Blessed Christmas Card - Cherish Every Moment

This is a Christmas card I designed when my boys were younger. I had just had my 3rd and last son and was feeling so overwhelmingly blessed by my family and the life that God had given me. It was a simple life but so full of love and laughter. Obviously with a newborn and life in general, things weren’t always easy, but I wanted to really focus on the blessings I had in my life. I was constantly thinking about cherishing every moment with my boys, for one, because this little baby was my last, but also because all my boys were growing and changing so quickly and the days and weeks and years were just flying by! And here I am now - I blinked, and that little baby is 7 and it’s the last year I’ll have with no teenagers!

As I work on my current Christmas card, I still feel so full of gratitude. Our life isn’t perfect, and we have had all sorts of ups and downs, but I still find myself overwhelmed with all that I’m blessed with. I’m so thankful for my husband and how well he takes care of his family and how much he loves each one of us. I’m excited about new creative ventures and future possibilities. I’m thankful for friendships and memories made this year! I’m thankful we now have my family AND my husband’s parents living close to us. I’m thankful for things I’ve learned this year and the way God opens and closes doors to guide us through life. I’m thankful for a cozy house and food on the table. We have hopes, dreams and goals for the future, but we are in want of nothing, really.

I focus our Christmas card on our boys (rather than the whole family) because I look forward to taking the photo of them each year and honestly, family photos don’t always happen each year. I zoom in on those faces each year, and I’m reminded of all that my husband and I are blessed with. My boy are learning and growing, and they are healthy and happy. They have made new friends and have been good friends. They’re surrounded by a great grandparent, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who love them and support them. They love God and have a beautiful church family and many friends who add so much to their lives. They love each other and they love life. They’re crazy and full of energy, drive each other nuts on some days, but they have kind hearts and they love each other fiercely. Each day holds it’s challenges, but they’re learning skills to carry them through life with strength and positivity. I hope they always see how blessed they are, because even through the hard times, there is always something to be thankful for!

Now that I’m getting all emotional, back to business - you can find this Christmas card design in my etsy shop here. I’m working on getting different Christmas card designs up in my shop. I’d love the chance to design your Christmas card now or in the future! I typically come up with a couple of unique designs each year and add them to the collection of designs I’ve done over the years. And I’m always open to new ideas if you would like something unique designed!

I hope you all have a holiday season full of blessings and thankfulness and you are able to cherish each moment amidst the hustle and bustle of the holiday. This year I am trying to simplify and enjoy what really matters - spending quality time with my family and making simple memories. Kids grow fast and people pass away, so make the most of each moment (without stressing yourself out about it!) and have a beautiful holiday season!

Peachy Keen

I entered the current Spoonflower design challenge: Western Americana. The prompt was “to celebrate the rich heritage and rugged landscapes in this adventurous frontier to create a crowd-pleasing design that looks like it would belong on home decor and apparel use cases you’d see in a saloon, on a ranch or at a rodeo.”

I decided to submit a more feminine design. Maybe one you’d see in a girl’s bedroom or maybe on her horse blanket or a dress she may wear.

I added this pattern to my spoonflower shop and named it Peachy Keen, an old western phrase. I have other color variations I’m playing around with as well that I will add to my shop at some point, but this color scheme best fit the challenge.

Cadence

A cadence is a rhythm, or a flow of words or music, in a sequence that is regular or steady, much like this blender pattern I designed and named Cadence. It is part of my Transposed Harmony collection, and is available in my Spoonflower shop as fabric in rust and mustard. It works well with the other patterns in the collection, or as a minimalistic standalone pattern. You can also buy wallpaper and other home decor in my Spoonflower shop as well.

I think it works really well at a larger scaler as a wallpaper and really makes this office space vibrant and fun. I could definitely see myself working in that space (although it probably wouldn’t look quite as neat if I did)! I also think it could be a fun wallpaper in a playroom as well with more playful decor. If you are going for a more subtle look, but don’t want just a plain paint color on the wall, I think it would be a great alternative as a wallpaper! It’s a very versatile design and could really be used in so many ways.

I like to show my blender patterns with one or two of the other patterns in the collection to see how they can work together.

Transposed Harmony Collection Logo

While still in the design process for my pattern collection, I named the collection Transposed Harmony and I designed a logo for it. A logo isn’t required for pattern design, but if I ever decide to license this collection, it’s good to have a logo to represent it. It could be used on websites and even printed on the selvage (the edge of the fabric where the pattern is not printed), if licensed for fabric.

Transposed is a musical term that means to write or play (music) in a different key or register from the original. A non-musical definition is to transfer to a different place or context. I had considered using the word Repurposed, but Transposed was the perfect replacement since it’s a musical term and gave the same idea I was trying to convey. The piano was repurposed from a working instrument to art and then from wall art to a pattern collection.

The definition of Harmony is the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progression having a pleasing effect. It also can mean a consistent, orderly, or pleasing arrangement of parts; congruity. Harmonious patterns is what I have worked hard at designing in this collection so they can be used in multiple combinations and for many different purposes.

Visually, the lines in the letters of the Transposed font reminds me of the lines on a musical staff and compliments the motif used as the O. Transposed looks more structured like music on a staff would be, while harmony is a more fluid script font to stand for the way that music sounds. Music can be very technical, but there is a fluidity to it where the musician has the liberty to add emotion and stretch the timing in a way that is unique to them and the way they feel the music. I think the structured font of Transposed and the fluid font of harmony really compliment each other nicely.

I also wrote a statement that I think fully encompasses the inspiration behind my collection as well the meaning I’m trying to convey.

This collection effortlessly blends the vintage allure of an old family piano with motifs inspired by its intricate inner mechanics and its musical past. While the piano is no longer creating music, its creative transformation inspired a collection that harmoniously weaved a tale of family, music and repurposed artistry.

Legato

I named this pattern Legato. Legato is an Italian term meaning tied together and is a musical performance technique. Legato is used in music to connect the notes together smoothly and I think the designs in this pattern smoothly connect in this repeating pattern. The open space in the pattern gives a little room to breath compared to some of the busier patterns in the collection. Legato is now available in my spoonflower shop. You can find it here.

I think this pattern could work really well at a larger scale as a wallpaper or a smaller scale on home decor.

It’s very pretty on paper as well! The pattern leaves a space where you could write to and from and maybe even a little note - no tag needed!

It’s pretty on a table runner as well! You can find this in my spoonflower shop here.

I also designed a 2nd colorway in a dark blue-green. This pattern is also available in my Spoonflower shop. You can find it here.

Forte

In music, forte is an Italian term that means loud or strong. It's a dynamic marking that instructs musicians to play a passage with a strong volume or intensity. Forte was the first pattern in the collection that I designed with a dark background, and I felt that it gave the pattern a boldness that the others didn’t have.

I also designed a second colorway of this pattern in a dark blue with teal accents. I love how it compliments the hero pattern in the second colorway. I think all 3 of these patterns work so nicely together!

Rhythm

I love the simplicity of this blender pattern titled Rhythm. This pattern rhythmically repeats like one would count the beats in a measure of music. I also love the negative space of this pattern that shows up in squares, diagonal intersecting “lines” and diamond shapes. While this pattern could be mixed and matched with other patterns in the collection, I actually think it stands alone quite nicely in both tan and rust. Both blender colors are available in my Spoonflower shop.

Rhythm in tan available on Spoonflower

This soft beige would be perfect for gender neutral baby clothing, but I also think it would be a great pattern for curtains to subtly compliment a room’s decor.

This rust color is a bolder version of the pattern.

Rhythm in rust available on Spoonflower

I tried a more subtle shade on a onesie and I really like it! It is not in my Spoonflower shop, but I think I will add it as another option.

Allegro

This is a fabric mockup of 2 color versions of my pattern design I named Allegro.

Allegro means “at a brisk tempo” in music, and this busier pattern has a brisk movement back and forth. All my patterns in this collection are named with a musical term. Since the musical staff is made up of lines, I want to have one “stripe” pattern that would mirror that, but since I’m not that fond of actual stripes typically, this is my version!

Musical staff

This pattern design was based on some of the pieces that are shown in this wall art below I made out of piano pieces.

I think this pattern would be cute on a baby onesie! If you sew and you decide to make anything with my pattern, I would love to see it! Please tag me on IG @rachelcraftonart

Alto

I have designed a second colorway of many of my patterns, but I thought it would be interesting to have another design variation and not just a different color scheme. I named it Alto – a harmony of the Melody pattern. This pattern is available in my Spoonflower shop.

Alto

Alto giftwrap mockup

Melody giftwrap mockup

Melody

This is one of the patterns I have been working on. I named it Melody since it was the first pattern I worked on in the collection, and it set the stage for the other designs. It is one of the hero patterns as it can stand alone but can also be easily paired with some of my simpler designs.

I started out by sketching musical symbols and some designs made up of piano parts. You can clearly see the piano hammer incorporated into this design, as well as the “rest” symbol, for those of you who are musicians. After I sketched, I scanned the drawings into my design program, cleaned them up and turn them into vector art so I had more freedom to change sizes and move pieces around. Vector art can be scaled to any size without losing any detail, unlike pixels. I think there may be a time to work in pixels for certain kinds of detailed artwork, but because I didn’t know the end use of this pattern, I wanted to be able to scale it to any size. Once I finished the motifs, I then started putting patterns together and working with color.

This pattern is now available in my Spoonflower shop. It can be ordered as fabric, wallpaper or on a variety of household decor items. I will be adding patterns to this collection one-by-one to my shop, so check back for more.

Repurposing a Family Piano into Art

Years ago there was a piano in my parent’s house that used to be my grandmother’s childhood piano. It was pretty to look at, but it wouldn’t hold a tune for anything and was no longer played by anyone who appreciated intonation of any kind. I found this video of my eldest son as a baby playing a few sour notes for your listening pleasure. 🎵🥴

My grandmother as a little girl.

It was time for it to go, as space was needed, but it was extremely heavy, so quite a few years ago, we took it apart and I couldn’t help but gather up all the inside workings of the piano to make art of some kind. I created some wall décor and Christmas ornaments and even made a Christmas tree star I used for many years. Years passed and now that I’m getting into surface pattern design, I couldn’t help but be reinspired by not only the piano parts, but so much more than that. This repurposing, along with my love for music, inspired me to draw motifs based on the wall art I had created as well as musical symbols and every other part of the piano. I felt the inspiration was almost endless when I thought about the physical parts of the piano – the wood, strings, inner workings, the keys and the pedals. I thought about the way the pieces moved and worked together and the music that was created in its prime. I thought about family history and family ties – musicians in the family and the way music can bring people together and speak to people without words. I thought about all the musical symbols and musical terms that had different meanings that could be translated into something visual! I was so excited to get started on this pattern collection and there was certainly no lack of inspiration!

My First Copyright Registration for My First Pattern Collection

It took all summer to finally get my copyright registration in the mail, but I am SO excited to start sharing my first pattern collection!

I had an amazing summer with my family and was able to make all sorts of memories. My boys are back in school, so with this new chunk of time in my schedule and the registration in my hand, I’m ready to share my inspiration for this collection and to start designing my next collections!

New Office Space

I’m excited to start sharing what I’ve been working on!

Our house is under construction, and part of that construction is a hole in the wall that will soon become my office nook. For now, the area is storage for tools and whatnot, and it really stifles creativity! I really had my heart set on taking a course to further my skills in design - specifically surface pattern design - now that my youngest son is in full day school, and I have a chunk of time most weekdays that I can call my own. I needed to be able to spread things out and have a quiet, neat space to begin my messy, creative process.

My parents so generously offered to let me do a quick facelift to an unused room in their house (that actually used to be one of my childhood bedrooms) and use it as an office. It didn’t cost anything but the cost of paint! The roll-top desk I remember from my childhood was already there, and I went hunting for unused furniture in the attic of my parent’s house, just as I did as a young girl when I wanted a different dresser for my bedroom.

My childhood home was built in 1810 and was once the Bland Tavern and later the home of my great grandparents who, sadly, I was never able to meet. The attic is a treasure trove of items from times past and traces of family I never knew, but heard stories about, along with items from my childhood. I believe exploring the attic and basement of my home, was the starting point of my love of all things antique. I found an old green table that was once my great-grandfather’s to used for my art supplies and a drawing table I had tucked away in the attic many years ago. Within a few days I had an office!

I’m so thankful for this space where creativity can flow freely!