Keti Koti: Remembering a Painful Past

There are many holidays we create designs for, but this one is especially close to the heart. Keti Koti — which means Broken Chains in Creole — marks the abolition of slavery in the Dutch colonies. It’s a moment in history that holds deep significance, even though it’s a part of our past we’re not proud of.

The Netherlands has long struggled to face this history. In school, we’re rarely taught about the Dutch slave trade. Colonialism is often framed as a period that brought us prosperity and built the foundation of our economy. But the human cost — the pain, the generational trauma, the poverty, the chronic illness, is largely left out of the conversation. Even today, politicians continue to sidestep the topic, and Keti Koti is still not recognized as an official holiday.

Every year, I create and share artwork and illustrations for Keti Koti to keep the memory alive, to ensure this moment in history isn't forgotten. I’m grateful to live in a vibrant, multicultural city where more than 170 nationalities come together. Our city was built on the very history we’re trying to reckon with. And while I cherish the richness of our diverse cultures — the music, the food, the warmth of so many hearts — I can’t forget that we’re enjoying these gifts because of a dark and painful legacy. It’s bittersweet.
What saddens me most is seeing the extent to which our government still avoids taking real accountability. We must talk about these things. Make Keti Koti and official national holiday. We must learn from history, especially now, because oh boy, are we repeating ourselves in 2025.

If you are curious about our other Graphic Design work for your own business; please reach out and send us a message.

Make Love 🖤 Not War - use our FREE love & peace design & make your own little mark

Some messages should be heard just a little louder. This one is available for licensing. Completely FREE of charge, one week only. I want to make it as easy as I can spreading this message. Can't believe how history is repeating over and over again. Somehow our history lessons didn't stick. I am safe. And what a luxery that is! I am grateful every day but it's hard watching what's happening from the sidelines. This is the least my creative heart can do. It's about the little wins this week.


This design is available for licensing and available on fabric & wallpaper through our partners at Carriage House Printery & Spoonflower.

The Lookbook: Sweet Dreams Collection - New Fabric Trend & Surface Designs available for licensing

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in The Netherlands. Gray all day! I know, it's still loading. Hoping for snow! Anyway... we've decided this was a great time to create some snuggly dreamy designs to brighten up those dark winter days. Prints that are perfect for blankies, PJs, nursery items and home decor. As we're staying in even more (is that possible this year though?) we wanted to add some serene colors and sweet themes to our new Surface Pattern Collection.  

Winter is here. And during these harsh cold days we have ahead it would be nice to add some softness to our lives right? We create some earthy toned, dreamy designs. All inspird by our dreams. With moons, stars, and we made some minimals of course. Some nightly Llamas are included. Inspired by our dreams and with a touch of boho. All prints shown here are available for licensing. And they are all available on fabric in our Spoonflower shop too!

Wanna license print designs for your business? Please send us a message. We’ve also put some more info about licensing on our blog earlier this year, so if you’d like to read more about that and check out if licensing could be something for you read the blog post. We made an easy step-by-step about what you need to keep in mind before licensing print designs. Any questions? We’re happy to help. Just reach out!

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De Campus // Boulder Gym Accessories

As most of you might have noticed already while following Maaike on Instagram, she has gotten herself a new hobby. The past year she discovered climbing and has been bouldering in a local boulder gym in The Hague. Since she is having some insiders there, they asked us to create some party gear for their kids birthday parties and events.

Graphic design is not really part of our main business anymore but for this time obviously, she couldn’t say no. De Campus is a place that also makes an awesome birthday outie for kids. For these festive occasions, they needed a little stash of party stuff. So we created some cool placemats, flags, and a fun table cloth to dress us those birthday party tables.

The table cloth was made with a climbing wall print that is also available on fabric in our Spoonflower shop. The backdrop of this print is in the typical wooden color most climbing gym walls are made out of plywood. And these colors make the table cloth not too crazy patterned. For the placemats, that are also used for other occasions we used one of Maaike's photographs. They make a perfect and colorful abstract visual. The outdoor flags are designed in the typical De Campus blue tones with some subtle geometrics shapes underneath the white contrasting logo. It’s a fun result, right?

If you’d like to find out what it is we can do for your business, please send us a message.

Rusty Pink Autumn // New surface pattern designs available for fabric & art licensing

Fall must be my fave time of the year. It is filled with small rituals and as an autumn child this colorful season is my personal fave. When you realize the last rays of sun have to be soaked up fully. You go for walks in the forest to see the leaves turn into bright autumn colors and feed yourself with inspiration and at the same time calm the mind.

The forest is filled with inspiration: acorns, chestnuts, berries, toadstools and leaves in all shapes and sizes. I love the autumn lights, harsh and bright, waking me up in the morning. Autumn, I love it. And it’s my fave time of the year to create new print designs. Inspired by more earthy tones. Every year around this time I create new designs for the autumn season and an exclusive presentation is sent out to our customers who have the first pick when it comes to licensing exclusive designs. But we also look at some old prints and turn them into autumn versions: we add new colors and new scales to our Spoonflower shop, create some cool new palettes.

This year we create the Rusty Pink collection. With typical woodland, wild life and forest themes but also some more on trend prints like the Llama design featured here. And this fall animal prints; leopards and panther designs are it. So we added some of those too. Combined with our abstract designs they make a very nice broad collection to create home decor, fashion pieces for your little ones but also some on trend items for your own more mature wardrobe. So much to choose from! Take a look into our Spoonflower shop and let us know what you think of this new palette.

Designs featured here are available for licensing and on fabric and wallpaper in our Spoonflower shop. Click on the titels to get redirected to our Spoonflower shop.
Sunflowers - Llama Cactus - Rusty Leaopard - Dashes and Strokes

New Work // Maxomorra Fall Collection 2018

This week new Maxomorra prints for their fall collection were launched. The new Plus Collection contains a range of on trend illustrated print designs. We license our prints to this Swedish organic kids clothing company for two years now and as you expect from us: the new collection contains fun, minimal and colorful new Little Smilemakers prints.

We already launched over 10 design the past two years and we especially loved the past two spring and summer designs. They have been a hit! And even though it is a hot summer day here in the studio, it is time to release some new fall designs. Time for new prints!

We can already show you these two hand drawn original Little Smilemakers designs. Our sweet bunny print, which has been a hot seller at Spoonflower for the past three years, and what do you think of this new vintage car design? Inspired by Maaike's own Fiat, she's a little nutty for that one. How much fun to see this cool vintage style car illustration on the new Maxomorra range! Curious to see the rest of the fall collection? Stay tuned if you are an animal lover. There is still more to come! Super excited to see all reactions on these first two designs. Leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Sources of inspiration // Living at Sea

My home is located only a 10 minute bike ride from the beach. During the warmer season I love cycling through the dunes and stare at the sunset. It is such an amazing way to finish the day. Get some fresh air and clear my mind. During these warm days I notice my creations get influenced by the re-found calm. My designs get a little more minimal, soft and clear. I love this time of the year and I would love to live in a climate where visiting the beach on flip flops would be a possibility all year long. But for now I will just soak up the sun and try to store some energy for the colder season.

I love living close to the beach and therefore love to work with customers who make products for the ocean. Splash About, LSea Swimwear, Bambino Mio... We have licensed to numerous swimwear companies and love seeing our designs used for beachwear and sun protecting kids items. Batoko, Little Mermaids, Quinn & Belle, are a few companies we collab with. But we have a lot’s of sea themed prints still available. Maybe something for your business?

The sea has been a great influence for me ever since I moved to this city 10 years ago. The city is packed and busy and the beach offers a great ease on crazy days. I even created a -beach- series, soft abstract prints influences by the sea and the life around the beach, parasols, waves, seagulls. The collection is named ‘Miami.’ A little more catchy that naming the prints after this small Dutch city The Hague. These prints are great for woman’s fashion and accessories.

Two years ago we also created our ‘Ocean Life’ series. A fun range of prints for kids. With sea turtles, fish, sea horses and shells. Dedicated to the colorful imagination of your little one. We are still in love with our octopus print. Which one do you like most?

All prints shown here are available on fabric and wallpaper in our Spoonflower shop. The Miami prints and Ocean Life series are available for licensing. If you would like to use one of the prints featured here or any other designs you see in our feed just reach out and send us a quick message.

New Work // Milovia cloth nappies spring 2018 launch

Have you seen the new monkeys over at Milovia? We are very proud to be part of their newest collection once again. It has been a while we have made some new designs for this fun cloth nappy brand.

We started working together when they were rebranding their business. Cloth nappies were not all that common 5 years ago and their business took off and grew rapidly. From a small Polish company they grew into an international brand selling their products world wide and the company was in need of a more international name, appealing to their global customers. So they changed their name from Male me to Milovia and we have been making print designs for them every now and then.

Last year they expanded their collection with home decoration and accessories. We love seeing those pillows and blankets! How perfect is that? Your favorite prints are no longer limited to your babies bum. We are very happy to give them a little shout out here on the blog and of course we really wanted to show you this new Monkey print we made. We love seeing the end result. We hereby want to congratulate Milovia with another fresh collection. Curious and want to know more about cloth diapers? Check out their website for more info and products.

If you would like to license on of our designs for your products? Send us a quick message! Click here.

Daily Objects // New designs on iPhone cases, office supplies and home decoration

For over four years now we have been working together with Daily Objects. The company started out selling phone cases and accessories but has grown into a full trendy lifestyle brand. They have expanded their collection with stationary products, tote bags, pillow cases and so much more cool stuff. So as you can imagine it was about time to post a little piece about this company before the holiday craziness kicks in.

Global & On Trend Phone Cases
DailyObjects works with over 70 designers from around the world and offer a fun selection of graphics. Abstracts, comics, Scandinavian inspired prints… enough to choose from. They use advanced printing technologies to ensure that your cases and other items not only look fantastic but are also durable, they even offer a lifetime warranty on their products. Their amazing collection of designs have been carefully selected from artists across the globe, now offering designs from over 70 artists from 28 countries. Watercolorists, surface pattern designers, illustrators, they are all part of the Daily Objects collective and they are still expanding. So much fun to be part of this rapidly growing business.

Tote Bags & Pouches
Daily Objects offers a small range of leather goods, key chains, leather wraps and notebooks. But now they also launched a new collection of tote bags and pouches in different sizes with beautiful high quality leather detailing. We love those new totes! They make a perfect gift for Christmas. In Holland they have banned plastic bags, a cool shopper is a must. Oh yes and of course Daily Objects offers world wide shipping on their products too.

Notebooks
Ok as a designer I am pretty much a paper lover by heart. So when we found out Daily Objects was also making Notebooks we got super excited. We love those notebooks. I am a pretty neurotic list keeper so I can never have enough notebooks in stock. These notebooks have a soft matte finish. Perfect for some classroom notes or scribblings.

Cushion Covers
As a print designer my couch is filled with cool pillows. Daily Objects now offers cushion covers too. These cushions are a great gift for your BFF’s birthday or as a sweet house warming present. Many of our Indian themes are selected for their pillow range. There are some abstracts and Scandinavian inspired designs to choose from too. Take a look and smile up your new home!

Oh and don't worry they still sell over a 100 different cell phone case versions, protective cases, transparent cases and wood cut cases. Also they have some cool laptop sleeves and leather items. So for all you guy shoppers out there looking for a cool present for your girlfriend; check out their cool accessory collection for more manly stuff. Enjoy!

Sources of inspiration // Vienna: grandeur, cafe culture and art // Top 5 things to do and fun places to visit for creative souls

Vienna has been top of my list of European cities to visit for a long time. I have only crossed the city a couple of times in transit, just passing through while traveling east or south. But I never got around to actually explore this beautiful city up until this fall, when my friend Monika, author of a book I was featured in, invited me to join her.

The first thing you will notice about this city is it’s elegance. It’s respect for history and it’s grandeur. There are so many places to see and explore, whether you visit this city as a shopaholic, an architectural geek, foodie, or as a creative like me, there is something to see and do for everyone. This city is diverse and surprising. With a raw city edge like most European cities have but also the contrasting wealth, the grand architecture is a reminder of Vienna’s rich yesterdays. One of Europe’s hidden gem’s definitely.

Vienna has a rich history of performing arts, musicians, composers, dancers, and was Europe’s breading soil for mid-century painters. The city is buzzing with creation. I was lucky to visit this place during Vienna’s Design Week. And during my stay I also found out I was visiting during their annual Museum Night. So there could not be a better time to visit and explore Vienna’s cafe’s, museums, galleries, botanical gardens and wonderful architectural sights. Here is my personal top 5 of places to visit.

1 // Polaroid & Letter Press at Supersense
If you interested in photography and typography this cafe and store is heaven! Supersense located in a beautiful corner building on the Praterstraße. It pretty much is super for my senses, so the name is pretty accurate, at least to me it is. This beautiful coffee house used to be a thrift store. It now houses a great place to have a drink; grab a coffee, eat some Viennese cake but it also houses a shop that is just one big designer heaven. Typography books, custom letter press printing, a smell bar, toy camera’s and design and photography gifts. All things I just looove to get my hands on as a former typography student and photo freak. This cafe is run by the man who saved Polaroid. So you can see a great selection of old Polaroid camera’s, books and prints but you can also stock up on new stuff if you want to expand your collection In the back you can find the music section with some instruments and music gear. Just yes!

2 // Botanical Lovers
The Viennese Palmenhaus is a definite must see. One of Vienna’s most beautiful places to have a bite. Located within the museum quarter, this place is an oases. The original late 19th century structure is such a delight to visit, with it’s glass walls and roof, it’s enormous palm trees stretching out from the front to the back, this is a great location to have a decent dinner and look out over the Burggarten. I am a sucker for plants and just love to enjoy these kind of places. If you are a true botanical fan like me you can also take the subway to Schönbrunn that houses an authentic botanical garden. The place is truly magical. Do not forget to also take some time to visit the park and it’s surroundings and hop into the palace. You have to visit at least one palace in Vienna!



3 // Viennese cafe life
Vienna must be one of the most convenient places to work as a freelancer. Cafe’s can be found all around the city and Vienna has a strong coffee house culture. It is serious business. The waiters are dressed in suits, and those interiors! Oh! Whether you want to meet up with friends, have a productive day with your laptop or just want to read the newspaper, the cafe’s are buzzing and going out for a drink and a torte, a cake, is part of the Viennese culture. People meet up in coffee houses rather than at home and this is why so many cafe’s are still in business. If you have some time it is definitely worth stopping by the most authentic and fun Viennese cafes. My favorites so far were Café Prückel with it’s amazing pastels and retro furniture. Loved the interior! NENI a little place on the Naschmarkt. From their heated terrace you can enjoy the crowded market life. Café Savoy, for all my gay friends. A classic place with a mostly gay clientele and very kind staff. Justizcafé, located in the beautiful Palace of Justice, this cafe on the 5th floor has an amazing view over the city and as you might already know: I love a little top view. Have a peek into the mail hall, (it is gorgeous!) and take the elevator to the 5th and stare over the city.

4 // Museum Night & Design Week
I was lucky enough to actually visit Vienna during Design Week. During this week art and design students and design graduates are invited to show their works in galleries all over the city and talk about their philosophy and goals. Functional industrial design, porcelain, installations. Oh how I love art! On Saturday night I was also able to enjoy the city’s annual Museum Night. During this night Vienna’s museums open their doors and for only €15 you can visit all mayor museums. But there is so much to see. get the most our of your night and plan a route, with over 130 museums it is a must. Instead of visiting my usual art museums, alright I did visit some: Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Museum, with a wonderful expo about water life, the building it’s self is worth a little peek too though. Palace Liechtenstein with it’s crazy murals and ceilings. But I mostly tried some more out-of-the-box ones that are unique to Vienna. The Contraception and Abortion museum, very popular and crowded during Museum night. It is such an insightful place for young peeps that are discovering their own sexuality. It has tons of information about the female reproductive system. We paid a visit to the Schnaps Museum with an endless chat about alcohol, all in German, I had absolutely no idea what that was all about but the old brewery, tanks, bottles, the interior was wonderful. And of course we tasted some of the brews.

5 // Architecture
Vienna has a rich history and the old architecture is a great reflection of it’s wealthy past. Even though I haven’t seen too many modern structures I did enjoy the city hall, old mansions, villa’s, palaces and botanical houses. I was also amazed by the beauty of their public transport buildings. The patterned tiled floors, metal framework, the green color. Very classy. I loved the hidden Jugendstil places near the Naschmarkt. But the most beautiful old buildings must have been around the museum quarter. If you can appreciate these old gems just wander around these Viennese streets and hop in every building you get a chance to enter. I personally love the library with it’s flamboyant interior. Painted ceilings, golden details and books stretching from the floor to the roof. Breathtaking!



Whatever you decide to do in Vienna, you will notice the mix of old and new. With room for traditional culture and for new and modern. have yourself a great stay and be inspired by all great artists who once were roaming those cafe’s and streets of Vienna. You can still feel that creative buzz. I left this city with a whole bunch of new ideas and a new fresh creative energy. And I am sure it will do the same for you! So do boost this city on your "Places To Visit" list. Curious about all places I visit? Check the Little Smilemakers FourSquare list for a links and locations.

Hello Miami Beach // The Abstracts // A design process

We are very proud of our newly launched Miami collection over at Spoonflower. This summer we created a whole bunch of new abstracts inspired by Miami’s beaches and streets. In this post you can read a little something about the process of creating this range of abstracts.

For this collection I started with some expressive shapes. When I create abstract designs the process of creating the shapes is linked to how I feel. I usually make abstract art when there is lot’s of drama to deal with, it is a way to transform my emotions into creation without having to think to much about the final result, color palette or proportions of an illustration.

A hell of a ride
Throughout the year there have been several things I needed to deal with. A partnership that resulted in a dramatic ending. It turned out I was the only one invested in this colab, a romantic relationship that ended very sudden, uhm yeah, I sort of invested in that too. Some family ties that needed my attention. Lot’s of things have happened this year, shaking me to the core and rethinking my entire self. When I go though real lows I create. There is no other way I know to deal with these things. I have been making things ever since I was a little girl, and most of my designs are targeting kids, that is not a coincidence. Getting in touch with my fundaments, my pure self is all I can rely on. And that basic emotion gets translated into my artwork.

Soft edges
When I am angry I create raw, high contrast designs. I use a dry brush, black ink. It is very obvious you can tell something needs to get out. But this summer I was not angry, I was mostly hurt. And when I feel hurt I do not need to get into the ‘raw’ as much. For the new Miami series all designs and elements were made with markers and ink resulting in rounded geometric shapes. Using a large marker and large brush make the details and shapes a little softer, there is no raw edge like other abstract designs have had. This soft touch represents the vulnerability I did not want to avoid or ignore. But I felt vulnerable after all the events that happened this year. And I was not going to run from it. I decided to face it, and am still facing it. Creation transforms but does not take away the pain. it is a process.

There is nothing more soothing for me than to turn my illustrations, and for this series, my abstract shapes, into patterns. I think you have to be a little crazy making 2000 patterns a year. But turning these shapes into repeats is so fulfilling! It is like sleeping under fresh crisp sheets, or the scent of raindrops on the hot summer pavements. Well, I don’t expect you to understand but making patterns puts my mind at easy. There is no better way of meditating for me than staring at my own seamless repeats.

This too shall pass
The entire Miami series is about being vulnerable. Therefore the colors are soft with a warm blush pink and a light ice blue, and a contrasting whiskey brown for a little character. I am not much of a drama queen usually so when I finished my 15+ designs I felt like a huge weight fell off my shoulders. I can truly say making art is like cleaning my soul, at least get rid of a big pile of dirt. Creation, how I love you!

Every single design needs a name. When I started creating these basic shapes I did not work around a theme. I just noticed some shapes reminded me of the city and some reminded me of the beach. And I knew this series had to be named after Miami with it’s sunny sea side and busy streets, the art deco architecture. Naming these prints took away the serious and turned this collection into a fun range filled with humor. I had so much fun coming up with the names; cocktails, salt, derby. The bling, obviously. The food prints: fries, taco’s and hotdogs. The names of the designs tied them all together as a collection.

Now the entire collection is available on fabric and wallpaper via Spoonflower. Most of the designs are still available for licensing too. So take a look and enjoy the new abstracts.

Let's celebrate purple / 5 reasons why we all adore this color of power, independence and ambition

Colors have a strong but also subconscious effect on our everyday lives. During my design studies, studying color was our most demanding and time consuming subject. As a visual artist I was taught how to influence and effect others with my use of the color spectrum. After covering yellow, pink and blue, let's talk about the color purple.

1 // Lilac and history
The color purple used to be a royal color. Due to the rare occurrence of indigo and purple in nature, dying with this paint was very expensive and for a long time, the color purple was to be considered the color of luxury. Purple was sacred. So back in the day, royalty were one of the few people that could afford this color in fashion and home decor. Did you ever visit one of those European Palaces? If you look at the decoration, wallpaper, carpets, portraits on the wall, purple is always there. And because of the psychological effect, it is a not too obvious choice for decorating, but back in the day it was all about showing off your wealth. And up until today it is still associated with value and money.

2 // I love purple personality
The color purple is a combination of a calm blue and an energetic red. A mix of two that is associated with power and ambition but also extravagance (due to it’s historic use), creativity, pride, mystery and magic. If you adore this color you probably have a little bit of a curiosity toward spirituality. You are calm, balanced but also energetic and passionate. With a hint of extravagance, individualism and independence. You like to be a little different from anyone else, a little unconventional. A soft lilac and lavender represents beauty, delicacy and femininity. Also the color of adolescence. But most of all, if you favor this color, you are compassionate and kind, you love to take care of others and don’t ask for much in return. Well, you are welcome!



3 // Purple and branding
Understanding the basics of color is very important within a design process. Color can trigger a reaction, mood, calm us down, fuel us with energy. My design studies contained years of studying color. All hues and shades. Purple is a very interesting one, it has both warm and cold ‘effects.’ Due to this mix the color can cause unrest and discomfort. it can effect your mood in a negative way. The color is not very popular in branding but it does have a few characteristics that might be interesting, making purple a pretty good option for your logo. Due to this warm and cool mix, purple is a good communicative color. Calming nerves, it is uplifting and supports creativity. It is a gender neutral pick and the color is still associated with wealth and value. Therefore the color is great for general targets; young and old, male or female. And an interesting pick for corporate identities that represent both serious business ethics and creativity. If you want your branding identity to represent luxury and quality, this is a great pick.

4 // A little moody
You might remember those wizards from childhood, wearing purple. This color is associated with spirituality and painting your room in a lilac, violet or lavender will increase creativity; it stimulates the imagination. Purple is the color of magic. But too much exposure to purple can also lead to depression. So if you have a tendency to pick up energy easily, stay away from this color. Be careful decorating your home with this color. You don’t want to get moody in the bedroom right?

5 // Lilac and trend
Purple is a color that is constantly clashing. Warm and cold, calming and energizing. Therefore a middle purple is a tough color on the market. When purple enters the trend waves it usually is in a warm or a cold hue. All natural colors are in fact pretty popular at the moment. Soft and delicate lilac and violet. Purple flowers and veggies are very hot in the food industry right now. An interesting trend to follow and a fun way to make your plate a little more special.

New Fabric Collection //Kawaii Breeze

We have been working on three new collection this year and one of these brand new series of designs has been launched on fabric this week. Our Kawaii Breeze collection was inspired by our trip to Japan. With a candy sugar color palette and typical kawaii detailing this must be one of our favorite design collection we worked on so far.

Two years ago I visit Japan. The country had been on top of my bucket list for a while but since it is quite the travel, a full day in the clouds, I only wanted to visit if I had enough money to actually see everything I wanted to see. I have always been inspired by this quirky country that is so different from where I come from. it is colorful and I noticed while traveling, everything has a cute face on it. Everything is Kawaii. the postal service has a Kawaii logo, public transport regulations are all illustrated with cute little characters and even more corporate advertising was all about cute. Such an inspirational trip. I ended my trip in Tokyo, where I visit the Takeshita Dori, a street full of Harajuku, comic book and kawaii inspired shops. Everywhere I looked I saw beautiful pops of color. Unique color palettes everywhere. But when I got back, I started working right away. I did not have time to create and turn my inspiration into new designs up until spring of this year.

The new Kawaii breeze collection is a combination of what inspired me during my trip and on trend themes. We created some seasonal prints with summer fruits and seasonal botanical influences. We created some cool food designs, cat cupcakes and breakfast ingredients. I had a huge ice cream cone in Tokyo, so I could not leave out the ice cream. And we made some christmas designs as well. So you can create something in this style all year long. The entire collection is now available on fabric, cotton, faux suede, modern jersey, knit, canvas and satin. And we also added them to our range of wallpaper to create some adorable Kawaii walls for your baby nursery.

Since not everyone knows it’s way around a sewing machine, (oh I can tell you I don’t!) we also added some of these new Kawaii breeze designs to our Society6 portfolio. You can score some cool back to school items, for both boys and girls. Backpacks and notebooks and all sorts of cool accessories. So take a look if you are curious and of course don’t forget to tag us in your posts and creations!

New Collection // Maxomorra // Fall & Winter '17

Founded in 2008, Maxomorra is a children’s clothing brand from Sweden. Their clothes are characterized by functional design with playful colors and patterns, produced using ecologically and socially responsible textile processes.

The new Autumn Winter ’17 Plus Collection is a new design project, risen from their curiosity to explore Maxomorra outside the box. The new Plus collection contains eight prints in a limited selection of styles, all made by Little Smilemakers Studio. With a few extra details to the prints and a brand new and beautiful color palette. To create complete outfits, there is also a small basic collection with solid colored jersey and velour available. As always, pick your favorites, mix and match, and go out and be fabulous. There are t-shirts, leggings, hats and so much more to choose from. But have some patience, the collection will be released for autumn and isn’t in shops just yet.

Conscious
The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) was developed through a collaboration by leading standard setters with the aim of defining requirements that are recognized worldwide and that ensure the organic status of textiles from harvesting raw materials through environmentally and socially responsible manufacturing all the way to labelling in order to provide credible assurance to the consumer.
Maxomorra has been using GOTS certified cotton since 2008 and is a GOTS certified brand since 2011. So if you are looking for some new conscious baby and kids items to fill your shop with contact Maxomorra and ask for their new Autumn Winter Plus collection. Here are three of the designs that will be available next fall.

Behind the scenes: Printmaking // New Under Water World summer fabric collection 2017

Last week we released a new series of designs we have been working on. Our new Under Water World collection with over 25 different prints is now available as fabric and wallpaper and we would love to show you a little sneak peak, a little behind the scenes of making this collection.

Yeah yeah, I know, you know. I love traveling and I adore being in and on the water. When I travel I try to make boat trips and look for places to go snorkeling and have a little peak into the colorful world of sea creatures and coral. I have seen quite some amazing things with my face in the water and my ass catching a nice sun burn. Tiny colorful fish, beautiful coral reefs, sharks, yeah, not my fave! And I love the textures and shapes. So very inspirational. Unfortunately I could never capture the beauty of all this n my prints but for these new ocean series I tried to make some joyful colorful designs.

We originally designed these series for our own production and shop in The Hague. But since we were partnering with someone that decided to step out of this process we are now releasing the entire series at Spoonflower as well. Our own production is on hold at the moments and these prints are too cute not to share right? For the print making process I started out making some a quick list of all sea life I have witnessed while traveling to tropical places. There were so many creatures but there were a few which I thought were most fascinating. The Octopus, turtles, the sea horse and the colorful corals. These were the base, the foundation of these new series.



Corals
From here I started making some sketches. For the first stage of sketching I use a fine pen with black ink, usually a sharpie or a micron. For this series I used both since I did not only draw outlines but texture as well. I started off making a whole bunch of different illustrations, a variety of corals, leaves, plants. And after filling several pages of my sketchbook with drawings I try to select the most interesting shapes. For the corals I choose three completely different shapes that make a wonderful series of abstracts by there own. I turned these into three different designs. These three designs all have a different quirky shape and texture, eventually these are put into the Under Water World color scheme so the prints are easy to mix and match with each other, or with some of the creatures. But not at this stage. I just focus on shape and how to get a strong repeat with basic elements. After that we started with the creatures.

Under Water Creatures
After sketching a whole bunch of ocean creatures we had to make our pick. We decided to skip the fish designs since we already have some cool dolphins, sharks and whales up in our Spoonflower shop. So after eliminating these three main characters stood out. The octopus, turtles and sea horse.

The Octopus, which I keep calling Jelly, stubborn as I am, since the characters are a little mix of both, has two variaties. The small ones; that are all slightly different and make a great print for kids fashion items and home textiles for the nursery. And then the large ones; for the older kids, these illustrations have a nice texture filling with dots and stripes and is also available as home pillow. Making the shape larger gives the illustration more character. The image looses a little of the cuteness that makes is more suitable for a slightly older audience. I wanted to make one illustration suitable for both babies and slightly older kids. But I could not figure it out. So instead of choosing one, there are two versions of these awesome creatures. Hope you like them.

The Ocean consists of so many amazing and colorful creatures. But most interesting are the shapes and textures down there. The Sea Horse has always fascinated me. Such a curious face and funny shape. We added some sea horse designs to the collection. I just couldn’t resist. I love the shape of these creatures. So beautiful! We could not leave them out. To complete these series we made one design with all corals and creatures combined. We are so curious to figure out which of these designs will pop up in our feed first. We are so curious to seeing what our customers will make from this fabric!

Home decorations & Paper art
Finishing up a series of prints means I can use them for all sorts of products. Our new series of designs has also been translated into a bunch of colorful posters and wrapping paper. For now these will only be available via our shop in The hague. We also added some pillow patterns to our Spoonflower portfolio so you can make your own cool jelly or sea horse pillow. I am looking forward seeing these babies pop up in nurseries and kids interiors! Hopefully you like our new summer series as much as I do. Click on the link to check out all our new designs over at Spoonflower. Select your favorite fabric or try out a swatch for some unique wallpaper.

SHOP NEW UNDER WATER COLLECTION

Woohoo! // Yay! // Celebrating 5 years of Little Smilemakers fabric on Spoonflower

This year we are celebrating our fifth anniversary this year over at Spoonflower. We opened up our Spoonflower shop back in 2012 when Spoonflower was only a new bee in the digital on demand printing business. There was so much to do and so many themes were not covered yet. We started making designs just for Spoonflower since the fabric industry was pretty old school and it was hard to find some colorful, fun and on trend designs. And while we were licensing to fabric printers, the designs they would pick were not really our own faves. We had so much stuff we wanted to put on fabric!

A great platform for Artists
For us working with Spoonflower was a great step of getting back in controle of our designs. We had been selling our prints over at Shutterstock but there was more and more misuse. Fabric popping up with our designs everywhere, but without paying for the proper license. It was way to easy to get your hands on the original vector files and do whatever. With Spoonflower we felt our designs were safe, our files were never shared with third parties and this way we could rely on the fact we would be properly compensated for each and every sale. In the beginning sales were pretty slow but after a year or so our designs got picked up. After starting our with our more colorful prints. Our plus signs, feathers, triangles and other geometric prints became hot sellers and we started to upload more designs ahead of the trend. Our 10 year old pineapple print suddenly took off and was lucky enough to catch the trend wave. If was fun to see how some of our older surface designs were suddenly selling like crazy when the trend kicked in.

Let's print color
Back in those first years, digital printing was all new and exciting for fabric designers, there were no color limitations so we could go nuts on color. Instead of designing fabric in the usual 5 colors we could add watercolors, use a rainbow of colors, shades, anything seemed possible. But of course after that first crazy exciting omg-we-need-more-color rush we toned down our prints a little bit. With a background in graphic design and typography I was looking for a more clean balance. Reducing colors and shapes lead to our very recognizable Scandinavian range. I always loved designing on a crisp white background and we were lucky this trend picked up immediately. Our woodland animals and geometric prints have been going strong ever since and the past two years we have been focussing more on adding more abstracts and raw detailed prints to our shop. Prints we love to see in our homes and fashion ourselves.



Researching & insight
Spoonflower has been a great way to built our portfolio, test the market, monetize our designs, get insight about what works where, since they sell and ship world wide. having that insight is very important. With all that information we know what works where and we can advise and coach our clients in their design signature for their brands. But what we love most of all is to see what our fabric is used for. We see new creations pop up on our Facebook page and Instagram every day and it is so much fun to see people from all over the globe enjoy working around our themes and color schemes. Making wonderful creations, kids fashion and accessories, totes, sports stuff, home decoration, pet accessories, you name it, we’ve seen it and we love it!

Links & Credits
For this post we have used some finished items from our long term supporters. Bean Sprout, Pistol and Arrow, Lucie June Boutique and Hen House Apparel. We just love their beautiful range of products using some of our all time best-sellers: Black and White Hedgehogs, Little Lions, The grid, Pineapple Arrows and of course our fave Bunny design. If you have some cool creations to shop yourself, please send us your finished items!

We’ll keep continuing expanding our portfolio, adding new designs and new color schemes every week. Our portfolio has over 3400 designs up for sale on fabric and wallpaper. Spoonflower has been a great platform for designers and creatives and we are proud to have over 2200 people following our work and with over 138.632 favorites received so far we would like to thank each and every one of our customers who has even ordered one of our designs. Thank you so much for your support and your awesome creations, sweet comments and requests. Let’s continue this journey!

Made with Little Smilemakers Studio Fabric // Top 5 // April 2017

It is so exciting to see a finished project after working hard on a new collection of design or a series of illustrations for our clients. But with finished fabric designs it is even a bigger surprise to see what customers create. To see how final products evolve when people put their own creative energy in there is amazing. 
 
If you browse around on Etsy or Instagram for some kids fashion or home decoration you are very likely to stumble upon some Little Smilemakers prints. Most creatives with small home based businesses sell their projects via internet and tag us via Instagram. So we see some amazing things pop up in our feed every month. We love how Little Smilemakers creations are the foundation for other creatives all around the world to work with. So here is our monthly blog post that features some creative results from Australia, UK, The Netherlands, New Zealand and the USA. This month we selected a whole bunch of pink fabric designs, turned into the most gorgeous items. Kids fashion, nursery accessories and have you seen those baby booties? There was so much to choose from! We have selected some cute baby shoes, leggings, baby bibs and a cute little teepee romper. Take a look and see if there is something for your little one too. This is our top 5 April selection.

Little Living
This fun children’s clothing shop based in the UK specializes in fun, comfortable apparel handmade with love for your little ones. They sell all of our favorite prints this season. Our featured pink teepee's, clouds and bunnies are up in their Etsy shop. All items are made with soft jersey fabric. Little Living. Perfect for your little ones soft baby skin. Wanna see the entire collection? Check out the shop on Etsy.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/littlelivingshop

Tiny Little Cactus
Krista visit our shop in The Hague to get her hands on some of our Memphis fabric. She became a fan of our designs and a week later she ordered a whole lot more of our fabric via Spoonflower. When we asked her to tag us in her social media posts, because we are curious what peeps make from our fabric, the most wonderful items popped up. We love anything cute and love this local webshop filled with crafty stuff and everything Kawaii. For this months “Made with” we selected her adorable little baby booties in our abstract pink dashes print. Soft sole shoes, perfect for your little ones tiny feet. Seriously, things don’t get much cuter than this! If you are looking for some baby shoes or if you are a big Kawaii fan like we are check our her website. Such a perfect new born or baby shower gift!
https://tinylittlecactus.com



Quinn & Belle
When you're looking for something modern, fun, stylish and cute, Quinn & Belle has you covered. From handmade, one-of-a-kind items to unique tees & dresses, we truly are the one-stop shop for modern parents that is sure to keep you smiling. Quinn and Belle is a shop based in Arizona run by a mom of four girls. Creating beautiful clothes that were as unique as each of their little personalities. That's how Quinn & Belle was born. A girl should be two things in life: whomever and whatever she wants! Everything you see in the shop is hand selected and handmade by someone who understands how important it is that your dollars go as far as they can and your little ones look great in the process. For this months post we selected a cute Easter theme that has been a hot seller this spring: our pink bunnies. Take a look into her shop and check out all Little Smilemakers creations.
https://www.quinnandbelle.com

Ollie & Coco
Ollie & Coco is a small company based in Australia and makes adorable baby bandana's and bibs. They just added a big selection of Little Smilemakers prints to their shop. We love designing on a clear white background and clearly we are a good fit. We love seeing so many of our designs pop up in their shop so for this months post we selected their pink blush leopard. But there are so many more to choose from. We have counted over more than 20 Little Smilemakers designs so far so eat your heart out! Wanna get your hands on one of these cool new bibs? Check out their cool webshop!
https://www.ollieandcoco.com

Bean Sprout
Bean Sprout must be one of our favorite webshops using our Spoonflower fabric. Hiedee has a great eye for unique and bespoke designs and we love her style and gorgeous photography. Bean Sprout has a pretty big collection of Little Smilemakers fabrics, all turned into the most adorable baby and kids fashion accessories like baby bibs, book bags, summer hats and nappy wallets. For this months pink theme we selected our bow ties, bunnies and one of their abstracts with pink and white brush strokes on pink. Curious? Take a look into her gorgeous shop for more wonderful handmade creations.
https://www.beansproutstore.co.nz

Sources of inspiration: On the white // Living & working Nordic style

In a world where you can get anything on demand within a day, our lives and days are fully booked with appointments, skype call, internet dates and every day things we are all looking for a little ease at the end of the day. We are becoming more and more aware that dedicating our lives to more important things, spending our time with a more mindful approach is probably a better way to peace and happiness. That is why the Scandinavian design is a very strong trend, influencing design, fashion and interiors all over the world.

As a Dutch designer I also am stuck with the Scandinavian handwriting: I don't mind, space and white is important in our designs. Dutch design can be characterized as minimalist and clear with a little touch of color. Colors are usually trend related choices but the handwriting will always remain pure and spacious. In Scandinavian design white is also an important element in the design. It is not just clear space that can be filled up. try to convince your client of that when he buys a full page add in a magazine and want to fill up every inch with info. Designers love there 'space.'

Peaceful white
For our designs we use a white canvas. Every designer, painter, artist or musician, they all start out on a blank canvas or well, at least a clean slate. The very start. This white element is very important to our design process. I love designing prints on white and the majority of our designs are in fact originally made on a crisp white background. The strong black inky lines form a wonderful contrast to the white and the extra colors. And after designing for over 10 years, I am so happy this Scandinavian style was embraced in home decoration and fashion in other places than just Scandinavian countries only. The serenity and purity is finally picked up in other parts of the world too.

Easy home
So many things are keeping us busy each day. We have to get up, check out messages, get dresses, eat, work, we get exhausted by all the choices that cross our path. Here in the Northern part of Europe we live inside our homes for the biggest part of the year. Our cold climate keeps us cuddled up inside for months during the colder season and while most of us live in urban areas we do need our piece and quite. Our interiors have been a little more clean, and our spaces a little more serene compared to interiors in warmer climates where the colors are brighter and nature is lush and green.

Our Scandinavian style of living gets adopted in homes in warmer climates and in very different cultures such as India and Japan. Mid-century architecture and interior design is booming again and we all love to reduce the amount colors and stuff in our lives. Going back to a little more basic again. That is what Scandinavian design is all about. Natural colors, textures and lot's of white. Don't be afraid to grab that cluther from the shelves and you really don't need all those tacky commercial buddha's. Make your space one where you can get some rest and refuel.

Japanese serenity
Our Scandinavian inspired designs have been more and more popular each year. Recently we have been exploring the Japanese market with our designs. We are now selling our prints at Green Apple, a fabric shop and Milk Panda, a webshop that sells toys, bedding and other interior products for the Japanese home. I think the traditional Japanese style is very much related to the Scandinavian one. It is pure, with our too much fuss. That is why Natsuko Anderson, founder of Milk Panda, started her business, she wanted to combine these two styles, offer well designed honest products and in her worldwide search she found our Scandinavian designs. In the Milk Panda shop you can find a special range of clean crisp black and white prints for kids. We are very happy to see our prints pop up all over the world but Japan holds a very special place in our designers hearts. Of course. It's Japan!

Made with Little Smilemakers Studio Fabric // Top 5 // March 2017

It is so exciting to see a finished project after working hard on a new collection of design or a series of illustrations for our clients. But with finished fabric designs it is even a bigger surprise to see what customers create. To see how final products evolve when people put their own creative energy in there is amazing. 
 
If you browse around on Etsy or Instagram for some kids fashion or home decoration you are very likely to stumble upon some Little Smilemakers prints. Most creatives with small home based businesses sell their projects via internet and tag us via Instagram. So we see some amazing things pop up in our feed every month. We love how Little Smilemakers creations are the foundation for other creatives all around the world to work with. So here is our monthly blog post that features some creative results from Australia, UK, The Netherlands and the USA. This month we selected a whole bunch of fresh trendy fabrics, turned into the most gorgeous items. Kids fashion, nursery accessories and have you seen those baby booties? There was so much to choose from! We have selected some cute baby shoes, leggings, masks and swimwear. Take a look and see if there is something for your little one too. This is our top 5 March selection., 
 
Tiny Little Cactus
Krista visit our shop in The Hague last month to get her hands on some of our Memphis fabric. She became a fan of our designs and a week later she ordered a whole lot more of our fabric via Spoonflower. When we asked her to tag us in her social media posts, because we are curious what peeps make from our fabric, the most wonderful items popped up. We love anything cute and love this local webshop filled with crafty stuff and everything Kawaii. For this months “Made with” we selected her adorable little baby booties in our colorful Memphis print. Soft sole shoes, perfect for your little ones tiny feet. Seriously, things don’t get much cuter than this! She has our Memphis print in both black and white in her shop but also lot’s of our other abstract designs are coming. If you are looking for some baby shoes or if you are a big Kawaii fan like we are check our her website.   
 
Ad Hoc
We were going bananas when we saw these fun eye masks made by Ad Hoc sleepwear. For their new range of masks this Australian webshop selected three Little Smilemakers prints including one of our all time favorites: Our Banana Memphis design in yellow. We love their fun range of sleep marks and pajamas for both men and women. These fun masks make a great gift for the travel addict like me. I really wanna get my hands on one of these a.s.a.p. Feel the same way? Check out their webshop. 



Bambino Mio 
The new Bambino Mio swim nappies are finally launched. For this years splashy season we made two designs that are included in their new range; Pink blush coral for girls and Memphis rain drops for boys. We have been working with Bambino Mio for a while now and we love their nappies, potty training pants and other products, making life so much easier for moms and dads. Their now have a broad range of Little Smilemakers designs in their range of products and we love to see all those cute little baby bums pop up in our feed. Check out all Bambino Mio products in their webshop. 
 
Little Eskimo
Good news for all Little Smilemakers fans down under! We found this modern lifestyle label for baby and kids over at Etsy. This Australian shop has a big collection of Little Smilemakers fabric in their cute shop full of kids clothes and accessories. We love their colorful fresh picks that are on trend. Abstracts, cool gender neutrals, lions, ice cream and many more fun prints are included into their collection. For this months blogpost we selected a cute range of girly harem pants. Aren’t they darling? Go take a look! 
 
Mama Sew Happy 
We love this small online shop full of fun, fresh fashion pieces for kids created by stay-at-home-mom Amber who runs her small business from her home in California. With a good eye for design she has created a wonderful collection of kids clothes. And she is one of our returning customers so you might have seen some of her handmade items already somewhere in our social media feed. Her style is fresh and cool and full of gender neutrals to choose from. Take a look at her shop and select your fave pieces.

BB Fabrics & Little Smilemakers Studio // New Memphis style inspired collection

Have you seen our new collection over at BB fabrics? We have been working with this company for a few years now and last months they launched their new summer collection of colorful home textiles. I collaboration with their creative studio we made a new collection with a mix of pastels, geometric basics and a Memphis twist.

BB fabrics is a company that has been running around the textile business for four generations. With an eye for good design and a warm heart in doing business they are the absolute top of the industry. This year they changed their entire look with new name, a new logo, and a stylish new website and we are honored to be part of this new direction with our new summer range.

You might have seen some posts on our Instagram already. We are very proud to share this new collection with you. We made some memphis inspired ice cream designs that lead to this colorful collection for the summer season. BB fabrics offers a large collection of home decoration textiles and heavy weight fabrics. With their in house design studio they collaborate with designers and license brands to offer a broad range of unique prints with every new season. Their high quality fabric is sold from stock, so they are ready to ship within 48 hours. Check out their website for all new prints and order your favorite Little Smilemakers designs here. Stock up for your business and order these new prints before they are all sold out!

For a few years we have been collaboration with BB Fabrics now. We have developed a whole bunch of designs together in the past. We love their no nonsense honest way of doing business and which lead us to a long term collaboration with hopefully many more fun collection to come we are currently looking into doing exclusive work for them. We love to give them a shout out here. So stay tuned!