I first came across Spoonflower from the blog Centsational Girl. She’s created an entire line of fabrics and they are all GORGEOUS! You can check out her patterns by clicking the link, or by looking up Kate Riley Fabric Designs in the Spoonflower shop.
What Spoonflower is, is site that allows you to create (and sell if you wish) your own fabric, wallpaper or gift wrap.
BRILLIANT!
Not sure what I’m talking about? You’re redecorating your daughter/son’s room and you just can’t find a comforter that will coordinate well…. design your own!
Thinking of trying your hand a quilting, but don’t have the time to create the bazillion pieces needed? Create your own designed fabric and then just sew along the lines in the pattern! Like this 1 HOUR QUILT!
(All of these images have been borrowed from other talented bloggers, so please click the images for links to their tutorials)
Take a photograph of some treasured recipes, upload it to Spoonflower and create material to make tea towels!
You can purchase fabrics that have been designed by other brilliant minds if you’re not feeling creative yourself and choose what medium you want them on – gift wrap, wallpaper, canvas, jersey, cotton, polyester…. lots of options for every project.
Stretch the fabric over a canvas and use as wall art.
What about a faux-suede headboard?
I am not a graphic designer by any stretch of the imagination, but when there’s an online tool like this, I can’t help but play. Madison’s room is a hot pink and pale pink, so I just wrote her name in a few different fonts and colours and clicked the repeat button on the Spoonflower site and look how it turned out!
You can see, the pricing on your completed piece isn’t astronomical either.
To better give you a visual, Spoonflower even has the option to click on “Gift Box” so you can get an idea of how your print will look on a gift:
I am going to be ALL OVER THIS for Christmas!
Imagine, coordinating/complimentary coloured gifts, but each with a different name so you know who they’re for.
Here someone has had their fabric printed and it looks SO GREAT!
What about corporate gifts?
Better still, I could get this as a fabric to make my vision board!
Yup – NEED it!
I’m also thinking of sponsoring my daughter’s soccer team with drawstring bags. I’ve looked around and to have them screen printed with the image I want comes with a pretty heft price tag. But I’ve created fat quarters on Spoonflower and can sew them for ~$15 each.
Check out what some other brilliant minds have done:
You could add in the time of birth, weight, middle name and an image of a footprint if you like.
You’ve seen fabric-backed bookcases, or this is an option – a decoupaged dresser.
Make pet pillows, photo collage pillows, decor pillows, theme pillows…
Take children’s art and make it into fabric, or I can see this being a really cute wrapping paper as well.
Want a keepsake from a special moment in time? Photograph it and use Spoonflower to create a bag, blanket, canvas, pillow etc.

Original image courtesy of Nicole Marie Talks
There are so many creative applications for this!
Just surfing the site, without creating a single image yourself will take days and days. The cumulative creativity of some of the designers is astounding!
Go play, and then send me what you’ve made so I can post it.
Have a great one!
that looks so awesome!!!! I love the recipe tea towel idea – so brilliant
I can see me spending a lot of time (and money) at Spoonflower. Will you be at the B Connected conference May 2nd?