Design Resources

Personalized Wedding Pillows for Under $10 [template included]

March 28, 2017

Earlier this year, we were feeling the love when we shared our Personalized Wedding Pillows for Under $10 DIY project on the blog. We received lots of excitement for this project and a handful of requests for a pillow template. The wedding bells must be ringing because today we’re excited to share four different pillow templates, ready for your customized details!

vintage airmail wedding pillow printed with Spoonflower fabric

Personalize your next wedding gift with a Lightweight Cotton Twill pillow. Ready to Fly wallpaper by Meredith Macleod

Skillshare + Spoonflower Present: Designing Patterns that Work – Creating Motifs for Products

February 14, 2017

We’re so excited to announce that we’ve teamed up with Skillshare, an online learning community for creatives, to bring you a new class on pattern design! Taught by designer, patternmaker and Spoonflower community favorite Samarra Khaja aka SammyK (creator of the adorable Hungry Monster Laundry Bags and so much more), this class is great for pattern makers and designers who want to explore their style and theme further- or just create a set of souvenirs representing their city!

Join Samarra as she walks you through her process of creating a souvenir set for New York City using a consistent motif to create a repeating pattern. Then, using Spoonflower, she’ll print out the design and turn it into a tote bag and a pillow that support the motif. We’ve taken the course, and can confidently say that it’s sure to get your creativity flowing and inspire you to make things that are fun and functional.

We can’t speak highly enough about this course, Samarra, or how excited we are to partner with Skillshare. So click the link below to get started and get your first three months of Skillshare Premium for FREE to access this class and 14,000 others:

Personalized Wedding Pillows for Under $10

January 24, 2017

Like many creatives, I often find myself daydreaming about my next big sewing project even before my current project is complete. Whether in the car, walking my dog or even brushing my teeth, custom fabric projects are always on the brain. While on a trail run, I dreamt up my race bib running top. Most recently, while getting the mail, the lightbulb went off for custom pillows inspired by vintage envelopes.

These pillows look great on Linen Cotton Canvas, Eco Canvas and Heavy Cotton Twill, but I was excited to try Spoonflower’s newest fabric, Lightweight Cotton Twill. This lightweight fabric is both soft and durable, is easy to work with, and is a perfect addition to your couch when made into a pillow.

Personalize your next wedding gift with a Lightweight Cotton Twill pillow. Ready to Fly wallpaper by Meredith Macleod

12 Days of Design: Day 11 Optimize Your Design for Selling

January 11, 2017

12 Days of Design: Day 10 Using the Color Changer & Hex Codes

January 10, 2017

Change Colors in your design with our color changing tool. When you click on this tool, you will be taken to a new page, where you can make color changes. You can select different amounts of color options depending on how many hues you have used in your design, then make changes to specific colors.

Computer monitors display millions of different colors. Since a blue color may be called teal by some and turquoise by others, there has to be a way to describe colors without being so subjective. Today, we’re exploring hex codes – a combination of six numbers or letters that identify a specific color.

Hex codes are often used in design software like Adobe Photoshop, and our Color Changer tool uses them too. Spoonflower color maps have their corresponding hex codes listed within each color chip as an easy reference. Color maps can be printed onto any of fabrics and wallpaper, so you’ll know what a specific hex code will look like on that particular substrate.

Here at Spoonflower we print in sRGB and identify colors using hex codes. If your heart is set on a particular color, like a Pantone color, for example, we strongly recommend that you find the closest equivalent hex code and order swatches to confirm the closest match. Test swatches are the best way to confirm how colors will look on the fabric or wallpaper you plan to use.

Now, onto changing colors using our color changer tool.

On the design page for the design you wish to alter:

Click ‘Change Colors’ for the design you want to adjust.
The color changer tool will convert your image to an image with 24 colors. You can now change any of the the colors in your design. See the flow chart below:

For more information and tips on using the color changer tool, follow this easy tutorial! You may also find it helpful to read more about the Spoonflower Color Map and the way we print colors. Check out this resource on downloading an ASE profile.

Happy designing!

12 Days of Design: Day 9 Discover Repeats

January 9, 2017

So — you’ve gone through all the hard work of creating a design and that’s great, but you’re not done yet! It still needs to repeat. A fun feature of Spoonflower is that you can set up your preferences on scale and repeat for each type of product (fabric, wallpaper and gift wrap). An image can be large scale for fabric and then smaller scale for gift wrap. We also offer 5 different types (basic, half-drop, half-brick, mirrored and centered) of repeats that let you use one simple element to create a fabulous design. Let’s go over each one.

This is an example of the basic repeat, which will be the default repeat on the design when you first upload it to your Spoonflower account. [Read more…] about 12 Days of Design: Day 9 Discover Repeats

12 Days of Design: Day 8 Upload Your Design

January 8, 2017

Your design should now be finalized and ready to upload. Not ready yet? That’s okay — you can catch up with us here. Uploading images to Spoonflower is super simple! Once a file is uploaded to our site, you will find several ways to continue tweaking your design. Today we’ll focus on walking step by step through the upload process, highlighting our handy design tools and features along the way.

We created the design above using free high-res Photoshop brushes we downloaded from Brusheezy. The file was saved out of Photoshop as a JPG, 150 DPI, 720 x 600 pixels. The only thing you’ll need to follow along is a digital file that meets the Spoonflower image requirements. Got one? Great, just log into your Spoonflower account (or create one here if you do not already have an account), and let’s upload our designs! Here’s how it works: [Read more…] about 12 Days of Design: Day 8 Upload Your Design

12 Days of Design: Day 7 Create A Digital File

January 7, 2017

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Hopefully yesterday you were able to scan your sketches into the computer and nail down your design elements (if not that’s okay, get caught up here) because today it’s time to get digital! While professional designers frequently use Photoshop or Illustrator to whip up designs, Spoonflower is not just for pros! Here is a handful of our free favorite tools and apps.

Sketchbook is a great mobile tool for freehand drawing and creating designs from scratch that is available for both Android and Apple devices! Both SketchBook Express and SketchBook are free, and they offer add-on tools you can purchase.

Nifty Features:

Lots of brushes, pens, markers and other drawing tools.
You can create custom canvas sizes up to 2500 x 2500 pixels which prints at 16.7 x 16.7 inches on fabric.
Ability to create layers and use blending modes.

12 Days of Design: Day 5 Sketch Ideas

January 5, 2017

You’ve gathered inspiration, picked a theme, color palette and decided on the medium you want to work with. Now it’s time to get started sketching your initial ideas. Sketch with pen and paper, grab your digital drawing tablet, or jump in and work directly with the medium you’ve chosen for the finished design. Remember, you’re just sketching at this stage, so use whatever tools work best for you to mock up all of the ideas you have.

12 Days of Design: Day 4 Select a Medium

January 4, 2017

You have your inspiration, theme and color palette, so it’s time to choose a medium for creating your design. Don’t be afraid to experiment! You can create with any tools or supplies you like, from crayons to puff paint to digital design software. Mix different ways to create—make a collage of photos and words from a magazine, scan a painting to add digital graphics and text overlays, or bust your fabric stash to add texture and depth to a drawing. Just be creative and have fun. Follow along with us today as we go into depth about a few of the most popular techniques designers in our community like to use.