Surtex Sneak Peak – Fleucy Lucy Collection

 Of all my surface pattern design collections that will be on display at Surtex 2012, I think Fleucy Lucy is my favorite. I got my inspiration from girly lace trim and delicate eyelet fabric. My mom is an excellent seamstress and when I was growing up, in any spare time she had, she was either sewing or helping me and my sisters make something creative. I loved to look through our piles of scraps of beautiful fabric, lace and trim and imagine what lovely things we could make. 

The color scheme, however, was not inspired by my mom. In fact, in her day, as she says, you would never think of pairing orange with pink. I am not a huge fan of orange myself, but I am beginning to really like it as an accent color to go along with different shades of pink and yellow.

Fleucy Lucy is what my husband used to call one of our nieces, even though her name is not Lucy. I’m not sure if fleucy is even a word, but for some reason it just seemed like the perfect name for this surface pattern design collection. 

Here are some mock-ups to show how these surface pattern designs might look on some different products like infant bedding, bath and kitchen accessories, and gift bags and partyware.

What kind of products do you envisions these patterns on? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Just leave me a comment below. 

The Zoo is a Great Place for Surface Pattern Design Inspiration

 The ZOO,
with all it’s wild, wacky and weird animals,
not to mention its beautiful flowers, lush greenery
and unique landscapes, is a great place to get
design inspiration, especially for surface pattern design. 

I recently had the opportunity to go to the Ft. Worth Zoo with my cute little niece and nephew. We had a blast!

That’s me with the big sunglasses; my daughter holding my nephew and my cute niece with the big yellow bows. 

My nephew was fascinated with the bears!

And I saw some animals I had never seen before, like these striped antelope.

Do flamingos only have 1 leg?

And what day at the zoo would be complete without elephants?

Here is a surface pattern design collection I created using inspiration from the Zoo.

And here is some mockups to show how these patterns might look on infant bedding or in a nursery.

This surface pattern design collection will debut at Surtex 2012 where I will be represented by A Fresh Bunch in booth #444.

What is YOUR favorite thing about the zoo?

Surtex 2012 Sneak Peak – Birthday Balloon Doodle Collection

Here is a sneak peak of one of my collections that will debut at Surtex 2012 in less than 2 weeks. 
(Surtex is the premiere trade show for selling and licensing original art and surface pattern designs.) 

The Birthday Balloon Doodle collection combines handwriting and doodles with subway art and brightly-colored stripes and dots. The girly version includes pink, while the non-gender specific version has red instead of pink. Both versions contain the same remaining colors of orange, turquoise, bright blue, lime green and yellow.

Below are some mockups to show how the Birthday Balloon Doodle patterns will look on gift bags and party ware. Would you use products in these patterns for a birthday party? If so, who would the party be for?

JoDitt Designs Debuts at Surtex 2012 with A Fresh Bunch

Every since I attended Surtex (along with the National Stationery Show) in 2008, my dream has been to become a surface pattern designer and to exhibit at Surtex. I am so excited to announce that my dream is coming true this year!!! 

I have had so much fun designing patterns and envisioning them on a variety of products.

I will debut 10 colorful surface pattern design collections at Surtex 2012, ranging from holiday and birthday to garden and floral themes.

I will be represented by A Fresh Bunch in booth #444. Contact Jenny to make an appointment or just come by the booth. 

Easter Stripes Invitation

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life down his life for us. – 1 John 3:16

Share your faith as you celebrate Easter with this Easter invitation design with bright pastel stripes and dots.

I had so much fun designing this invite because this is my favorite color palette of all. I would wear these colors every day if I could.  

Design created by JoDitt for Little Card Company.

Available exclusively at LittleCardCompany.com.

God will never forget His promises

As I was designing this cute elephant, I was reminded of God’s faithfulness.

Thank you, LORD, that you promised to never leave me or forsake me.

And thank you that you are faithful to all your promises and loving toward all you have made. 

Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”

Hebrews 13:5
Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsakeyou.”

Psalm 145:13
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promisesand loving toward all he has made.

New Easter Invitations at Little Card Company

I partnered with Little Card Company at Christmas and now I am thrilled to
have some new Easter invitations on their site this Spring.

Here is one of my new Easter Invitations with a
fun, lacy typography called Easter Lace. 
The bottom of the card has a place for a Scripture.
This one comes on the invitation by default, but it is editable.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.
The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.” -John 11:25

Click on the image of the invitation to order now.
Or check out their other colorful Easter invitations at: LittleCardCompany.com 

How will you celebrate Easter?

I believe that life is worth celebrating…
because God is good, all the time
and He is always worthy of praise. 

I especially love celebrating life at Easter and spreading the JOY of Christ
because without the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus,
we would not have eternal life with God, nor would we have peace, joy and love. 

How will you celebrate Easter and the resurrection or our Lord Jesus Christ this year?

How will you spread the JOY of Christ this Easter?

An Easter Brunch or Easter Dinner after celebrating with your church?

An Easter Egg Hunt for the kids?

If you will need to send an invitation for your Easter celebration,
be sure to check out my new Christian Easter Invitation designs that
all contain Scriptures and are now
available for sale at Little Card Company. 

Trying my hand at surface pattern design

I’ve been interested in surface pattern design for quite a few years and my interest sure increased after I attended Surtex in 2008. Although interested, I always seemed to be too busy designing cards and wedding invitations to try my hand at pattern design. But I have decided that is really what I want to do, so I am currently participating in a fabulous e-course by Rachael Taylor, called, “The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design.”  I am learning so much and and really enjoying all the creative excercises and assignments. 

One of our creative exercises was to create a pattern collection around the new Pantone color of the year, Tangerine Tango. Here is what will probably be the main pattern for my collection. I view this collection as possibly being used for gift wrapping paper or gift bags.

And here is one of the coordinating patterns:

If you couldn’t tell, my inspiration was eyelet fabric and lace trim. My mom is a fantastic seamstress and used to make all of my clothes (as well as my two sisters’) when I was a little girl. I loved going to the fabric store with her to pick out fabrics for new projects. I remember a cute summer dress she made me out of white eyelet fabric that I just loved. 

I am having so much fun designing patterns and will try to post more here as I find time.

Joyfully,

25 Ways to Spread the Joy of Christ this Christmas | Day 4

In my previous post, I shared with you ways to Spread the JOY of Christ this Christmas through verbal communication. The next few posts will be about ideas for Spreading the JOY of Christ this Christmas through your written communication—anything that must be read, whether it be on paper on on your phone or computer screen.

This first idea may seem obvious to some, but I’m going to say it anyway:

Spread the JOY of Christ this Christmas by
sending out Christmas cards that have a CHRISTmas message!

Be very selective in the Christmas card design that you choose, skipping the ones that say “Happy Holidays” for ones that say, “Merry Christmas,” “Joy to the World,” “Happy Birthday Jesus,” or other sentiments that let the receiver know that the reason you celebrate this joyous season is to celebrate the birth of JESUS!

If you have been frustrated over a lack of Christmas photo cards with modern and fun designs that also included an expression of Christian faith, well I have good news for you. A couple of years ago, the women of The Little Card Company were also frustrated with the lack of photo greeting cards with a genuine faith-based Christmas message, so they started their own company to fill that need. 

Here are a few of the Christian Christmas Photo Cards available at LittleCardCompany.com:

*Disclosure: Some of the Christian Christmas Photo Cards shown above  were designed by me and I will receive royalties on any purchases you make.

Also, before you mail your Christian Christmas Photo Cards, pray over them and ask God to bless the recipients in a special way and fill their hearts with HIS joy and peace.

I’d love to hear your ideas and see your photos. Let me know how you are spreading the JOY of Christ this Christmas by commenting below or by posting Joyful Heart Design’s facebook wall. You can also visit the Spreading the Joy of Christ this Christmas facebook page to share your ideas, photos and links, and to get more ideas.