A Creative Challenge Recap: Blender Bonanza, Trailing Florals, and Making Room to Grow
This spring, I found myself participating in two design challenges at the same time: Blender Bonanza through Power Sellers Academy and Bärbel Dressler's Trailing Floral Challenge.
If I'm being honest, challenges like these have come and gone for years while I sat on the sidelines. Not because I wasn't interested, but because life, client work, family commitments, and my own design projects always seemed to fill the calendar first. By the time I noticed a challenge was happening, it was often halfway over.
This year, I decided to be a little more intentional with my time and actually make room for a few of these opportunities.
What I quickly discovered is that creative challenges offer far more than just an excuse to make new artwork. They're opportunities to learn new skills, experiment with ideas, connect with other designers, and sometimes push yourself in directions you wouldn't have chosen on your own.
Blender Bonanza: The Art of Supporting Designs
The first challenge was Blender Bonanza, a multi-week design challenge focused entirely on creating coordinating patterns.
As surface pattern designers, it's easy to focus on hero prints. Those are usually the designs that get the most attention on social media and the ones we are most excited to create. But collections need supporting players too.
Throughout Blender Bonanza, I created stripes, checks, plaids, geometric coordinates, textured basics, and other supporting designs intended to mix and match with larger collections.
Some of my favorite designs from the challenge ended up being patterns I might never have created otherwise. It also reminded me how important these coordinates are for quilters, sewists, home decorators, and anyone looking to create a cohesive project using multiple fabrics or wallpapers.
The challenge pushed me to think beyond individual designs and focus more on building collections that work together.
The images above are a small peak at some of the designs I created for Blender Bonanza. Each image click’s through to a collection in my Spoonflower shop.
The Trailing Floral Challenge
Towards the end of Blender Bonanza, I was participating in Bärbel Dressler's Trailing Floral Challenge.
Unlike Blender Bonanza, which focused on supporting designs, this challenge centered around creating a decorative trailing floral pattern. Trailing florals have a very different design rhythm. They rely on movement, flow, balance, and thoughtful spacing to guide the eye across the design.
Creating this pattern gave me an opportunity to slow down and focus on composition. Every vine, flower, leaf, and curve needed to contribute to the overall movement of the design.
The result was a floral that feels elegant, organic, and full of motion while still fitting naturally within my storybook-inspired design style.
Doing Both at Once
Was it a little chaotic trying to keep up with Blender Bonanza and the Trailing Floral Challenge at the same time?
Absolutely.
Did my desk slowly disappear beneath sketches, color palettes, notes, and design files?
Also yes.
But it was completely worth it.
One challenge strengthened my ability to create versatile supporting patterns. The other encouraged me to focus on composition and decorative design. Together, they stretched different creative muscles and helped me grow as a designer.
More importantly, they reminded me that growth doesn't always come from massive projects or big career milestones. Sometimes it comes from simply showing up, participating, and making space to learn something new.
Looking Ahead
One of my goals this year has been to be more intentional about how I spend my creative time. Participating in both of these challenges was a small step toward that goal, and I'm glad I made room for them.
You'll likely see many of the designs created during these challenges appear in future collections, colorways, and coordinating releases in my Spoonflower shop.
If you'd like to explore the finished designs, you can find them in my Spoonflower shop, where they're available on fabric, wallpaper, and home decor.
Thanks for following along on the journey.
P.S. Want to join in on the fun next year? I recommend visiting Erin Kendal and Bärbel Dressler’s websites and subscribing to their newsletters or following them on Instagram so you can get notified the next time they host their challenges.