Adventchallenge 2014

The count down to Christmas has started and it is already December 4th. 

As the previous two years Faye Brown initiated the fun advent challenge again. 

Everyone is invited to create a piece of art ( illustrate, sing, sew, felt, film, take pictures ) for 25 days according to the daily theme. 

I was able to do all 25 days last year and it was so much fun...this year I am so busy with other projects but I hope I can do a few days here and there. 

If you like to follow the advent challenge, look out for the hash tag #adventchallenge on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. It is great to see what is posted. There is also a Pinterest board where new art will be pinned every day.

So here is the list :

Advent challenge 2014

And here are some great pieces of art from my fellow designers :

Day 2 "Christmas Tree" by Julie Hamilton http://artisticallyafflicted.com

Day 2 "Christmas Tree" by Lindsay Buck http://slumbermonkey.blogspot.co.uk

Day 3 "A Tree Decoration" by Suzanne Washington http://www.suzyspellbound.com

Day 4 "Penguin" by Rebecca Stoner http://rebeccastoner.co.uk

Day 3 "A Tree Decoration" by Mary Tanana http://groovity.blogspot.ch

Isn't this all fabulous...I am looking forward to see more beautiful designs for the advent challenge. 

Here is one of my designs from last year :

"A Tree Decoration" advent challenge 2013 by Pattern Jots www.patternjots.com

Please note the copyright for all designs shown in this blog post belong to the designer who created the art.

Happy Thursday !!!

Illustrated Birthday Calendar

So sorry I did not make it to write a blog post last week...health issues came up I had to take care of. Back at my desk for a few days already and it is getting very busy over here, less than a month until Christmas. 

I guess everyone is feeling the rush right now. I am happy to show you my latest project : a perpetual birthday calendar you can buy now from my Etsy store. 

It is an instant download and makes a perfect Christmas gift. So no need to leave the house and join the crowds in the city. Plus you support an individual artist and not the big box retailers.

Front page contemporary birthday calendar by Pattern Jots 

January page

See the full calendar over here.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Thursday everyone !

Thank You

It was my birthday this week and I received so many lovely birthday wishes and gifts...unexpected ! 

I was overwhelmed by all the love from family and friends. 

To show my appreciation I designed Thank You cards and I very much enjoyed doing it. 

Here you can see one example.

Thank You card copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014

Happy Thursday !!!

Etsy Shops

This week I have been working on opening my Etsy store...I have to admit I was procrastinating for a long time. 

I read a lot about opening an Etsy store and I remember reading, you should not try to be perfect in the beginning, just open your store and go from there. 

For a perfectionist like me this is easier said than done but in the end I did it. 

Starting with some digital products so far I have 6 products ready to sell. My dream is selling actual products, handmade by me...one day !

Since Christmas is around the corner I designed some circle shape gift tags which also work as cupcake toppers. 

12 round gift tags available as digital files on Etsy


You will also find a variety of Washi tapes for your craft projects.

Digital Washi tape available on Etsy.

Reading so much about Etsy and looking at a lot of shops, I want to share my favourite shops with you...it is just the beginning...there is so much amazing art available on Etsy, I could literally spend days looking at all different kind of Etsy shops.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PatternCircus

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RebeccaStonerDesigns

https://www.etsy.com/shop/JLWIllustration

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ClementineDigitals

https://www.etsy.com/shop/EllieFidlerDesigns

https://www.etsy.com/shop/POPprintonpaper

https://www.etsy.com/shop/AnnelineSophia

https://www.etsy.com/shop/DreamingOnAStar

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LilyBeanPrintables

https://www.etsy.com/shop/JenniferRogersDesign

https://www.etsy.com/shop/dorisandfred

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/RUTHTHORPSTUDIO

https://www.etsy.com/shop/nanditasinghdigitals

https://www.etsy.com/shop/clairelordondesign

https://www.etsy.com/shop/JaneFarnham

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SchatziBrown

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Groovity

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Slumbermonkey

https://www.etsy.com/shop/lisacongdon

Have fun shopping on Etsy and Happy Thursday !

Mid Century Design

Inspiration of the week...one of my dear friends bought a house and she showed it to me the other day. 

The house was built in 1959 and you could see it was a gorgeous house by that time. 

Walking inside I felt like time travelling, almost everything was still authentic. Amazing ! 

I do not need to mention I admire the Mid-Century style a lot and got quite excited inside. 

The first thing what caught my eye was a kind of music shelf with doors with beautiful flower designs on it.

Mid Century Flower Design

Then we walked into the rooms and I saw beautiful wall paper ... I still can not believe this wall paper is on these walls for over 50 years.

Mid-Century children's wall paper

Mid-Century wall paper

Mid-Century wall paper

Happy Thursday !

Pattern Mix

Fall break is over and after visiting family in Germany and getting some rest I am happy to be back on my desk designing.

During fall break I received a nice email saying some of my patterns are published in the new e-book Pattern Mix by Pattern People. 

It is a great inspiration and features over 100 talented surface designers from all over the world. 

It shows more than 800 print designs on 200 plus pages of colourful patterns. 

As much as I love to hold an actual book, I get used to ebooks I can conveniently store on my iPad which means I almost always have them with me which is great.

You can check out more details about the book over here.

E-book Pattern Mix by Pattern People

One of my designs published in the book.

Surface Pattern "Abstract 1"  copyright©Pattern Jots by Maike Thoma 2014

Happy Thursday !

Happy Fall Break !

I feel we just had summer break...it is beautiful in Switzerland right now, fog in the morning and sunshine in the afternoon. 

The leaves are falling and colours are changing. 

I am off for fall break and will be back in three weeks.

Happy Friday !

Happy Fall Break !