tails, black eyes, whiskers and stripes on their heads. Their ears, eyebrows and mouths are light orange. There are white circles around their black pupils. Their cheeks and noses are pink. The white cat has a bright pink tail, nose, cheeks and stripes on its head, with yellow mouth, eyebrows and ears and black whiskers and eyes sits
 Repeating kitties would make awesome baby leggings! ©Fusion Books via Canva.com
Another free program I love is Picmonkey. The great thing about this program is that you can use PicMonkey’s connection with Spoonflower to save designs directly to your design library. (Note: PicMonkey no longer integrates with the Spoonflower platform. You can learn about uploading your design on Spoonflower at this link.)

Eloisa works as Spoonflower’s Chief Fabric Procurement Specialist. She is a Fashion Design Graduate, and she started her online business, Natitys Design in 2001. When Eloisa’s first child was born, Natalie, she started making custom boutique baby bedding. In 2007, she moved away from baby bedding to Infant Car Seat Covers and extended to other gear; Natitys Design products have been offered in the USA, Canada and Japan since then with celebrity clients the likes of Tori Spelling, Jennifer Garner and Julia Roberts. Keep up with Eloisa here on her website and pick up some of her adorable designs in the Spoonflower Marketplace!