Carriage House printery: Sweet pastels and quirky prints for this year's Easter Fabric Collection by Little Smilemakers Studio

Next up is Easter! We love making prints for Holidays but quite frankly we don't sell too much of 'm business to business. But we do sell a ton of fabrics with every holiday. Come have a look at our Easter fabrics. We just added some last-minute prints for Easter to our carriage House Printery collection.


These designs are available for licensing. These designs are available on fabric & wallpaper through our partners at Carriage House Printery & Spoonflower.

Customer Spotlight: Buckle Me Baby - Print designs for PJs

Over the years we worked with a couple of trailblazers but when we got an email from Dahlia explaining what kind of product she created we got so excited to jump in and create some prints for her.  

Her story all began while raising her three kids and struggling to get them into their car seats during the colder season. With their coats to be too puffy they were not safe to keep on. But those cold rides were no fun for her kids either. Safety shouldn’t be a struggle, and she created the perfect coat for kids that could be kept on safely in those car seats. From 2016 to 2020 she developed her product got it tested and approved. And in 2020 she appeared on Shark Tank giving her that boost to keep going and create some real magic.

We love her Buckle Me Baby Coats, and we are so honored to be part of her creative journey. It’s where solving a problem and making something easier truly is a form of art. My designer hearts sure loves what she makes! If only all products put on this planet made this much sense. In her shop she also has other pieces of clothing for little ones and for her Pyjama Collection she used some Little Smilemakers print designs we really want to show you. We love the finished pieces. They turned out cute right?

Dahlia licensed our designs non-eclusively but she does have an extended license with exclusivity to her branch. With the Premium license you can use our ready-made designs and keep them unique to your company without breaking the bank. Need some prints for your products too? You can find more info about using our designs and our licensing options on our website.

The Lookbook - Midnight Kitty / Print designs for cat lovers

Over the years we’ve been working together with tons of dog accessory businesses all over the globe. We created many dog designs but cats weren’t as represented in our portfolio that often. Probably because we don't need so much gear for these fluffy ones. We do have some cat accessory customers buying our fabric. But we don't focus on the cat target group very often. This year I decided it was time to dedicate some time to creating new cat designs.

Last summer we had to say goodbye to our 19-year-old black cat Duvel. And this collection is a little celebration of his spooky night shenanigans. We still miss our little Duvel and the past months we’ve seen him come to life on several of our client’s products. I am so happy he’s living on in our designs & fabrics now.

Last January we rescued a new kitty. She’s around 8 years old and brings us so many laughs. It’s truly amazing what these small creatures can do for us. Time to celebrate. Inspired by our oldie and with the joy of our new cat. Hope you like this new mini-collection! All designs are available for licensing. If you license our designs we will send you the original files which you can use for your own production. This covers commercial usage too. Want some more info? Shoot us a message.

These designs are now available for licensing. And we also have some of these designs available on fabric & wallpaper through our partners at Carriage House Printery & Spoonflower.

The Lookbook - Pinky Blossom / Where Seventies meets Nineties / Flowers for Summer

We have sent out four new lookbooks to our insiders last week. If you're signed up to our newsletter you might have seen them already. It's time to show them to you on the blog too. We created 4 new collections. New Abstract Aztec designs, Patriotic prints for 4th of July celebrations, a new collection with cats for fall and new flowers. We keep on making those!

Behind the scenes we create a ton of designs for exclusive usage. The ones that don't make the cut eventually end up in our non-exclusive design stash and can be licensed from there. We have customers that bring in requests we didn't cover. Themes we want to create a collection around. And we create lookbooks from designs made in our studio in between jobs. With this balance of input we can show you new lookbooks regularly. The first of this batch of four are these new colorful flowers.

The past year we license many flower designs. Especially large scales and over sized prints are doing well and the contrasting ditsy flower. This new Pink Blossom Flowers print collection reflects this mix of trends. It's a collection in which the Seventies meet the Nineties. With use of Nineties detailing and retro touches. Which one of these gives you all the granny vibes? And which one do you think is most nineties? These designs are perfect for summer creations. Back to school products, swimwear and dog accessories. See something you like? These designs can all be commercially used through licensing.

These designs are now available for licensing. And we also have some of these designs available on fabric & wallpaper through our partners at Carriage House Printery & Spoonflower.

Come join us for another creative new year // Happy 2024!

Welcome to 2024! The 13th year of our studio. How time flies, it’s a little mad thinking back. All the projects we worked on, the vast amount of pattern designs we created for so many people all over the globe. Branding projects, logo designs and so much more. 

Our very first gig was one for a Dutch brand: Kruidvat. We designed prints for bags and notebooks. We soon started working for some German fabric suppliers. Attended trade shows in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and Paris. We also found out why contracts are important and not all clients are honest people. We were trailblazers back then. Print designs were fairly new. Most artwork was still bought during trade shows and everything we did was a first. We didn’t have any peers to follow or look up to. A brand-new branch of business: surface pattern designing. I only learnt it was called surface pattern designer years in, can you believe?

We started building a proper foundation, some ground rules for our business, hired legal peeps helping with contracts. We soon learnt: stay away from big fish after figuring out; when your heart’s in it, you better make sure the people you work with have the same ethical values. So we turned away from energy draining businesses and money sharks and started focusing on smaller start up collabs, and we still Louise the process of seeing those new businesses grow and develop.

13 Years later...
Now 13 year later we have come at a point where the prints are easy to purchase, copy cats are everywhere and social media makes it impossible to protect created artwork. Those trailblazing days are long gone! After years of working our socials, this year we are opting for a less active social media approach, and we’ll be focusing more on the relationships we have. Hopefully that will give us some more energy to move inward (artists rule #1) create instead of trying to keep up with the rat race that once was a great (energizing) marketing tool but now turned into a toxic relationship. Time to get some more distance. We’ll be directing more people to our newsletter, use our website for updates & new work, post artist diaries here on the blog now and then, and of course we’ll still be posting on Insta, we love sharing finished results and love watching client posts. But it’ll be less of a chunk of our time & money spend on there. And that feels amazing already. Let’s get this 2024 party started!


Wanna be kept in the loop and get exclusive designs right into your mailbox? Sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date. You’ll get all new print designs right into your inbox. And of course, we’ll keep you informed about what we’re working on.

Finished Work: Rainbows & Sprinkles Sportswear & Kids Organic Fashion

A few years ago we got in touch with Lucy for the first time. She just set up her small business selling bold printed fashion pieces for kids. She licensed our designs and turned them into the cutest baby rompers, harem pants for toddlers and leggings for older kids.

As the years have gone by her business grew rapidly and she expanded her collection with mum-wear to make twinning those cute prints possible. Now she has a full range of sportswear and kids fashion pieces available. Colourful prints, whimsical themes, the dare’s to be different and her brand has developed into a unique one-of-a-kind business carrying tons of Little Smilemakers pattern designs. Lucy stays off the beaten track and her collection can stand the waves of the trend.

Did you know her leggings are our go-to chill & netflix pieces? And they are perfect for the gym too. I personally wear them for every work-out. Smooth fabric, breathable and fun. And, very important, squat proof! For all of you that lead and active life and are not afraid to stand out from the crowd; check out her bold prints. She also has some overlap in prints throughout her collection if you’d like your little one to match your outfit too.

Okay, I have to admit. Rainbows & Sprinkles must be one of our fave brands to work for. We love how Lucy makes our designs come to life. And we have the freedom to create truly unique pieces time after time. So if you’s a big fan of our print designs; you don’t get to find more prints of ours somewhere else for sure!

Licensing print designs
Lucy has been licening our designs mostly non-exclusively for years. Some designs she has in her collection are also sold to other branches. She used the digital files for her own production process. If you like to license our prints for your business too please send us a message. We license print designs all over the world and we love to welcome new collabs.

The Lookbook: Romantic Garden - New Trends Fabric Collection & Surface Designs

Oooooh how I love a daily walk and be surrounded by the seasons. With a change of season comes a new collection with botanicals of course. We finished up this new Garden Romance Lookbook just before fall kicks in. We have some flowers, leaves and a moody neutral palette based on the changing colors of nature. 

Every year we make a new nature inspired collection. We work with small businesses all over the world and we wanted to create a mix that was moody fall-ish. But with print designs that are also suitable for other seasons and locations all over the world. With warm neutrals and cool blues, reflecting the Scandinavian landscapes on September Indian Summer nights. All prints are now available for licensing. And they are all available on fabric in our Spoonflower shop now!

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!

Wanna be kept in the loop and get exclusive designs right into your mailbox? Sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date. You’ll get all new print designs right into your inbox. And of course, we’ll keep you informed about what we’re working on.

Finished Work: Seaflower Swim bikini designs

 

We're stuck in a heatwave here in The Netherlands. So this would be a perfect time to add some tropical vibes to the blog for now. Seaflower swim has launched their new swimwear collection this summer. Our cheetah spots have been one of our major sellers on fabric this year and we love seeing this print used on their two-piece bikinis.

We love a clever design and this brand has created a collection of reversible bikinis. All handmade. So when you have a pair, you actually buy two. Cute right? All right, this will be a short piece, it is so hot here in the studio so it's time to plan an escape and find some AC. Enjoy the waves. Have a great summer! If you'd like to find out all there is to know about licensing, visit our website for all info. If you'd like to chat please fill out the contact form and lets discuss what we can do for your brand too.

The Lookbook: The Monochromes - New Trends Fabric Collection & Surface Designs

Still going stong: Neutrals are taking over from gender specific themes and colors. What could be better than adding some monochromes to your collection? Print designs can set the tone and make or break an interior. Using Monochromes is a great way to mix and match patterns without getting too overwhelmed by color.

We created this collection a while back when we were going over our portfolio and realised we have so many girly prints! It was just a little off balance. So we added some cool novelty prints and minimals to our collections and created some fun black and whites with a hint of beige or gray here and there. What do you think? A little different then our usual batch of surface designs right? These prints make perfect nursery bedding, fun kids wear and mix and match Novelty with minimal and dare to play around.

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!

Wanna be kept in the loop and get exclusive designs right into your mailbox? Sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date. You’ll get all new print designs right into your inbox. And of course, we’ll keep you informed about what we’re working on.

Made with Little Smilemakers Studio Fabric // Top 5 May 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 Poland, the United States, UK and Canada. 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 some cool pet accessories, dog leashes and cat collars, we selected some new nursery pieces and some other fashion items you’re going to love! Take a look and see if there is something for you too. Those dog items sure make a cool gift! Have a look and enjoy our May selection.

1 // Monsters and Co.
For this month ‘Made with Spoonflower fabric’ post, we selected two adorable on-trend bow-ties. Abby is a real animal nut and has 5adorable pets who inspired her to start her own business. She started out in her living room creating accessories for her own pets and it became an obsession. We love her colorful style and we wanted to feature some of the new animal prints she just launched on her website this month. We love how these fun bow-ties turned out. How cool are these for your pup? She also has some cool bandanas available that fit your cat. So cool! We’re excited to know there’s even more to come! All her items are made from eco-conscious fabric and handmade in London. Take a look into her shop for more fun pet pieces.

2 // Fog + Fern
Kristy was born and raised on Vancouver Island, this might be why her collections are so full of raw nature-inspired prints. She’s been using our fabric for a while now and we just saw her beautiful new cacti leggings pop up in our Instagram feed. We just had to share these beautiful images of this rusty color piece, showed by the most adorable little girls. Such wonderful images! The rusty color and the minty blue, sooooo satisfying! Wanna see more of Kristi’s creations? Check her website and see all leggings, onesies, tees, beanies and also adult apparel. Enjoy and leave a comment below and tell us what you think!



3 // Gray & Hound
We love Nyah's shop that’s based in Oregon. We love her outdoor adventurous style. Ever since she opened up her webshop things took off rapidly and we love seeing a small business grow. For her winter collection, she selected some of our most fave prints and we love how our foxes turned out on her trendy, high-quality products. So here is a little shout out to this wonderful shop for pup lovers. Wanna get your hands on one of her handmade doggie pieces? Looking for some on-trend dog leashes or score some cute dog collars, this is the place! Take a look in her shop, where she offers our most popular fox designs on her pet items.

4 // Poppy + Ted
We love the story of Paige, who started her webshop simply because she loves sewing and creating. Teddy is her model sidekick, the Frenchie part of the team, and her business was named after both her niece and this furry colleague/friend. Her dog accessories, leashes, collars, and harnesses have become a great hit and it is awesome to see her small business growing. Paige has a soft spot for animal prints and used a whole bunch of our leopard designs for her new spring/summer collection. She even matched her manicure with the new collection. Obviously, we needed to share her creations on our blog. Take a look on her website and enjoy her minimal, abstract inspired new collection.

5 // Kalamati
For five years we’ve been working with this awesome Polish baby nursery textiles brand. Violetta has a great eye for on-trend minimals and Scandinavian inspired abstracts. We love her steady stylish range of prints and this season she’ll be releasing 3 new Little Smilemakers designs she licensed for her business. The first one is our Rainbow designs, part of our Inky Texture series. It’s available in different color palettes, gender neutral or with a girly touch. We loved seeing the result of this collab come in. It’s always lovely to see the result after (not so) patiently waiting for months. Of course, we are super excited to see the other designs turned into nursery textiles and bedding as well. But we couldn’t resist sharing this one with you guys already. Wanna get your hands on these too? Check the Kalamati shop!

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

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 the 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 Russia, Sweden, and the US. This month we selected a whole bunch of hot selling fabrics, turned into the most gorgeous items. Kids fashion, nursery accessories, and dog accessories, so much to choose from! We have selected some cute shirts, collars and climbing accessories too. Take a look and see if there is something for you in there. This is our January top 5 selection.

1 // Gray & Hound
This super cool webshop specializes in dog accessories like collars and leashes. We love Nyah's shop hat is based in Oregon. Ever since she opened up her webshop things took off rapidly and we love seeing a small business grow. For her winter collection, she selected some of our most fave prints and we love how our foxes turned out on her trendy, high-quality products. So here is a little shout out to this wonderful shop for pup lovers. Wanna get your hands on one of her handmade doggie pieces? Take a look in her shop.

2 // Mamapapa Production
This Russian shop specializes in baby and toddler wear. For the new spring collection, we worked together on some cute new designs that will be launched within the next few months. But we also had some cute winter pieces we wanted to share, like their Baby Elephant onesie. Isn't it adorable? We love seeing our prints on these tiny humans. If you have any cute images to share, please do, reach out and maybe we'll feature your little one here on the blog too. If you are based in Russia yourself; take a look into their webshop. They have so many cute prints to choose from! And stay tuned for the new spring collection!

3 // Hello Wild Baby Co
We are so happy to feature Hello Wild Baby on our blog. Candace has selected a whole bunch of our abstracts for her new collection. And you know we love seeing how our abstract fabric gets used right? The images just kept popping up in our feed, so we wanted to say a little something about this small home based company. Candace works from her home in Nevada where she creates wonderful baby and toddler items: a new collection of kids wear and accessories was launched this month. And we are so excited to see those cute hair bows, bonnets, shirts, and leggings. She also has some adorable teething rings on her new bandana's. It is a great shop to browse for a newborn gift set. Mix and match all Little Smilemakers fabric and show us your little ones wearing these gorgeous outfits! Take a look!



4 // Knox Mtn Bags
As some of you might know, Maaike loves her nights in the boulder gym. She only started climbing a year ago and noticed there were not a whole lot of brand making fun chalk bags. But then we got tagged by Anne who created a bunch of super cool handmade chalk bags with the most adorable patterns on them. We wanted to show you our hedgehogs that were used for the Knox collection. if you love climbing and are looking for a cool chalk bag, or have a climbing lover around you'd like to surprise with a cute bag, take a look on the website and browse through all cool climbing bags.

5 // Maxomorra
We love this Swedish kidswear company. The 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.

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

We love 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 around the world. Sweden, Australia, United States. All over the world our designs are used for the most wonderful items. We have some cute Polar Bear leggings, Indian Animal Rompers, Soft Sole baby shoes and some cool kids accessories. This is our top 5 selection for November.

1 // 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 clean 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 Made With post we selected one of our favorites: the reindeer book bag. Perfect accessory for your kids winter school days. But we also featured our cool monochrome dashes fabric that was turned into a cute baby bib. Wanna see more? Take a look into her gorgeous shop for all wonderful handmade creations.

2 // Maxomorra
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.



3 // Oh Boeys
We were doing a little happy dance when we saw this perfect pair of Christmas pine tree soft soles in our Instagram feed. We love this fabric and are so happy to see these turned into this cute pair, so cute! Oh Boeys is an Australian webshop selling bows, bibs, soft sole baby shoes and blankets for your little one. They have a colorful range of products and you can also customize your own pair of soft soles. Go take a look and see for yourself and see what else they have!

4 // La La Loop Baby
Lorraine is based in the UK and has a background in knitted textiles and fashion design and started her La La Loop range with cashmere fashion and interior accessories. After her twins were born she was inspired to pick up sewing and an entire new collection was launched. She now has some of our all time favorite fabric available as rompers, leggings and baby & toddler accessories. Her items are flying off the shelves so make sure you place your order in time for the holidays! Go take a look into her Etsy shop.

5 // Roostery Home
Roostery Home is an accessory and interior decoration brand that collaborated with Spoonflower. All of our designs that are available via Spoonflower are also available via Roostery Home where you can find all sorts of fun home decor items and interior accessories. From tea towels, bedding and pillows to chairs and wallpaper. Just order your favorite print on your product of choice and add some Little Smilemakers designs to your home. Perfect for the not so talented sewer like me. For this month we selected out monochrome crosses designs that was turned into bedding. Our designs were also featured on the Oh Joy blog and Spoonflowers winter catalogue. Take a look if you are curious and order quickly to be in time for the holidays. You can find over 50.000 products just with Little Smilemakers designs on them. Crazy!

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.