Hello old friends and new! Today I am taking part in a blog hop.  All bloggers as part of the hop have recently taken Bonnie Christine’s Creative Live course, “Design Surface Patterns from Scratch.”

Today I am sharing sneak peeks of some 2015 calendars that are in the works! I have been using Illustrator for years and have taken several courses – though consider myself mostly self-taught. I learned so many things by taking Bonnie’s class and have put some of them to use.

Let me show you:
For this bird calendar I used the blob tool a lot – something I was very unfamiliar with. So easy-breezy! I love it!
For this “blooming” design I took photos of little clippings from my yard and used the live trace function – something I haven’t used for photos before. It is my absolute favorit-est tool now!

I am so grateful for this course as it opened my eyes to some new tools which has given my work a little refresher but I also learned several tips and tricks to streamline my processes and ultimately make me work more efficient. Higher efficiency means more productivity! Which means more patterns and artwork!

My calendars will soon be available via my Spoonflower and Etsy shop. Stay tuned!

If you haven’t visited yet, please hop over to Casey’s blog – Sunlit Life. Tomorrow you can continue the blog hop by visiting Julie Hamilton at:  Artistically Afflicted.

Just joining in and want to follow the full hop? -Start here!

Are you an artist or interested in learning more about designing surface pattern designs? You TOO can take Bonnie’s class. See more info here.

And finally, if you’ve been living in a bubble and you’re not familiar with Bonnie Christine, you certainly must remedy that! Bonnie’s blog Going Home to Roost has so much eye candy – from her beautiful patterns, design ideas she shares, to her adorable baby named ‘Bear’.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope I’ve helped to make your life a little more colorful today!