Meet the Spring 2022 Spoonflower Small Business Grant Recipients

Edited: May 17, 2022

It’s time again to announce Spoonflower’s Small Business Grant recipients! Twice a year, small business owners can apply to receive up to $1000 in Spoonflower credit to test out new products, experiment with different Spoonflower items or otherwise expand what they make.

Our Spring 2022 Small Business Grant recipient cohort of 14 makers was selected by a panel of four previous grantees. Winners of the grant also received an award of $2500 to spend on marketing and branding efforts that will support their small business.

Read on to learn more about the winners, their work and how they plan to use this grant to help their businesses grow. If you’d like to apply for a Small Business Grant yourself, you can fill out an application for our next cycle here.

Small Business Grant Panel

Megan Eckman
PopLush Embroidery
SBG Winner Spring 2019

Corelle Rokicki
SciPaws
SBG Winner Fall 2021

Jennifer Diederich
SUITE
SBG Winner Spring 2019

Elysia Contreras Springer
ReggioBaby, LLC
SBG Winner Fall 2021

Spring 2022 Small Business Grant Winners

Urša Markovič

CrazyCoolCat | @crazycoolcatshop | Slovenia

Brand snapshot: CrazyCoolCat offers sustainable, modern and chic neckwear for pets.

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
I opened my shop with only a little savings, so it is always difficult to get enough funds for new collections. With this grant, I will be able to launch a collection of unique cat playmats as well as a summer bandana and bowtie collection without financial burden.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
Being selected as a recipient of the grant means that I will get an opportunity to show my creations to a larger audience, and it is a great validation for my small business. I am very grateful for it!

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
My favourite fabric to work with is Petal Signature Cotton®. It is 100% cotton that is soft and yet strong enough to make durable accessories for indoor pets as well as active outdoor pets. I also love the endless prints that are available! I am looking forward to using Recycled Canvas for cat playmats as it will fit perfectly with my mission to use sustainable materials.

Cat kickers, bowties and bandanas lay in neat rows on a wooden table in front of a sewing machine. The accessories are in pink, blue and white fabrics, including a design with pink hearts that says “Adopted and adored” in rainbow pastel letters and a design with red hearts and the words “Heart Breaker” written in black all caps, among them.

A white cat with dark yellow eyes and sections of brown tabby stripes over each eye and along its back wears a floral bowtie with a dark purple background and white, dark red, orange and sage flowers. A dark blue wall is to the cat’s right and a white wall is to the cat’s left.

Urša’s cat Odin modeling one of Urša’s bowties

Mel Martinez

Aqua Underwear | @aquaunderwear | United States

Mel’s Spoonflower shop

Brand snapshot: Aqua Underwear is an underwear project with an eye on gender, size, disability and BIPOC inclusion. All garments are handmade by Mel Martinez, a queer Chicanx sewist.

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
Aqua Underwear is a new, small business that doesn’t yet make a profit, so grants make a big difference for us financially. My customers have been asking for garments with prints, but I haven’t had the budget for it. The environmental sustainability Spoonflower is invested in is valued by me and my clients.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
It means a little weight off my checkbook, being able to provide fun and sustainable in demand printed garments for my clients, and it means Spoonflower sees value in the type of work Aqua Underwear is doing to provide truly inclusive underwear and clothing to underserved communities!

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
The Cotton Spandex Jersey is my go-to Spoonflower fabric because it makes great underwear! It’s not too thick or thin and has great stretch and quality.

Mel Martinez sews purple fabric with two spools of purple thread visible on a serger. Mel is laying down in the grass with the sewing machine in front of her.

Photo by Roberto Valdez

Two models are wearing cropped black tank tops and black lace boxer briefs. The model on the left is wearing a black hoodie and the model on the right is wearing a cropped black leather jacket. They are standing on a concrete bridge with metal sides.

Models: Jem Locquiao and Itza Duron, photo by Carolina Menendez

Dyson and Elizabeth Waldner

Gliz Design | @glizdesign | Canada

Brand snapshot: Gliz Design’s mission has always been to keep babies warm, comfortable and safe. Especially in times like the present, there is never too much protection for a child. We are always looking for ways to make our products more affordable so all mothers/fathers can protect their baby with their own Gliz Design cover.

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
Higher production sizes, help diminish cost per order and provide help from COVID-19 lost revenue.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
That even when sales are slow and times get tough, it is the relief of a grant like this that motivates us. It shows others can see the vision of Gliz Design.

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
Minky and Lightweight Cotton Twill. Our blankets and car seat covers are made out of those fabrics. We are most interested in growing our car seat covers.

Elizabeth Waldner smiles at the camera from behind a sewing machine. White fabric with gray and mint leaves is on the table in front of the sewing machine.

A black stroller sits in front of a black-and-white mural painted on a brick wall. The mural is of cars parked along a street with several pedestrians walking on a sidewalk to the right. A fabric cover is over the top of the stroller featuring a design with a white background and small black lines in geometric shapes.

Leila Simon Hayes

Leila Simon Hayes | @leilasimonhayes | United States

Leila’s Spoonflower shop

Brand snapshot: Leila Simon Hayes creates unique and delightful prints and homewares for bold creative souls who thrive with a mixture of vibrant color and playful pattern. The featured items are lightweight quilted blankets that highlight playfully contrasting designs and colors with a pop of brightly colored dot-style top-stitching. The blankets will be produced with her signature pattern designs, vibrant color combinations and unusual pairings. They will be used as bedding, living room throw blankets and as wall hangings.

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
I have an immense amount of ideas and creative projects pouring out of me since I opened up to this work. I am embarking on many different ways to bring my patterns to life.

One of the ways that I’m testing my textile pattern designs is through making quilts that highlight my patterns in a playful way, which requires upfront investment. Receiving this grant allows me to be more adventurous with the patterns I test and gives me the financial boost to get a large batch completed before the 2022 holidays.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
I’m really honored to have my work recognized by Spoonflower, it’s a helpful vote of confidence as I embark on new projects.

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
I love Cotton Poplin for the way the patterns pop with sharp lines. I also have been experimenting with Dogwood Denim™ for pillows, bags and other heavier projects.

A person wearing a blue shirt is sitting at a wooden table, the photograph only shows their torso. Their left hand is painting a black floral spiral like shape of petals, with 11 petals already painted, each emanating from a central point, on a white piece of paper. The paint is pooled as if still wet at the ends of several petals. Their right hand is holding the piece of paper down and a smudge of black paint is on their thumb.

Photo by Carlie Febo (@carliefeboart)

A quilt is folded and hanging over a child’s wooden slatted crib. White bedding, the top of which has small black dots, is viewable through the wooden slats. The quilt is comprised of two different fabrics on the front. The left-hand side has a light pink background and large dark yellow dots. The right-hand side has a navy background with large thin wavy lines of turquoise stripes that are thinner at the bottom and thicker at the top. Large yellow round globes as if the moon float behind some of the turquoise lines. A small portion of the quilt’s navy back is visible along the bottom of the quilt.

Featured designs: Moonlight / Blue and Tall Dots / Yellow by leilasimonhayes

Frankie Choe

Love, Frankie | @lovefrankie89 | United States

Frankie’s Spoonflower shop | Frankie’s Etsy shop

Brand snapshot: Love, Frankie creates playful, boldly colorful, retro-inspired handmade accessories and home decor items for the fashionable homesteader, DIYer and families looking for quality pieces that will become cherished heirlooms. As a first-generation Korean-Canadian-American, I also aim to inspire and enable others like me to be unapologetically Asian-American. My “Korean-America” collection of fabric and wallpaper is a love letter to fellow Asian-American elder daughters looking for authentic representation of our family traditions, cultural heritage, and a touch of whimsy when curating their homes and wardrobes.

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
This grant will help me transform a full-time hobby and passion into a sustainable small business. Not only will the funds cover a significant portion of raw material costs for my handmade goods, this is also a wonderful opportunity for me to connect with a wider audience, beta-test new prototypes and refine my current product line.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
I’m thrilled to be a Spring 2022 grant recipient! It is gratifying and exciting to know that the Spoonflower team sees a place for my work in the market, believes in the potential of my ideas, and are ready to give me the support to put them into action.

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
Petal Signature Cotton is the current go-to fabric for my coordinating accessories. It’s the perfect weight, a woven substrate with multiple applications and my surface pattern designs always print beautifully with consistent, vibrant color quality and detail. As I’ve experimented with different products, Lightweight Cotton Twill, Dogwood Denim and Cotton Lawn are very close contenders for second place as well!

A dark brown dog with long wavy hair and dark yellow eyes wears a bandana with a blue background and rows of guinea hens in white circles alternating with light blue eggs. A ring of dark blue flowers with small red berries encircles the encircled guinea hens. A matching tablecloth with the same fabric is behind the dog.

Featured design: I Can Tell We’re Guinea Be the Best of Hens in Blue (Railroaded) by love-frankie

Photograph of a torso of a person wearing a white sweater, black pants and an egg collecting apron, which has two rows of small pockets for eggs, with a pale bluish white background and rows of guinea hens in yellow circles alternating with light blue eggs. A ring of dark blue flowers with small red berries encircles the encircled guinea hens. Their right hand is holding a pale blue egg. Their left hand is at their waist. Two of the pockets already contain eggs, the tops of which are visible from inside the pockets.

Featured design: I Can Tell We’re Guinea Be the Best of Hens (Railroaded) by love-frankie

Shala Jones

Black Purl Magic LLC | @blackpurlmagic | United States

Brand snapshot: Black Purl Magic’s mission is to create fresh and colorful products within the fiber community through bags and notions. They aim to create an inclusive community that fosters and encourages all creatives from every walk of life.

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
The Spoonflower Small Business Grant alleviates a lot of material costs, which will open up the creative window for our customer base and allow us to expand beyond. This will ultimately allow us financial freedom to focus on great products that capture more customers, both wholesale and retail.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
For me, being selected as a grant recipient means that my hard work and dedication to my dream is worth it. Sometimes we can lose our confidence as creatives. Having a company be so inspired by your work that they want to help you is a confirmation in itself.

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
My go-to Spoonflower product is usually Petal Signature Cotton or Dogwood Denim. I gravitate toward really bright and non-traditional patterns. Having the work of a vast amount of artists means we can push the envelope when adding to cart.

A close up of a hand sewing an orange plastic project bag with small glitter stars in a range of sizes. A hand is the bottom left of the photo, and the seam where the bag’s closure edge meets a neon yellow zipper is about to run under the sewing machine needle.

A fabric drawstring bag featuring a print with rows of watercolor cassette tapes, each titled a different 1970s rock genre, including disco, glam rock, soul sounds, folk rock, etc., and in a different muted jewel tone color, some yellow, some dark peach, some red, some dark green. The bag has a yellow fabric waxed bottom along with cream fabric handles and a drawstring closure.

Featured design: 70’s Cassette Collection by ohn_mar_win

Sheena Wells

September’s Hearth | @septembershearth | Canada

Sheena’s Spoonflower shop | Sheena’s Etsy shop

Brand snapshot: September’s Hearth is a small business that combines the love of art and food. Sheena sells handmade kitchen linens printed either digitally or by hand with artwork to bring beauty into the everyday. Bringing beautiful things into these daily practices of preparing, cooking and obtaining food helps reconnect us with the importance of these activities.

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
This grant will allow me the ability to boost my stock up with less financial strain prior to the events I have scheduled for the summer. This sets me up for a really great year.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
Getting selected is incredible, it shows Spoonflower has faith in my vision and my ability to bring it forward. This is wonderfully affirming and will help ensure the success of my first market season. I am really excited to get to work.

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
My favorite Spoonflower products, the ones I use to make my own products, are mainly Linen Cotton Canvas and Lightweight Cotton Twill. Both these fabrics are made from natural fibres, which is important. They both have great utility; they are robust but still lovely.

Sheena is leaning over a wooden table handcarving a stamp. A white serger, a dark green planter with leaves coming out of it, a wooden ruler and a pencil are also on the table.

Photo by Shane Southgate

A white bread bag lays on a wooden table. The bag has a white rope closure and a design that peeks into a rabbit den showing two black rabbits curled up and sleeping with orange carrots growing in the earth above and on either side of them. A large loaf of bread is to the right of the bag. The bread sits on light brown fabric with parts of a black-lined design, that appears to be the edge of a hand-drawn mortar and pestle, showing on the right-hand side of the loaf.

Photo by Shane Southgate

Laura Sullivan

All Scrubbed Up Scrub Hats | @allscrubbedupscrubhats | United Kingdom

Brand snapshot: All Scrubbed Up Scrub Hats helps veterinary and healthcare heroes become more sustainable by switching to reusable scrub hats—better for the environment, patient and helps you look and feel good while operating!

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
Receiving this small business grant is a huge honour, and will help me scale up my business and reach more customers. My mission is to help veterinary and healthcare teams to become more sustainable, in turn helping them to raise their business profile in a world where clients value sustainability. This grant will also help me achieve a goal to help raise more funds for charities that I work with in 2022.

Currently, 15% of the sale price of each charity scrub hat raises money to help a number of different organizations: our Surf Dog Scrub Hat raises money for WECare Worldwide, providing veterinary treatment to street dogs in Sri Lanka; our Be Kind Scrub Hat raises money for Vetlife, a mental health charity for the vet profession; and our Turtle Scrub Hat raises money for The Olive Ridley Project, a sea turtle research organization with a veterinary hospital in the Maldives.

I’ve very recently launched a Sunflowers for Ukraine Scrub Hat with 20% of the sale price donated to victims of the crisis in Ukraine. I’d love to expand our charity collection.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
It means the world to me—not only is it a real personal boost to have my business believed in and seen, but it will enable me to purchase fabric in bulk to launch an exciting new collection of reusable scrub hats. As a solopreneur, every penny counts!

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
Petal Signature Cotton is my go-to! Incredible range of designs, really high-quality fabric but lightweight, so perfect for theatre scrub wear and launders super well.

A veterinarian is operating on a patient underneath a blue cloth on a table. The veterinarian is wearing turquoise scrubs, white gloves, a light blue mask and a pink scrub cap with a pink background, small black dachshunds, and hot pink flowers.

Helene Hill and Dominique Ribiero Da Silva

The Spoonie Society Pty Ltd | @thespooniesocietyau | Australia

Brand snapshot: Dominique and Helene met through social media in 2020 after sharing their journey’s with endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome. Together Dominique and Helene hope that through The Spoonie Society, chronic illness sufferers will find their voice and help gain awareness on chronic illnesses. Products include heat packs, chronic illness-themed colouring book, diary & symptom tracker and many more.

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
It will allow us to purchase more custom fabric to help grow our business.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
So much! We only started our business a short 18 months ago and being recognised by Spoonflower is a big deal! Working to help support the chronic illness community truly means the world to us and we can’t wait to grow even more.

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
We are so excited to have our fabric printed on Petal Signature Cotton, this is what our heat packs are currently made out of, and they will look amazing. We are so excited!

A handmade wrap around heat pack, neck heat pack and face mask pack are packaged in a black box. They are all wrapped with The Spoonie Society branded packaging of white paper and black text, indicating directions of how to use the items and that packs are filled with lupins. White tissue paper with black leopard print spots is shown extending from the left and right of the box.

Photo by Gemma Carr

Helene Hill and Dominique Ribiero Da Silva sit with their products all around them. The products are in colorful folded fabric surrounded by Spoonie Society branded packaging of white paper and black text, indicating directions of how to use the items and that packs are filled with lupins. Dominique has a pink eye mask with white flowers pushed up above her forehead.

Photo by Gemma Carr

Leana Fischer

May We Fly | @mayweflydesign | United States

May We Fly Etsy shop | May We Fly State Birds Etsy shop

Brand snapshot: May We Fly is a fine art and stationery brand featuring watercolor artwork that is made to nurture joy and delight.

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
My community of customers has been requesting that my artwork, specifically my State Birds collection, be printed on tea towels for years! This grant will help to kickstart that product category for me and help me expand my offerings substantially into other fabric categories as well.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
Having the opportunity to partner with Spoonflower is truly a dream come true. To be recognized and supported as an artist through receiving this grant is extremely meaningful and will open up doors for my business in big ways!

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
I am new to Spoonflower but am very excited about printing my designs on tea towels and wall hangings with Linen Cotton Canvas.

An in-progress painting of Mississippi’s state bird, a northern mockingbird, sitting on a magnolia branch with a white magnolia bloom behind it and a partially open bloom to its left. The painting is on a white piece of paper with the word “Mississippi” written underneath the bird in small black capital letters. A hand holding a small orange paintbrush is at the painting’s bottom right.

Photo by Tram Colwin

A painting of Pennsylvania’s state bird, a ruffled grouse, surrounded by sprigs of pink-and-white flowers with green leaves and standing on a brown-and-yellow patch of dirt. Small branches with green leaves are to the top right and bottom left of the painting, which is on a white piece of paper on a wooden table, and a small black paintbrush is to the bottom right.

Photo by Tram Colwin

Runners Up

Annina Sommer

SimplySommer | @simplysommerdesign | Switzerland

Annina’s Spoonflower shop

Brand snapshot: SimplySommmer promotes sustainability by creating products with fun designs that motivate others to reuse things instead of producing waste. Annina will be employing sewists from a local workshop for people with disabilities to complete her product line.

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
With the grant I will be able to produce the first 10 sustainability sets for the kitchen. This will help me get a feeling for the market and how I have to tweak my offer to be successful.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
I am so thrilled that Spoonflower believes in my project. Being selected gave me another motivation boost and I can’t wait to see my products in local stores.

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
I love the feeling of Organic Cotton Sateen and it is great for products like folding shopping bags. Another favorite is Linen Cotton Canvas for tea towels as it is so easy to cut, iron and sew.

Photo of Annina sitting at a brown wooden table sketching flowers on an iPad with an iPencil.

Photo by Adrian Cambensy

Several small fabric bags and a folded napkin lay on a wooden table. One bag and a folded napkin have a gray background with light gray and white feathers drifting through. A stack of four small bags has a blue-gray background and rows of small white rectangles. Two small fabric beeswax covers are dark green with cream flowers and folded into quarters. A tote bag with two fabric handles has a white background with small colorful circles dotted throughout, some blue, some pink, some green, with small birds sitting in the circles.

Items from Annina’s product line “wieder und wieder” featuring designs from the In Spring We Sing collection. Photo by Adrian Cambensy.

Olga Prushinskaya

Bean Bros Hand Made | @beanbroshandmade | United States

Brand snapshot: Bean Bros Hand Made is one human and two beans working to bring hats into the world that allow people to boldly express their identity, personality, and style.

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
The small business grant is an exciting opportunity to upgrade my hats to be more functional, while also maintaining the maximalist style of my shop. With this funding, I’ll be working on creating a design to reflect my branding that I will then print onto Satin fabric, which will be used to offer the option of a hat lining to my customers.

As a result, I’ll be able to offer a hat which not only reflects my customer’s bold style, but is also gentle and protective of a broad range of hair textures and styles.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
As a baby business, being selected for this grant is a huge milestone! It means a lot that the vision I have to grow my business over the next year resonated with the judges and with Spoonflower. This funding will go a long way to allowing me to execute a vision of my business as one that recognizes and caters to the variety of needs of my full audience of customers.

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
My go-to Spoonflower fabric has been the Petal Signature Cotton—the heavier weight of this fabric works well for the structured look of the hats that I create. For this grant, I’m excited to be working with Spoonflower’s Satin. The fabric will be an ideal lining for my hats to allow them to be more gentle to wearers’ hair!

Stacks of brightly colored fabrics sit in small wooden cubbies underneath a wooden table. On top of the table are three baseball caps, one hot pink with yellow bananas, one with different bright panels containing fruit on a white background, and one with neon blue, red and pink mushrooms on a navy background placed on a hat form.

Featured design: Spooky Mushroom Hunt Neon by spookishdelight

A stack of six baseball caps. From top to bottom, their featured designs are black coffins on a pink background; multicolored geometric jewel tone blocks; orange, black and yellow swirls; white blobs with red, yellow and blue small dots on a hot pink background; cassette tapes, some green, some orange, some yellow on a cream background; and in the shadow of the previous hat, what appears to be mushroom designs and a white background.

Featured designs: Halloween Coffins – Black on Pink – LAD19 by littlearrowdesign and Nostalgia by caja_design

Maria Dimitrova

mmsst. | @mimossito | Bulgaria

Brand snapshot: mmsst. is the home studio of Maria Dimitrova with carefully selected outstanding fabric designs that turn into impressive everyday textile objects. Buying from mmsst. you don’t buy just a computer sleeve or a zipper pouch, you buy a small piece of handmade art 🙂

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
With the inclusion of more designs in my production, I will have the opportunity to reach new customers. More potential clients would lead to more sales that would give me the chance to bring my production to a larger scale, and probably include new people in my team.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
It is a great honour for me to be selected as a grant recipient and for my work to be appreciated. It means a lot for me because I really put a heart in every product I create. <3

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
I use Recycled Canvas as a top fabric for most of my products—tablet, laptop sleeves and zipper pouches in several different shapes and sizes. After trying several different textiles, I found that Recycled Canvas is the best one for my needs—it doesn’t crease or stain easily, and most importantly, it presents the selected designs in the best possible way!

A stack of seven large, zippered pouches each made in a bright floral design sits to the top left of the photo on top of a large wide clear ruler. A single large, zippered bright floral pouch is in the bottom right and also sits on a large wide clear ruler.

A stack of three small yet deep and wide handmade zippered bags with tan leather pulls sits on a white table next to a clear bottle filled with long green stems with mostly buds, but one light pink small bloom. The top bag has a white background and black gridded lines. The middle bag has a pink background with large white flowers with black stamens and red leaves. The bottom bag has a mustard background with ditsy groupings of six lines throughout.

Sarah Patterson

Mountains of Thread | @mountains_of_thread | USA

Brand snapshot: Mountains of Thread provides embroidery kits that come with everything needed to create your own piece of art. Each kit teaches basic embroidery stitches used in the design, while also focusing on zero waste crafting and the therapeutic benefits that embroidery brings. Designs are currently being hand drawn, will utilize Fill-A-Yard for her new kits.

In what ways will this grant support your small business?
Having my designs printed on fabric rather than hand drawing them all out will save me so much more time that I can then use on customer engagement, creating new designs, fulfilling orders faster and creating more on-hand inventory for markets. I am very excited about this new step and can’t wait to eventually have all of my kit designs printed.

What does it mean to be selected as a grant recipient?
I am so honored and thrilled to be a Spoonflower grant recipient. I really stand by Spoonflower’s values with their eco-friendly sourcing and the way they support and inspire small businesses in so many different ways.

What’s your go-to Spoonflower product/fabric and why?
I am new to using Spoonflower but what I’m mostly interested in is printing my embroidery kit designs on the Petal Signature Cotton. I also have my eyes on the different linen options for special limited runs on kits.

A cream fabric square in a small round wooden embroidery hoop with a printed design of four tall mushrooms and four shorter mushrooms is to the bottom right laying on a white ribbed blanket. A small open cardboard box is to the left, 13 full skeins of embroidery floss, ranging from slate gray to white to orange, are shown along with a needle taped to a small white piece of paper. The edge of a burnt orange ribbed pillow with a small tassel at the bottom right corner is shown along the top of the photo.

Items from Mountains of Thread’s “Happy Floral” embroidery kit are displayed on a white ribbed blanket. A box for the kit, showing a finished photo of a floral design and with “Mountains of Thread “Happy Floral” embroidery kit with supplies” typed on it in a dark gray font, is in the top right corner. A cream fabric square with a printed design of three large blooms with leaves is to the bottom right bound in a small round wooden embroidery hoop. Six full skeins of embroidery floss, from left to right, burgundy, sage, dusty orange, turquoise, goldenrod and yellowish green are grouped at the bottom left. A completed stitched floral design is at the top left of the photo.

Spoonflower Staff Picks – Honorable Mention Awards

Here are this cycle’s Spoonflower Staff Picks! This runner-up prize awards $250 in Spoonflower credit to four makers whose work stood out to our staff panelists.

Aliana Grace Bailey

vibrant grace studio | @alianagrace | United States

Brand snapshot: The vibrant grace studio shop is birthed from the art of Aliana Grace Bailey and aligns with her values of collaboration, healing, love and community care.

A person is kneeling down and putting both hands down on the carpet. Both the carpet and the leggings the person is wearing is the same print, with a red and burgundy background and yellow dors in circles over turquoise geometric designs.

Photo by Danielle Finney

A tote bag with large abstract green, red and pink portions repeating on a red and orange background and orange straps. The sweatshirt is in front of a dusty pink background.

Catalina Sánchez

Catalina Sánchez | @catalinasanchez.ca | Canada

Brand snapshot: Catalina Sánchez makes artisanal notebooks designed to inspire, spark creativity and bring joy. Each notebook is handcrafted with care, using vegan and eco-friendly materials.

A stack of fabric-bound notebooks sits on a shelf. Some of the fabric designs are floral, some are geometric, some are solid.

A notebook with a floral exterior (featuring a navy background, columns of small pink flowers with small green leaves and a red elastic closure and bookmark sits on a wooden desk next to three pens.

Emily Rouse

House of Rouse, LLC | @house.of.rouse | United States

Brand snapshot: House of Rouse creates concise collections of practical and transitional contemporary womenswear, made in the USA, with a focus on prints designed in-house.

A mannequin wears an orange dress with repeating rows of lavender floral-like bursts in front of a white background.

A mannequin wears a lavender shirt with an orange ruffle at the bottom with repeating rows of pink floral-like bursts and dark blue pants in front of a white background.

Amy Magnussen

Oso Made | @osomadeoregon | United States

Brand snapshot: Oso Made creates original handmade bags and purses that fuse a Pacific Northwest aesthetic with functional design and sustainable creative practices.

A handmade rectangular bag with a fish design (with a turquoise background and red, green, and blue fish, some going to the left, some going to the right) hangs against a brown wooden door. A buckle clasp closes the bag in the middle of the top third

A handmade rectangular bag with a fish design (with a yellow background and rows of large white puffins with black-and-white wings outstretched and orange feet) hangs against a brown slatted fence on the edge of a pier overlooking the ocean. The bag has a top flap that closes in the top third.

Want to meet more Small Business Grant winners?

Learn more about past talented business owners and how this grant helped them

Alexa Terry Wilde

Alexa Terry Wilde is on the Brand Marketing team and is Spoonflower’s Maker Community Manager. She also runs a vintage clothing business called Antlers and Astronauts.

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