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.

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

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



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

Bambino Mio new collection // reusable Mio Solo nappies // potty training pants // swimwear

Bambino Mio is established as the leading brand of reusable nappies and accessories worldwide. Bambino Mio's family business has been around in the industry for almost 25 years but the core values remain the same as when they started their company in 1991, to manufacture high quality, simple, reusable nappies and associated products and make them accessible and affordable to all.

We started working with the company in 2013 when they decided to launch a new printed series of re-usable diapers. The prints were a great hit and after that another series of designs were launched past spring. This summer they also introduced Little Smilemakers design into their cute swim collection and potty training pants.

For the swim diapers Bambino Mio used our pink little mermaids, deep sea and aquarium themes. We love how colorful the new collection is. But if you are still potty training your little one check out the potty training pants. My god, they are adorable! They have elephants for girls or our very quirky outer space pattern for boys. Take a look in their webshop and order you favorite pair!

So far we have had such a great response on the prints and it's great to see all those babies and toddlers show off their Mio Solo nappies and swim diapers on Facebook and Instagram. So keep tagging! It is very much appreciated. We love to see how our designs put little smiles on your kids faces.

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!