New Design: Chintzy Roses and Bees

"Chintzy Roses and Bees"- is available at Spoonflower
(Photo also courtesy of Spoonflower)

Hello there, and hope all is well with you.

Am just dropping in quickly to let you know that my new "Chintzy Roses and Bees" design is available to buy on fabric, wallpaper and home décor at Spoonflower.

It's based on an original watercolour, and designed to evoke feelings of summer in your home, with romantic roses, and the whimsical addition of bees hiding in the pattern too.

There will be much more info about this and other new designs soon. As I said, I'm just sending-(or more accurately, scheduling) this at some speed. 

For the watercolour-rose-sketch-curious-people

Original rough watercolour sketches of roses, bees and lavender
by Clare Walker

If you're the kind of person who likes to see how designs develop, here's a pic of  some of the original rough watercolour sketches.

And yes, the lavender is still in the mix for later designs. Watch this space...

Even more importantly

Huge apologies if you were expecting this newsletter last week. Life is up in the air at the moment, but should be back to the usual sending pattern in a week or two.

In the meantime

In the meantime, if you like what you see of the finished wallpaper, that link to Spoonflower is here.

And in any event, thanks so much for being here, and my apologies once again.

More soon.

PS. Update on June 4th 2026: If you love a chintzy rose as much as I do, you might also like my more "watercoloury" new take on the theme, here.

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The Toucan Returns...

Please vote for this design if you use Spoonflower 

Hello there

One day, I promise I'll design something that doesn't involve our toucan friend. This isn't that day.

Note, if you're in a hurry, the upshot here is: if you use Spoonflower.com please vote for my Lilies, Toucans and Bird of Paradise tropical floral design in the latest Spoonflower competition.

Site visitors are welcome to vote too, I think. It's just that the process may be easier for those familiar with it already.

And yes...

The theme of the competition is "hot house flowers". So, I diligently drew all my lilies, found little-used (!) bird of paradise motifs on my hard drive, and spent a whole afternoon on banana and other types of palm leaf.

A peek at some of the "work whilst it was in progress,"
for this tropical floral project.

Then I noticed that the more fulsome instructions for designers said, "Consider including tropical animals."

So obviously, our extrovert toucan friend from a few weeks ago was a shoe-in for a spot of tweaking and inclusion.

And whether or not this design wins amongst the many other simply amazing ones (if you're reading this during the competition window, you'll have a lush and exotic time just looking at all the gorgeous entries, I promise).

The new "maximalist", style in the air at the moment might not be to everyone's taste, but I'm loving the colours, the richness and the joy of it.

Plus...

Even if you're reading this way after the competition (which closes around May 5th 2026, I believe), this is a surprisingly livable design, even at scale, despite all those bright and tropical colours. Eg, if we had stairs, I think I'd enjoy seeing the design beside them.

Find this design on wallpaper at Spoonflower

Finally...

Whether or not you vote in this, thanks so much for reading down this far, and for being here. It means the world.

The next newsletter is more likely to come out around the beginning of May. But there will be...

More soon.

___________________________

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Everything's Coming Up (Sketchy) Roses...

Tap or click here to see my "Sketchy Roses"
whimsical floral patterns on fabric, home decor
and wallpaper at Spoonflower...
(Product images courtesy of Spoonflower)

Hello there

Hope this post can help you find some much-needed whimsy in the world.

In truth, I was going to blog about something else today. But this collection became finished and on sale today...And so I couldn't resist sharing the news, and an initial pic or two, with you.

The story behind it...

The "Sketchy Roses," collection is designed to bring the country-cottage feeling of a sleepy Suffolk village into your home and life, but with a modern, line-drawn, and more whimsical twist.

Like quite a few of my designs, it's a homage to centuries-old house we lived in when I was small, complete with multiple fabrics, textures, and yes, roses growing by the door. Whether you prefer maximalist bright pink roses and dopamine decor, tiny subtle petal textures, or a more traditional print in between, there will be a pattern or print in this collection with your name on it.

Spriggy roses take the stage

This design, with its sprigged roses...

Watercolour Rose Sprigs & Leaves
 Patterned Fabric-
(Image courtesy of Spoonflower)

 
has somehow become a central piece, with its country freshness being the spirit behind the whole collection. And if you happen to be a Spoonflower member, please do vote for it amongst the other lovely designs in their latest competition (if you see this post before the competition closes on Feb 10th 2026).

Yes, it's also confession time...

If you've been reading this blog for a very long time...First, thank you. And secondly, yes, there was a previous "Sketchy Roses" collection. It was (and is)  on printable papers only, and after weeks of work, I managed to list it in the wrong section of my Craftsuprint shop, and then fail to promote it properly...

So these designs are both a re-birth of those original papers, and a complete re-imagining of the collection. Some designs, especially the tiny blender patterns, are completely new. Other very "loud" designs from the original collection have been taken away completely.

I hope that this collection will bring you the joy it was always meant to, but in a much bigger way, in its 2026 version.

Finally...Let's Not Forget the Forget-Me-Nots...

Finally, as promised, here are the answers the "Forget-Me-Not" quiz from last week.

A2

B4 (Digital Acrylic brush/pen-either brush or pen is a correct answer)

C1

D3

As I said last week, there are no prizes, but hope the guessing was fun. More on those motifs anon.

In the meantime, thanks so much for reading down this far, and for being here. I really appreciate it.

More soon.

___________________________

Big News: Bounding Squirrel Designs Are Now On Spoonflower

Hello there, and hope all's well with you.

It's not often I call any news round these parts "big".

But after having put in months of work learning and uploading behind the scenes, I'm super-proud to announce that you can now buy almost 30 of  my designs on Spoonflower's high-quality fabrics, wallpaper and home décor items, with many more designs to come in the future.

The top of the online shop-front currently looks like this (though those autumn leaves will change with the seasons and over time, as will the design selection):

Tap or click here to visit BoundingSquirrel's
storefront on Spoonflower.Com

Spoonflower prints every order on demand, and perhaps of special interest to people in the USA where it is based.

I can give you a flavour of the items they offer, such as this marmot tea-towel, (and indeed tea-towels generally, upon which I can now finally sell  my designs properly, thanks to Spoonflower).

"Cute 'N Quirky Marmots" Teatowel

And here's a  curated selection of my current designs, showing a small fraction of the variety of fabrics, wallpaper and other products made to last on Spoonflower:

Tap or click here to visit the Boundingsquirrel designs
 storefront on Spoonflower.com

But...

But the best, quickest and easiest way to see my new designs on Spoonflower,  (unsurprisingly) is to visit the BoundingSquirrel shop on Spoonflower.

Have fun there. And if you're already a Spoonflower customer, but you need a different size or colour of design..Or anything you'd love to see which isn't there yet, please message me on Spoonflower and I'll do the very best I can to help.

Phew again!

 After all the new items of recent weeks, I can promise you a complete change of tempo next week, to something much gentler and of the more "sketch-blog" type (both for your sake and mine :-) ).

In the meantime, thanks *so* much for being here, and have a great week.

More soon.

__________________________

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A New Pattern, Program & Project...

Hello again. In the about-to-snow cold of the end of January, please enjoy my "Boho Paradise", tropical print. Inspired by, and entered into the upcoming Spoonflower competition on a similar theme, have posted it here primarily in the hope that it warms you as much as it did me.

As you'll know if you've been here before, there's little I like better than nosing around in graphics programs. Recently, its been Krita. I designed the  entire pattern you see above  from start to finish in Krita, can't praise this free, open-source and fully -featured program highly enough.  I've put in *hundreds* of hours playing and experimenting with it now, and love the way that every time I use it, something always seems to emerge, finished, by the end.

Lots of things are happening right now. Some may lead somewhere, others may not.

In any event, more soon!

Parrots and Palm Leaves (New Seamless Pattern)

In haste and a week of truly mixed fortunes, have not had as much time to create as I would have liked. (All cartoons this week were for specific recipients, so have to stay under wraps for now).

Nonetheless, these parrots were my last-minute entry to the Spoonflower.com/Bucketfeet competition on a rain-forest theme.

There's still one more week of their co-sponsored competitions to go (I believe next week's theme is "Aquatic" but don't quote me on that). And the real bonus for entering is that for every entry they receive in these Bucketfeet competitions, Spoonflower is donating a dollar to a Native American rights charity. So whatever the outcome, each entry is doing some good in these uncertain times.

In any event, enjoy the parrots. May they bring some tropical colour and rainforesty-goodness into your life.

Daily Illustration #76: Traditional Watercolour Poppy Pattern

Ok, so this poppy pattern tile
is absolutely, definitely my last foray into "traditional" watercolour for a while.

This only happened today because the latest Spoonflower contest (as opposed to just a challenge) theme was finally announced as traditional watercolour. (Please vote for me if you're a member there. Many thanks!)

So, much as I've enjoyed all this unexpected practice it will be back to digital for a good while after this.

Daily Illustration #75: Postive Inspirations Typography (With Process)

Stage One: Black and white typography

Today's illustration is a bit different, and more of a design experiment. It's my response to Spoonflower's "Design a Day challenge, specifically the day on typography patterns.

The first graphic shows the basic wording and layout.


The second graphic shows the pink orange and gold background I added.

Stage Two: Pink and gold digital chalk background added

The third graphic is a lo-res demo of the final pattern.

Stage Three: lo-res demo of the final pattern

All this was done in Serif DrawPlus X8 (with a touch of final assembly in Patternshop. Have only recently bought Serif DrawplusX8, and am loving it. Suspect will be using and talking about it even more in upcoming posts.

PS. Specially loved how this turned out on items in the shop.

Daily Illustration #44: Heart Umbrellas

Did this in ArtRage and Patternshop to enter (unwatermarked!) in a Spoonflower contest on the theme of love and weather. Hope it's actually warm and dry wherever you are when you're reading this.





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