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Back in September, I took Make It in Design (MIID) Summer School class. Many of the surface pattern designers I followed on Instagram were graduated from MIID. That is the main reason why I took the class. I was curious on the assignments. As a designer, this is a good way to stretch my skills, connect with other designers and grow my portfolio.
Originally I registered for Intermediate and Advance Tracks, but ended up taking Intermediate only. Since this is my first time joining MIID. I had to familiarize myself with the work pace. Gotta say, it took serious commitment to focus on the briefs. I am glad for not being so ambitious about it. This is on top of my freelance projects, running an ETSY shop, and doing house chores;) There are two briefs of Intermediate class that I had to finish. First is Pure Zen, where I had to design a calming, oriental, inspired pattern. I created a cherry blossom pattern in romantic approach with a hint of Zen. I called it Romantic Zen. What do you think? You can view the gallery of all participants here .
The second brief is Stripe Form: anything inspired by geometric, abstract blocking, borders, layering and criss crossing. I found it uninspiring at first. Many of my classmates thought so:( It took me awhile to "breathe" into the assignment, but I kept going, letting my hands loose drawing different lines. I called it Quilted Stripe. The abstract design is very versatile so can be applied to different product as you see on the mock ups below. Pretty fun project at the end:) You can view the gallery of all participants here.
All in all, it is worth of my time and money. Just another step to improve myself to be a better designer:)
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Sometime ago last year, I opened my fabric shop at Spoonflower. If you are a crafter, it is a must place to scout fabric from independent designers all around the world. If you are a designer and maker like me, this site is a great resource to have your fabric design printed without worrying about meeting minimum yardage quantity! So awesome! Recently Spoonflower just debuted their new fabric category: chiffon. To my surprise, they used my Scandi Garden design to be used on their ad campaign across social media, particularly Facebook and Instagram. Woot...woot...woot! I was so thrilled when they tagged the picture on my Instagram. My Scandi Garden itself has 6 color ways: Black-White, Aqua, Coral, Yellow, Green and Navy. Seems like Navy is the winner.  Above is the picture that Spoonflower posted on Instagram (6/27/17). I like how they pair the navy fabric with a yellow mustard top. The girl looks so free spirited and darling in that skirt. Below is another close up of the fabric campaign across Facebook. I feel so honored:)  Besides clothing, this fabric design is so versatile. It will also look great as interior fabric. I made a product mock up just to show how they look on canvas or twill fabric as throw pillows. I could totally picture it as curtain, bed sheets, tote bags...endless possibilities! Feel free to check out my fabric shop to see other collection and design: www.spoonflower.com/profiles/zoyu  NOTE TO SELF: KEEP CALM AND SEW ON
Have you heard about Gifted? Competition? It is a design competition run by Hallmark Studio from their Bradford HQ, U.K. They run competitions six times a year to help them to recruit the very best and brightest new talent, with briefs that are designed to nurture commerciality, creativity and skill. Last year I joined their Kid Character Design competition and won! It was a big surprise for me since I did not expect much. I just wanted to test my illustration from commercial point of view. Winning the competition gave me confidence to be more serious about my art. This year, I joined again their Spring Event Competition. The challenge is to design fun, commercial designs for a Spring Events range. Spring Events covers anything from Valentine’s Day, to Mother’s Day, Easter or Father’s Day. I submitted 2 designs: Valentine Hedgehogs and Easter Bunnies. I did not win this year, but considered as one of commended entries. Still a "yay" for me. Here what they said about my works: Yully Ana – "Another great submission. We particularly like the Easter Rabbit design,good composition and really adorable characters."   Winning or not, I am glad that my works were acknowledged. It is more than enough to keep doing
what I love...drawing:)
February is almost over. All Valentine merchandise have disappeared and replaced with Easter related items. You name it: stickers, cards, baskets, plushes, eggs and...sweet treats! In every holiday, candy is one of popular gifts. For me, when I give away candies, it can not just be in regular plastic treat bags. I usually go a little bit extra mile. Remember my Classroom Valentine's cards? There has to be fun element to it;)
I like the idea of good things come in a little package. Something easy to make, budget friendly and adorable. Just to warm up on Easter activities, I created this free template of Mini Rabbit Treat Box. Dimension: 2x2 inches. Available in 3 color ways: Mint, Pink, and Yellow. What you need to assemble the box:
It takes 3 simple steps to assemble the box:
1. Cut the template using scissors. 2. Fold along the dotted lines. 3. Apply glue on the side tab (as marked on template). Tips on to create crisp fold line: It is best to use a scoring board. If you do not have one, you can utilize X-Acto knife and ruler to create a crease line. Apply gentle pressure when dragging the knife. Make sure you do not cut through the paper. 
Now comes the fun part...filling up the boxes! For the sweets, I chose Hersey's candy coated chocolates eggs. I like how the egg color compliment the rabbits' ears. I also put some gift bag filler inside the box to give bird nest impression. For hygienic reason, I put the chocolate eggs inside mini bags. Tie the bag with ribbon as finishing touch and...done!
You can download the template HERE. I would love to see how you utilize these boxes for this coming Easter. Tag your pictures on my Instagram @zoyu_design. Hop, hop, hop...Hopfully you will have fun! This week I am having a down time from my freelance works, so I decided to clean up my studio. Guess what! I found lot of "treasures" that have been hiding at the corner of my drawer. Some are still unopened, still with the price labels. Instead of rolling down my sleeves for more cleaning, I found myself busy cutting and gluing stuff, making a quick craft: a DIY Ladybug Gift Bag. This will be a fun project for classroom Valentine, either you are mommies or school teachers. Here a list of stuff you need. Great if you can find any of these around the house. If not, you can still have time to pick up the components at your local craft store this weekend.
 First, measure the bottom of the gift bag. Mine is a mini gift bag with 4" W at the bottom. Using a circle template, I made 4" diameter circle on the black glitter paper. The key is having the circle to have same diameter as the bag width.  Next is making the antenna: Fold the fuzzy stick into half, then start rolling down the stick to create a circle.  Now, fold the glitter circle paper in half, place the antenna at the center top, glue it together (as shown on the picture). Then, add wiggly eyes. Tadah! You've got the bug head done! Good job!  This is the fun part...Glue down the bug head at the front of gift bag. For the bug body, I made 3 extra small dots, 3/4"diameter each. You can also create different shapes as well, such as flowers, hearts, etc. Last but not least, place the gift label on the back of the bag. I created a special label "Bug and Kisses". You can download the tag here.  You can fill the bag with any Valentine treats or knick knacks. I personally think this ladybug will be great as favor bag for ladybug theme birthday party. I also made another option with white paper bag. Since I did not have red glitter paper for making small dots, I used glittered heart stickers instead. Aren't they adorable? And they are easy to make! I hope you will have lots of bug and kisses this Valentine!  Hello again! It is February, and Valentine's Day is approaching. If you follow my Instagram, you may notice that I have been playing with some bear characters for my Etsy shop. Bear is such a popular animal for Valentine's Day. Of course, we are talking about a cute cuddly bear, not the grizzly one;) For for this blog post, I would like to utilize my bear character as a classroom Valentine's card. It's a simple inexpensive way where kids exchange cards with their friends at school. For those of you who are moms, this will be a perfect Valentine's activity between you and your little ones. Here are what you need for this project:
First, I put my chocolate candies in the mini treat bags, tied them with 1/8" red ribbon. You can put as many candies as long as they fit in the bag. Pssst...mine is dark chocolate:P  Next, print the art on the card stock, cut the bear parts. Each bear has 3 parts. Lay them out as shown below. For recipient name, I typed it with my design program. Another option is using Adobe Acrobat. Please note every computer has different font types. You can learn the step by step how to edit/add text on pdf file here. No patience to do so? No worries, just handwritten it using gel pens to make it more personal!  After that, flip the bear over (see below). Then, glue the arms on the reverse side of the bear body. I have indicated which one is left and right on the page.  To attach the candy bag, I used clear mounting squares so the kids can peel the glue without any risk of damaging the surface of the art on the card stock. However, if you do not care about this fact, then, any kind of tapes will serve the purpose :)  Here how finished cards look like. Aren't they adorable? Just for variety, I made 2 colors of bear. You can download the file here. Hope you will find them fun to make. I would love to see how you do yours. If you have Instagram, feel free to tag me @zoyu_design. Have fun!  The year 2016 is almost over and soon we will welcome 2017. For me, There is no better way to end this year besides giving a freebie...FREE CALENDAR! It is my way of saying "thank you" for following my creative journey. I know...we all have that fancy digital calendar in our smart phones, but it is always good to have a physical one at your fingertips, especially around your work station.  Inspired by a tea towel calendar lay out, this printable can serve as a wall art as well. You could put it on an easle like I did, frame it or pin it on your wall, whicever works best. I like how there are little icons floating around to mark the months. Simply download the file here. I hope you love it as much as I do and HAPPY NEW YEAR!  We are only few days from Christmas. My favorite time of the year. I myself have been occupied with the hustle bustle of the holidays: shopping, decorating the house, drawing holidays art for my instagram, and of course...wrapping gifts! I created some printable gift tags for my favorite folks this season and would like to share with you all. Think it as a virtual Christmas gift from me:) All you need is a color printer, cardstock and any type of strings. Mine is red-white yarn, to give peppermint look. YOu can use twine as well. I like using craft paper as gift wrap. It is economical and has eco-friendly appeal. 
You can download the art HERE. Hope these tags will add festive to your gifts. ENJOY! It is already October and surely Halloween is in the air and it's time to do some decoration around the house. I created a set of printable Halloween signs that inspired by black and white Poe's "Raven" party from my last blog post. I love the idea of having modern Halloween decorations that simple, yet look great!   Labor day just passed, and Halloween is just around the corner. Yup! one of kids' favorite holidays. I was so excited when Rachael from Fawn Handcrafted Celebrations reached out to me, to create an invitation for a Halloween party. The theme was Edgar Alan Poe's poem "Raven". When Rachael told me that it would be black and white party, I already fell in love with it.
Honestly I was not familiar with the poem at first, but thanks to Mr. Google :) After spending a couple of hours researching, I would say "Raven" is a pretty dark poem. Perfect for Halloween, but very different from my regular style (soft pastel colors). Yet, I went ahead and did some sketching and doodling. I was glad when Rachael approved it on the first preview. Phew! Rachael did an amazing job on the styling (as always). The event landed on the front cover of Everyday Party Magazine Fall 2016 edition. Huge congrats to her and team! I like how she loosely threw black and white honeycombs on the background. My major crush is actually the vintage typewriter! It perfectly displayed my invitation. You could check out the whole look here (pg. 77-80). Just in case if you want to do a black and white Halloween theme, I will create some free Halloween printable images on my next post. So, stay tune! |
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