Back to School // Backpacks for the new school year

We're ready for the new school year! This summer we've been working hard getting some new school items up in our Society6 shop. We added some of our newest surface designs on notebooks, coffee mugs and what do you think about these fun backpacks?

Making a stop at the office supply store was a tradition when I was going to high school. I always had a hard time finding fun accessories, back in the day there weren't many fun prints to choose from. We were stuck with whatever big brands like Nike or Adidas came up with. They made school planners back then. I usually stuck with an MTV planner. That would be drenched in ink by the end of the school year, with doodles and little notes from friends. Pages would stick together because of all the disgusting things that were put between the pages. Stickers, wrapping paper, admission tickets from the movies. I always got creative in upgrading my planner. Oooooh those were the days. Now I make back to school products. For years I've been making designs for some Dutch brands: Girlsscene, my personal fave! Hema, Kruidvat and for Albert Heijn I created paper goods and notebooks, binders and wrapping paper. All the things you'd need for the new school year. But backpacks were usually way to pricy to produce so I didn't get to make a lot of those often. Now I have my own Society6 shop where I can add any design I like to backpacks like these. Cool right!? Check our shop for all backpack designs! And if you'd like to get one of our prints on there that aren't available yet, just reach out, we're happy to add these on to our products too!

Made with Little Smilemakers Studio Fabric // Top 5 July 2019

It is so exciting to see a finished project after working hard on a new collection of designs, 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 if you check Instagram for some kids fashion you are very likely to stumble upon some Little Smilemakers prints. Most creatives that use our fabrics have small home-based businesses and sell their projects online and tag us via Instagram. But there are also some bigger fish out they're using our Spoonflower designs for their business. 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 Germany, the United States, UK, and Canada. This month we selected a whole bunch of favorite fabrics turned into the most gorgeous items. We selected some breezy summer creations; summer dresses, baby rompers, skirts and more. Take a look and see if there is something for you too. Have a look and enjoy our July selection.

1 // KRZA
I can’t believe we didn’t feature Krystle's creations on our blog before! She’s been making girls accessories and fashion for years and has been a loyal customer of ours ever since we started selling our designs through Spoonflower. This summer she added a bunch of new Little Smilemakers designs to her shop like the jellyfish and panther print we featured here. We love her light and clean photography that reflects her style and creations perfectly. We love how she mixes texture and soft tones. A proper eye for pretty! And, if you love what you’re seeing, face it… how can you not?… Krystle also opened a brand new side business with home accessories! Enough reasons to give her a little shout out this month. Take a look at her shop and enjoy!

2 // Harlz & Haven
Socks, headbands, scrunchies, swaddles. Emma has the perfect newborn and baby shower gifts in her small online shop. Like lots of our mommy customers, Emma was frustrated and couldn’t find what she was looking for when she became a mom, affordable, on trend quality pieces. So she decided to create her own kids' accessories. This month we featured her handmade pink grid headbands made in mommy & girls sizes. Such an adorable image right? We’re so lucky to have so many cute things pop up on our feed every month! Take a look at Emma’s website for all fun items she has to offer.





3 // Bitty Bambu
Looking for some breezy summer dresses for your little girl? We found our watercolor palm leaves in the new Bitty Bambu Summer Collection. Taryn creates romantic kids fashion inspired by Hawaiian nature. We love these Indian summer vibes! Take a look at the shop to find more cute dresses!

4 // Thea Fashion for Kids
This German clothing boutique has a soft spot for clean Scandinavian designs. We stumbled upon their creations on Instagram and we are totally hooked ever since. Our ice cream, train, and abstract bubble mint prints were used for the 2018 summer collection. And this year our Sunny Day design was added to the collection. Time to show the new creations! Thea offers adorable kids items, t-shirts, dungarees, sun hats and lot’s more. So if you are based in Germany take a look in her shop.

5 // Olli the Cocker
Who of you has a little furry bestie? If you have one of these furry friends you know how hard it is to find cute on-trend puppy accessories. The past few years we’ve been working together with a bunch of online pet stores and our Spoonflower fabric keeps popping up on cute creations like this Happy Birthday bandana. This woofwear bandana is not for sale anymore. But we have some cute collars and haresses available at Poppy + Ted and Pawsome Paws has some cute bandanas and other accessories as well. Wanna make your own bandana? Check our Spoonflower shop for all prints and choose your fave! You can find all prints in there features in this months Made With post.

Sources of inspiration // Bouldering // New free climbing inspired art, home decor and fashion items

As some of you might know already I have been struggling with fibromyalgia for as long as I can remember. As a kids I was pretty competitive, I loved sports, and I loved pushing my body. Winning that medal! I used to do gymnastics but when I was a teen my knees and ankles, my wrists, all got in the way of performing on a high level. Eventually I stopped all together and for a few years I didn’t so anything.

8 years ago I met my friend Ashni who is also a singer, you might know her from her number 1 hit single Wanna be close. She’s pretty popular at the moment, anyway where was I? Oh yes, my friend Ashni also worked as a dance instructor and during her classes I got back to moving again, enjoying a workout, without struggling as much with my own limits. Dancing became my way to unload and relax. I still love to dance, but unfortunately when my friend decided to focus on her music career I never found anyone so full of life and other dance classes just weren’t as awesome as I was used to.

Finding a new passion
Because I really need to keep my muscles strong due to my fibromyalgia I joined the gym. Oh my lord how much I dreaded to go there. There is absolutely no part of my that get’s excited doing these kinds of work outs. Staying fit is a struggle when you’re doing something you don’t like to I quit and thankfully right after that, a met an awesome dude person who introduced me to climbing. I always thought climbing would be way to heavy for my joints, but after a few tries I noticed it was much more a full body work out that just killing my hands. So I decided to give climbing a go.

I live in a pretty flat country so outdoor rock climbing is not much of an option. And I have to admit the boulders in the climbing gym are way easier on my hands, so climbing indoors has it’s perks. I have been climbing for a few months now and every time I leave the climbing gym I am energized. And my god, it has been a while I found something new that get’s me excited. So as you can imagine there are quite some new bouldering inspired new designs coming up.



Bouldering accessories
I started with some geometric prints, patterns for fabric and wallpaper created in Illustrator. But I also love the abstract shapes and colorful boulders so I decided to create a new series of photographic designs that are available on wall art, home decor like pillows and blankets, tech items like laptop sleeves and iPhone cases like the ones featured. And some really cool fashion pieces and accessories. I love the Society6 leggings. They are comfy, perfect for lazy nights on the couch but the fabric is strong enough to use for bouldering too! Yesssss perfect for bouldering those bouldering leggings. How awesome is that!

Check all bouldering items in our Society6 shop and let me know which ones you like best so we can make even more cool bouldering products. We would love a collab with a climbing gear brand. So if you have any connection please reach out!

Made with Little Smilemakers Studio Fabric // June: The Rainforest Wanderlust launch // Bambino Mio

A little different than our usual monthly post. This months we have a ‘Made with’ completely devoted to our new Bambino Mio collection we have worked on the past year. With a strong visual consistency and the colors and joyful characters we know and love.

Bambino Mio is a company known for their re-usable baby diapers and they have been around for 20 years. Selling nappies with print designs is rarely new to them. We started working together 4 years ago and within the past years the print collection has been growing rapidly.

Signature research
But with this rapid growth, Bambino Mio was searching for the consistency within their print designs. Therefore we met up and talked about the importance of print designs, and how they could be a trend setting party in the eco baby business instead of a company that just follows the pack. We created a strong design signature. Including guidelines in using colors, composition, shapes and form. The new Rainforest collection is the first collection launched with the new Bambino Signature. With this signature we are creating a strong series of designs, all visually linked to the brand.

Trend research
For the Rainforest wanderlust collection we researched global trends too. Bambino Mio sells it’s products world wide and the prints should attract customers all around the world. A pretty big task. But we created a fun, colorful collection, appealing to a large audience but also with a distinctive unique Bambino Mio touch. The prints are already pretty popular. We already had so many sweet comments from Australia to Canada come in and new images are popping up on our social media feed every day. They look so damn cool!

Rainforest Wanderlust
So we are proud to show you these 6 print designs exclusively made for Bambino Mio. For this collection we were inspired by the tropical vibes of the rainforest. We created some adorable animal characters, sloths, snakes, toucan birds, wild cats and hummingbirds. There is a cute creature for everyone!

Curious to know more about licensing designs? Or is your business also in need of a clear visual language. Please send us an email. We are happy to guide you through this process.

Let's celebrate yellow / 5 reasons why we all adore this color of joy and sunshine

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.

Yellow is the color of sunshine, joy, vitality, happiness and creativity. Yellow is bright and warm and often used for light, breezy and joyful subjects. When I think about yellow I think off sunshine, vacation… But this color is also symbol of courage an confidence, boosting energy and self esteem. And with a little hint of black, bright sunny yellow turns into a trendy mustard color. With a little touch of red, ochre. All gender neutral colors that are very popular right now.

1 // I love yellow personality
I personally never liked yellow. Up until last year I wouldn't use this color in my designs. Only a little hint every now and then. Now I create full yellow, mostly mustard colored, designs and I really love these shades of yellow, but still I would never add a 100% yellow color to my work. I still have this inexplicable aversion towards the bright yellow color. Maybe it is just a little too energetic, draws a little too much attention, and with this ingredient it is hard to balance out colors in a design too? According to spiritual studies the color represents our self worth and in stressful times can be too vibrant. The color always makes me feel a little agitated.

2 // Yellow & branding
Yellow has often been used as a signal color. Like red is used for caution, bright yellow is often used to stand out and bring attention to the subject too, think about urban signage or the numerous cabs that circle around Manhattan, they are easy to find since their color pops out. And what about post-it notes, a brilliant color to remind you of things to do. A great color for attention without the heaviness of danger. Yellow loves to talk and is a color that can speak for itself. It is not often used in logo design but if we think about yellow branding we all think about cheap, outlet companies. Can you come up with some?



3 // The color of creativity
Yellow also lifts our mood and increases brain activity if we are surrounded by the color. It is the color of new ideas, while activating us it puts the brain at work and can give us a new perspective, create new solutions. Yellow activates in al lot of ways.

4 // Yellow & food
Studies have shown that people that were eating in a yellow room would eat a lot more than in rooms that were painted in other colors. So maybe painting your dining room in a shade of yellow might not be a good idea if you want to watch your weight. I do not eat at fast food joints often, most of these 'restaurants' have yellow interiors to make you eat a little more. A clever way to generate more cash right? One of world's largest fast food joint is well know for it's screaming yellow logo. The go to place to stuff your face.

5 // Girls & boys
This year yellow has been making a come back in fashion design. Yellow is a perfect color for gender neutral interior accents and is perfect in fashion for both boys and girls. Right now ochre and mustard are two shades that are very trending in print and fashion and also two shades we love to work with. We have made an entire new mustard colored series for this summer season. Go shop for sunshine at Spoonflower.

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.

Finished Product: Lsea Swimwear // Flamingo two-piece bikini

Oh yes, I am a little water rat myself and love that the temperatures are rising again. Cannot wait to put on my bikini and take off to the beach when everyone else is working. You can imagine how super excited we get to work with fashion brands that focus on swimwear. We have worked together with several beachwear companies in the past and we wanted to put a little extra light on this cool fashion brand based in Florida.

Swimwear made with love
We loved seeing these images pop up in our social media feed. So fresh and fun. We just couldn’t wait to share them with you. But it is not only the awesome flamingo bikini we love. Also the story behind the product is very interesting.

Bethany is the owner of Lsea and she and her husband visited the Dominican Republic back in 2015. She totally fell in love with the country but also witnessed Dominican youth, the problems, the poverty. After this trip she decided she wanted to do something more meaningful and created a brand that would make a difference. A portion of the income is donated to educate and nourish Dominican children, giving them a proper foundation to build their future on. Bethany wanted to offer them the same opportunities she had while growing up and while her swimwear brand is rapidly growing, her dream of helping these kids becomes reality.

Support her cause
So if you would like to get your hands on a new two-piece for the swimming pool or if you are planning a trip and dip in the ocean. Take a look at her website and support her sweet cause. She has some fun tropical prints to choose from and there are also some one-piece bathing suits available if you are a little reluctant to wear these minimal bikini’s. I know they can be a little challenging! Enjoy browsing around Bethany’s online shop.

Interested in licensing our prints for your business? We license our designs to fashion brands, home decoration suppliers, we'll anything you can out a print on, so please send us a message and find out what we can do for you.

Trend Alert // Botanical watercolors

We started creating prints and patterns 12 years ago already and we started out creating mostly vector based designs, followed by hand drawn prints, using our sketches made for vector design. We also created some custom watercolor designs in the early days, but for regular licensing; watercolors were impossible to sell.

But ever since the conscious trend, slow design kept growing, raw materials, abstracts, textures, use of paint, chalk, paper cuts and there it is watercolors. We are so happy to see this trend taking off and we have been making four new collections in watercolors the past three years. Our summer fruits, boho series, our abstracts and most recently, because how could we not…. our new watercolor botanicals.

Going back to creating watercolors has been so much fun. I loved using this medium when I was still studying, but as a graphic designer, using watercolors was always pretty difficult, very costly and difficult to integrate into graphic items.

Watercolors are only interesting to create and sell in between jobs. Since creating watercolors is pretty specific and takes a lot more time to create and to process and digitalize. So for now we are not looking for any custom watercolor jobs. But we do have a whole bunch you can license for your business in our non-exclusive library. Just send us a quick message to find our more about our licensing structures. Hope you like the new collection! Is is also available in our Spoonflower shop on both fabric and wallpaper.

Made with Little Smilemakers Studio Fabric // Top 5 April 2018

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 you are very likely to stumble upon some Little Smilemakers prints. Most creatives that use our fabrics have a small home based businesses sell their projects via internet and tag us via Instagram. But there are also some bigger fish out their using our Spoonflower designs for their business. 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 Latvia, Poland, the States and France. This month we selected a whole bunch of favorite fabrics turned into the most gorgeous items. Kids fashion, nursery accessories and home and interior decoration, so much to choose from! We have selected a cool cute abstract rompers, some on trend kids bedding and some other fashion items you’re going to love! Take a look and see if there is something for your little one too. Have a look and enjoy our April selection.

1 // Wuf Kids // Baby Teethers & Fashion Accessories
This Latvian shop has some cool things to offer. We love their range of leggings and we adore their fun little hedgehog fabric teethers. So clever! But they have lot’s more cute things to choose from. And lot’s of Little Smilemakers designs! Triangles, flamingo’s, teepees, ice cream cones, grizzly bears, and our minty feathers of course. I bet we forgot to mention some other designs but take a look at their Facebook page and see them all!



2 // Milutka // Bedding & outdoor accessories
Milutka is a company specialized in kids cottons. From soft winter hats to mommy hand warmers, pillows, soft toys and stroller gear, if you'd like to have one print for your entire nursery and kids outdoor gear go visit their online shop. They have our cute little raccoon cactus print in their collection but also our colorful pirates, elephants, squirrels, dachshund puppy, plus sign and owl prints. And last but not least: They have a great selection of kids bedding in all those prints mentioned above. Take a look!

3 // Woodbean // Baby Rompers
If you are looking for some unique snuggle wear for your little one this shop is the place to be. Lisa, who is based in Minnesota, creates the most wonderful soft pieces for your little one and we love her style of mixing and matching prints and uni’s. Her style is like no other and we wanted to share one of her custom made orders with you for which she has used our Abstract Bubble design. These soft little rompers are just to die for. We love how Lisa mixed the print with the contrasting earth tones. Check out her Etsy shop where you can see her wonderful collection in a series of beautiful, soft photography. Check out all her wonderful handmade creations.

4 // Pistol & Arrow // Leotards
We just adore the ice cream leotard made by Brittany Kleiss who runs her small Pistol & Arrow Etsy shop from Fair Oaks. The ice cream print has been around for a while but we found this adorable baby girl in her leo a few weeks ago. Since we have a little bit of a girly theme this month this webshop is def worth a visit. She has some adorable items for your little girl. So go take a look.

5 // Ty Mom Studio // Kids Fashion
Charlene is based in Paris and has a great eye for thinking in collections. Her fabric choices have a steady ‘feel.’ She has a fun collection of on trend gender neutral fabrics and she is working on a big collection for her webshop launch. Even though her webshop is not quite open yet, we wanted to share some of her cute pineapple and cacti leggings and those gender neutral rompers with you. For now you will have to try and have a little more patience until she opens up her shop you can follow her on Instagram. I already have my eye on these cool cacti leggings. Click here is you want to follow this brand new small business.

Finished work // Bubblebubs Australia

This Australian nappie brand was created in 2004 co-incinding with the birth of Vicki’s daughter Abbi. Not long after Vicki started making nappies for Abbi and she had friends asking her to make them nappies and from there Bubblebubs was born.

Experience
With 10 years experience in this industry Vicki and her team know what they're talking about. You don't stay in business for that long unless you have great products, designs and great customer service and most importantly great customers! Bubblebubs philosophy is to treat a customer like royalty.

Sustainable Nursery
Sustainability is more and more important. We are happy to see a new trend of conscious consumers. Mommies want to know their baby products are honest. Throughout the years the Bubblebubs products have gone trough many changes and improvements. In 2009 they produced their first batch of One Sized - All in Two Nappies, outsourcing production overseas. These nappies became very populair and are a perfect fit from new born to toddler. Now Bubblebubs offers over 20 different products, from different types of reusable nappies to wipes and wetbags. All you need for your sustainable nursery.

For this high quality product we were delighted to work together on some new designs for their nappie range. Over the past months the new designs have been introduced and they are now available in the Bubblebubs shop.

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!

Trend alert: Typography monochromes

Some of you might know that typography can make me happy, I have studied graphic designs and typography before I became a printmaker. So seeing typography pop up as a trend makes me go yay! So happy to see this being picked up.

We wanted to feature some of our monochromes for this month’s trend alert. Raw sketches ABC & numbers designs. We have made a series of back to school prints for fabric and also added some typography designs for postcards and iPhone cases in bright popping colors and of course black and whites. Those simple and elegant black and white fabric designs are perfect for gender neutral clothes and home and nursery accessories. And we see an increase in popularity in on our monochrome designs. So come take a look at our collection.

Fabric featured in this post:
Sketch & Type
Spotted dalmatian
ABC Love
Raw Math
Strong Alphabet
Number Love

Daily Objects // New Tote Bags, Phone Cases, Pillows, Pouches and Notebooks

For over three 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: On the white // Living & working Scandinavian 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 // May 2016

It is so exciting to see a finished project after working hard on a new collection 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 for some kids fashion 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 USA, UK, Holland and Sweden. This month we selected a whole bunch of summer fashion themes. We have some tropical birds and leaves, some watercolors. Take a look and see if there is something for your little one too. This is our May top 5.

Sew Kuddly Clothing
We are obsessed with this small UK kids shop. Not only because they have tons of products with our prints and we love their finished items but they also have some adorable photography, some cute tiny models that show off their headbands, leggings, headbands and other cool items they sell in their Etsy shop. For Hemmers/Itex we have made an exclusive series of designs and our new origami fabrics are turned into cute baby and toddler items. Our favorites: Birds and crocs are now available in their shop! So need anything for you boy or girl. Look no further. And support this super cool small business.

Yeti Feet & Co.
We love those cute and comfy moccs. They are perfect for our little ones tiny feet and these printed shoes made by McKayla Nelson are part of her new Arizona collection with cactuses, dreamcatchers and animals. She is a big fan of cactuses but she also has some of our other designs in her collection of soft soles. They make a perfect gift to a baby shower or kids birthday. These cactus shoes and more are available in her shop. Go check out her Etsy shop!



MommaMakes
By using mostly gender neutral prints for their range of clothes and accessories this small UK based shop is a great place for some one-of-a-kind pieces for your kids. Of course there are some boys and girls themes too but we love their eye for pure and simple gender neutral designs like the one they used for these cute parrot leggings. Check out the shop for more Little Smilemakers prints, they also have our mermaids and some cool abstracts.

Made4Ukkies
This Dutch company has some cool handmade new born and infant items. We licensed some designs to Hemmers/Itex and Staghorn this winter and now we see the finished results pop up on our feed. We love the colorful range of spring and summer clothes this small shop has to offer. They also have our cool bears up there and our feathers are also represented. Go check them out.

Lilla Busfro
This Swedish shop is run by Carin and we love her trendy collection of prints she uses for her handmade kids collection. She turned our feathers and plus sign fabric into some adorable leggings, t-shirts and hats that are available in her shop.

We love to see your finished results too. Even if you don't have a shop but make something gorgeous for yourself or as a gift, tag us via Facebook or Instagram and maybe you will be featured in our monthly "Made with" post.

Fabric Feature Friday: Oxzyde Homewares

Little Smilemakers Studio sells around 2500 designs on fabric all over the world. From Spoonflower to Robert Kaufman, Hemmers Itex and small online fabric shops in Europe our fabric travels fast. Every first Friday of each month we feature one of our fabric customers. From small start up businesses in home decor to stay at home mommies who create cute little fashion for there kids. Some just pop out.

This Friday we would like to share this great BigCartel shop: Oxzyde Homewares. An interior brand with handmade cushions, wall art & homewares based in Melbourne, Australia. Oxzyde was founded by Caiti who has a background in graphic design and art, she wanted to create a unique brand, stay away from mass production. Her style is minimalistic, honest, clean and full of typographic influences and with a little edge. She uses stencils and raw materials that give her range of product an unique look and feel. All her products are handmade and her fabric items are all made with organic materials. We are honored she picked our feathers and geometric triangle fabric for her range of cushions and multi-functional storage bags.

"To me this brand is about creating art not just products. It's about removing the notion of mass production and creating an imperfect process of creation. It's the happy accidents that make something great. I'd like to think that you, the customer, will be able to look at your piece and know that it will never be identical to another, and that's its charm."

Want to get your hands on one of these trendy home products? Check out Oxzyde's online shop.

Safari Animals and Scandinavian Pastels // New Children's fashion // Naturkind Biomode // Grand opening

We are very excited Naturkind Biomode will open it's little kids paradise in Germany later this week. For this colorful new brand we created over 15 designs that will be available on kids fashion. Giuliana is the big brain behind it all, she approached me during spring this year with her story about how she wanted to offer parent eco-friendly clothing with a good price tag and fun modern designs convinced us we would be a good match.

Working for children's fashion is not new for us. We have worked with companies in Australia, UK, Canada, South Africa Sweden and the list goes on. But up until now we have never created a series of designs for a German company, we have designed fabric of course, but Naturkind is our first retailer in Germany in toddler and kids fashion. And what a great brand to start with!

We have worked on different themes for girls, boys and also some gender neutral prints are included in her collection. We especially love how our Safari Animal print turned out. Soft beige with fun pink and blue color pops. Giuliana is not afraid of colors and our colorful prints have been featured in numerous magazines in Germany, they sure like a bold statement! So we are convinced she will be doing great with her pick of African Animals and Scandinavian pastels.

After finalizing all designs for her range of children's clothes she also asked us to work on some signage, posters, stickers and wrapping paper for her shop. It has been a fun process all together of which we can now show our final results.

October 31th will be the day of the grand opening of her shop in Bad Harzburg, Germany. So good news for all German parents but how about the rest of Europe then? No worries Giuliana also has a webshop, she originally started selling online, where you can order all here colorful, fun kids fashion.

Summer beach trend : welcome back to the printed swimsuit // Cactus swimwear for Batoko

Shopping for swim wear can be a struggle especially finding a two piece bikini that needs to fit top and bottom and also flatter. Yeah no, I am not a big fan of shopping but I really hate shopping for beach wear. So I am very happy to see the swimsuit made a real come back this year. Celebrities like Beyoncé and Doutzen Kroes all have been spotted in one piece swim wear this summer. So make it a little easy for yourself and embrace the trend. There are lot's of fun designs to choose from. And we have one over at Batoko. A cactus swimsuit you really need to get your hands on!

The girl in the image above is the very talented Australian based DJ Tiger Lilly. We are very happy to see her in one of our fun creations. She looks awesome with this cactus & mermaid hair combo, doesn't she? The photo was made by Melbourne photographer Shevin Dissanayake. Follow this photographer via Instagram @shevindphoto.

Yuka is a LA blogger and is wearing this cute desert theme with some crazy cool sunglasses to coachella. We love the color scheme of this photo. Follow her on Instagram @yukasaur and check her fashionable blog for daily fashion inspiration.



We love how companies are exited to use our designs and always tag us in their posts. Kudo's for all amazing peeps creating such joyful things with Little Smilemakers designs, fabrics, wallpaper and paper goods. Your tags and credits are very much appreciated. So again: Thank you to all creators and followers. If you ever stumble upon one of our designs. Please tag us @littlesmilemakers!

Silk fashion winter collection for woman // Shop Vida

The past few years I have been trying to improve my sewing skills. As a fabric designer I thought it would make sense to have a little insight about the sewing process, to understand my customers needs I had two years of sewing classes. But unfortunately I seem to have found my calling already: being a fabric designer and illustrator.

When I was a little girl I would look at my mom, she was always making lot's of home made clothes for me and my two brothers. While she was sewing I was drawing but I always wanted my mom to teach me her sewing tricks. Unfortunately she never had the chance to teach me and because I love making things by hand I thought it would be great to make my own things here in the studio. For styling photography and portfolio shoots. So two years ago I joined a sewing class, which is actually a great class. But I am not so great. I really hated the preparation, lord, all the cutting you have to do! And my eyes could not see all the thin lines so my cut out pieces of fabric were always a little off. My god I was a mess! After two years of trying I decided: "This is not for me." So I have been looking at ways to produce small scale fashion for woman. Since I already work in the fashion industry that mainly consist of designing baby, toddler and kids clothes, I wanted to have some adult pieces for my portfolio.

I came across a website called Vida, which offers designers a platform to sell tops and scarfs with their own artwork. Fashion with a cute trendy A-line cut and made from high quality silk. So if you would like one of these limited Little Smilemakers designs for this year's winter. Check out our Vida selection.

Sources of inspiration: Botanics and Wild life - All about green

I have to admit I do not only draw all day. Half of my work is researching markets all over the world. Doing so I get inspired most by what is happening in Brazil and other tropical markets right now. I am a big fan of the minimal Scandinavian designs but I adore the lush green tropical influences finally coming our way in mainstream fashion and home decor. Much more character!

So why not have a little feature about fascinates me most: Nature. I grew up in a place where we forget how to live in harmony with trees and whenever I travel I find myself a little more at ease when I am surrounded by nature. Culture fascinates me, but come on, the diversity in wild life and plants.

There is of course a serious green trend going on in every aspect of life for a while now. People get more conscious about their health, their environment and about what they eat.



Last year tropical prints were already introduced into the western fashion world. The pineapple made a come back, cactus themes and large green leafs. And with this year's spring entering the country there is finally room for plants. There is a trend going on in home decor as well. Lush branches, large retro plants decorate the living room again and colors of the tropics find their way into our interiors again. Even on minimal markets like in Scandinavia and central Europe. So yes, nature is back and we love it!