Top 5 All time fave Little Smilemakers print designs / Fabric & Surface Designs

We’ve been creating print designs for a loooooong time now. Back in the day, it was easy to fill in the gap. There was no such thing as a designer licensing print designs. So business took off quite easily. Nowadays the surface design market is very saturated and most creative academies offer surface design as a course. Not in my days. I have a background in graphic designs and typography. The typography studies let me find the balance in every pattern I create up until today. We started out creating things that just weren’t there yet. And over the years we’ve been doing trend reports and we’ve seen both short and long trend waves come and pass us by. But some designs just never seem to leave our licensing list.

For this post, we selected our 5 most popular print designs to date. Some were made over 10 years ago and got picked up by a trend. Some got popular simply because they ended up in a Chinese database and turned into the most used but also stolen designs. And some are just good designs, thank god for the good designs, right? A properly balanced, color sweet spot print design.

1 // The Scandinavian Hedgehogs
We made these hedgehogs 7 years ago. At first, this surface design was only available on a white background. And most of our best selling pieces are created with a white background first. The white is a crisp clean contrast with any color used. And therefore perfect for baby nursery and clothing pieces. Pure and soft. Now, this design has been licensed all over the world numerous times. And the hedgehogs are also available in versions with gender-specific and gender-neutral backgrounds. This one still remains our best selling design to date.
Shop Hedgehogs here.



2 // The Monochrome Grid
I personally am not a very big fan of checkered designs. But simple basic check prints were missing from our portfolio. I came up with the Monochrome Grid around the same time the hedgehogs were made. I was creating an exclusive design series that was created from raw brush strokes and this grid designs didn't make the cut. Little did I know this would be one of our hot selling designs for years to come.
Shop grid designs here.

3 // Scandinavian Bunnies
There are a couple of evergreen themes in print designs. This bunny design is not a typically popular theme for kids patterns. Around Easter, we always see an increase of bunny interest but this one has been selling like mad for years, all year long. It might be the illustration that is suitable for both babies and older kids but I think it mostly has to do with the fact gender neutral kids products are very popular. And the bunny is not gender-specific like some: cats for girls, dinos for boys. It's fun to see so many different things created with this fabric. It's available in various sizes and colors and available for licensing.
Shop Bunnies here.



4 // Colorful Rainbows
Talking about evergreen designs, this rainbow design certainly is one. This particular design has been our all-time fave gender-specific design and has been licensed for girls clothes and baby nursery. At the moment, the rainbows are also very much on-trend and another rainbow design of ours is rapidly climbing the best selling charts. I am pretty sure this one will keep taking the lead though, the rainbow trend is just a wave and this print is less influenced by trend with its multiple colors and simplistic shape it's a contemporary design. Perfect for girls, even though we also have a version for boys without the pinks, this one remains a hit.
Shop Rainbows here.

5 // Geometric Indian Animals
Our last design finishing off the top 5 faves is our geometric Indian Animals design. Another design suitable for both genders. These animals were licensed to numerous companies, for baby bedding, kids fashion, and new creations made with our Spoonflower fabric keep popping up on our feeds. Definitely one of our fave designs this one. it was a blast coming up with these quirky animals full of personality.
Shop Indian Animals here.

As you can see in this top 5, most of our designs that sell best are not specific to gender. And we love the fact that parents and customers get more conscious about the durability of their products. A great trend! All of these designs are however also available in more girly and boyish tones if you do want to create something specific to gender. They're available in our Spoonflower shop and available to license directly if you wish to use our design for your business. They can be used for all sorts of products, not only on paper or fabric. If you're curious to know more just send us a message or check our website for more info and rates about licensing.

Made with Little Smilemakers Studio Fabric // November 2016

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 the US, Australia, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Indonesia. This month we selected a whole bunch of crisp, minimal, Scandinavian inspired fabrics, clean whites with a color pop and monochrome prints turned into the most gorgeous items. Kids fashion, nursery accessories and home and interior decoration, so much to choose from! We have selected some cute harem pants, leggings, baby blankets, bibs and cool lion hats. Take a look and see if there is something for your little one too. This is our November selection.

Mooi
Mooi is a company that specializes in baby nursery textiles and home products for kids based in Indonesia. We love seeing our prints traveling all around the world. Their range of bedding and textile products is fresh and light. Their whimsical prints are on trend and we love their photography styling. Their collection is modern and Scandinavian inspired with lot's of white and color pops. For their new collection they selected our triangles and turned them into these awesome blankets. Curious about the rest of their collection? Take a look in their shop.

Kidooz
Kidooz is a Dutch shop full of fun kids toys, clothes and accessories. They offer a small collection of baby, toddler and kids clothing all eco friendly and we selected our bubbles and pineapples for this months made with. These prints fit perfectly in our Scandinavian style November post don't you think? Looking for a fun gift or wanna get your hands on one of these cute leggings? Take a look into the shop and order your fav print.



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 to see so many of our designs pop up in their shop so we thought a little shout out was in place. We love to see some less obvious prints used for baby items. Those coffee cups and percolator bibs are perfect for caffeine loving mummies! Or Italy lovers like me. Okay, I might go for a headband then... Wanna get your hands on one of these cool new bibs? Check out their shop!

Little Pitterpat
Every month a new set of soft soles pops up in our feed. Little Pitterpat has been using our designs for over two years now and we keep loving the way our fabrics are turned into the most adorable shoes. These soft soles baby shoes are made by Sharie. All items are made by hand in Sharies studio in Montana. For this months 'Made with' post we selected their new Raccoon Cactus print. One of our fave designs suitable for both boys and girls and we know how handy those gender neutral items can be. Looking for a baby shower gift? These cute shoes make a great present. So take a look into her shop if you want to have a pair of these. She has over 500 different items, yes lot's of different prints as well, to choose from.

Bean Sprout
We love this African Lion print and are happy to see this new design pop up on finished items. Bean Sprout has a great selection of Little Smilemakers fabrics turned into the most adorable baby and kids fashion accessories. Monochromes, christmas themes, enough for you to take a look and order something cute.

Freshtastic Little Smilemakers Fabric: Memphis Style Abstracts // August selection

Every month we upload new work to our Spoonflower shop and over the past 5 years our portfolio has grown from zero to over 3000 designs to choose from. Behind the scenes we can search within our portfolio but we noticed customers have a hard time finding what they want sometimes. With our monthly Freshtastic Fabric post we feature new fabric that was added to our shop. We include some direct links to these new designs and color versions. Hopefully we can filter on trend designs and make the process of selecting prints a little easier.

For our August post we selected some of our new abstracts. I love making designs with a little raw edge. For these series of designs we used large brushes, ink and paint rollers and turned those abstract spots and strokes into beautiful series for the summer season. Colorful raw Memphis Style inspired abstract fabric designs for cool kids clothes and fun items to color your home. Hopefully you like them as much as I do and we hope to se some finished creations pop up in our feeds.

Lemons
What is your favorite fruit? I personally love all sorts of fruit prints. I have had my cherry fase, some apple years and of course with my wodka fase came the lime. For this summer we have made some fun fruit prints like these lemons to match our memphis Style inspired collection. We made them in three colors that are now also available in different scales: mint, pink and yellow.

Strokes & Circles
The base of these designs are either large brush strokes or circles. Together with these tiny spots and beige rain drop shapes they form a nice matching collection for cool abstract clothes for your kids or fun colorful summer decoration for your interior. Here are the links to these 5 matching prints: Sand Raindrops, White Circles, Black Circles, Sand Strokes, Yellow Strokes.

Summer Rain
All sky related designs have been trending the past year so for our memphis collection we also included some abstract raindrops. We have made them in colorful summer colors, beige blue, pastel pink, blue and pink, and winter color schemes as well. You can mix and match with other prints of this collection, the dot details are similar to other fabric.

Dots
Some new colorful dots are also added to the fabric collection. We have made some fresh summer color schemes to mix and match with these Memphis Series but you can also mix and match then with our summer animals and other abstracts we have made for the warmer season. You can find the link here, from top to bottom: Lilac, Blue, Peach, Black, Yellow, Mint. Hope you like these new additions to the shop!

Exclusive fabric range // Hemmers Itex Germany // Scandinavian style designs and animal themes

This month our new fabric collection was launched at Hemmer Itex. After Robert Kaufman and Joann fabrics, both based in the USA, we now have a German wholeseller for our designs in Europe that sells exclusive Little Smilemakers designs only.

We know ordering from the USA and shipping to Europe can be costly. So we are very excited to work together with this German fabric producer so all you European peeps can purchase Little Smilemakers fabric without worrying about the extra import taxes and fees.

This spring our new designs will be released. We have some cool kids themes: Baby animals & origami art themes. But we are not only targeting on kids this spring also some more neutral themes are added to the Inky Texture collection that can be used for your own creative fashion projects or home decoration textiles. Hot air balloons, clouds, apples, spring tulips, feathers and arrows all trending themes are included.

This week we have finished up some new themes. So if you are interested in ordering wholesale fabric, follow us via Instagram and Facebook and stay up to day about all new available fabric. And if you would like to work with exclusive Little Smilemakers designs, send us a message and we will give you more info about pricing and available licenses.

> Coral & Mint | New spring fabric & wallpaper | now available at Spoonflower

Spring has begun! Time to shop shop shop some new Little Smilemakers fabric at Spoonflower. We added some new geometric fabrics, kids textiles and ofcourse we added all new designs to the wallpaper collection too. So if you are looking for a fun nursery gift for your friends baby shower or your own little cute new born, check all sweet powder pastel themes. There is so much to choose from! We have some foxes and owls waiting for you and we made sure to add those retro apple and pear designs you all like so much. Don't forget to show your crafty results via the Little Smilemakers Facebook page.

Shop fabric online! Check out the new Coral & Mint series in the shop.