My beautiful, brilliant Mum passed away on Sunday after a short struggle with cancer. It happened so fast. She was diagnosed on July 4th and died a very short six weeks later. She was a force of nature, always looking for ways to connect people and support their dreams. She brought joy wherever she went. I’m so grateful and so blessed that she was alive to witness my transformation from corporate drone to thriving online artist. She cheered me on, always, no matter what.

One of the very best things about teaching Surface Pattern Design is the students I have the privilege of meeting and mentoring. I’m thrilled to introduce you to Heather Lowery, an accomplished woodblock printer who started to explore Surface Design earlier this year as a way to expand her business.

I’m back to talk about the benefits of exploring surface pattern design. Let’s start from the beginning to make sure everyone understands what surface design actually is. I had never heard of it until about three years ago and didn’t realize it was such a huge creative industry.

Do you get that nagging feeling that you could be doing something creative with your life but you don’t know where to start? I hear this a lot inside my creative community. I’m here to tell you, implore you in fact, to keep reading. I’m sharing my top 3 super practical tips for how to get started.

This year’s 100 Day Project ends tomorrow: Wednesday, July 10, 2019. It’s been an amazing experience leading 50+ women in the challenge this year. I created a private Facebook group for us to ensure we’d have a safe place to post our work, provide encouragement and cheer each other on each day. The breadth and variety of artwork produced has been inspirational.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately when writing this blog. I’m the kind of person who spell checks and proof reads before I’ve even finished my first draft. It would probably be much more efficient for me to jot down my general ideas and write out a first draft. And then do all the massaging, editing and proofing. But I can’t seem to work that way.

Are you feeling frustrated, stuck, or generally lacking in creativity right how? It happens. You may be hard at work inside my 8-week Academy program and need a breakthrough. Or you may still be dreaming about surface pattern design and putting your own beautiful designs on real products but you don’t know where to start. Or maybe you’re just not feeling well due to allergies or June gloom, that Southern California weather pattern with cloudy, overcast skies.

I think I mentioned that I’m leading a 100 Day Challenge right now with a group of 50 creatives in my community. We are on Day 78 of 100 which feels amazing. The reason I’d like to talk about this is because I entered this year’s challenge with the goal of using my iPad Pro, Apple pencil and an app called Procreate every day for 20 minutes for 100 days in a row. What I discovered is that my love of the overall process is what has kept me going when I wanted to quit, switch gears or felt unmotivated or lacking in creative ideas.

I just published my tenth class on Skillshare and have been talking about it a lot this week. The class is called: What I Learned From My 1st Year Teaching on Skillshare. I want current and former students to know about it, watch it and give it a thumbs up. I also want to attract new students to my creative community by sharing everything I’ve learned. If you aren’t currently a member of Skillshare, you can get 2 months completely free if you sign up through my personal teacher link.

Welcome to this week’s blog post. I’m thrilled to introduce you to Kathleen Lambert, one of the students in my Surface Pattern Design Academy program. She completed the course back in March but once you are in the program, you are in my community forever! I can’t wait for you to meet her. She is such a great example of a strong woman who has always put others first and finally decided to invest in herself. Read on to learn all about what she is creating!

Do you struggle with the feeling that you may run out of creative ideas? I’ve just finished the second launch of my signature course, The Pattern Design Academy, and students are diving into the first module of the course this week. Several comments have popped up in our private Facebook group about creativity, originality, and how to stay current, relevant and yet unique in your design work. Let’s talk about it.

I just wrapped up my most recent free LIVE Workshop: How To Get Started in Surface Pattern Design. It was incredible with amazing engagement by the 847 creatives who participated. I taught them how to make their very first successfully repeating pattern in Adobe Illustrator. In 10 days. With many of them using Illustrator for the very first time. It was magnificent. We have been celebrating their WINS together.

I’m incredibly excited to talk to you today about the revolution that’s happening in online education. Online education isn’t new. It’s been around for more than 20 years but it’s absolutely exploding right now. Tony Robbins and his partner Dean Graziosi have just launched a program called The Knowledge Business Blueprint that’s all about the power of learning and implementing quickly through online education. They call it the “roadmap to the next level of life”.

The 100 Day Project started as a workshop led by Michael Beirut, a professor at the Yale School of Art. I learned about this last year and essentially, the exercise is to pick a design task that you can repeat every day for 100 days in a row.  The only “rule” is that you do the same action, in some form, every day and keep track so you can present or look back over all 100 versions at the end of the project.

It’s funny but until I learned about Surface Pattern Design a few years ago, I had no idea that this entire industry existed. Maybe you’ve never heard of it either. Once you know about it and dive into making your own designs, your whole perspective shifts. You notice patterns EVERYWHERE you look and I want to make sure you realize the vast opportunities that await you in the industry.

Do you see patterns everywhere you look? Have you always wanted to create your own and put your designs on fabric or other products? Well, I’m excited to share my top 3 secrets to surface pattern design success.

Read the blog and then join my FREE live workshop. Enrollment is OPEN. You’ll learn the key steps to making a successfully repeating pattern in Adobe Illustrator. Don’t wait. Grab your spot. Seats are limited. Class starts on May 9.

Watching the inferno rage inside the Notre-Dame cathedral yesterday was heart breaking. After getting the CNN alert on my phone, I rushed to turn on the TV. But after several minutes, I couldn’t watch anymore. The images of the burning inferno erupting from within her were too much. I couldn’t handle the feeling of helplessness combined with sadness at the impending disaster.

I attended the Kajabi Impact Summit this past weekend and an incredible line up of speakers shared their wisdom with us. Online business leaders including Amy Porterfield, James Wedmore, Jasmine Star, Chalene Johnson and Brendon Burchard imparted their knowledge and advice from years of growing their online businesses and personal brands.

I was incredibly blessed to be invited to participate on a panel during the event. More about my panel later but that’s me in the orange sweater. My first time on stage!