We held our first Children's Design Competition during the Christmas holidays.  It wasn't a roaring succes, but it wasn't a disaster, either!  We had three entries, from 3 year old Faye ('Mummy and Faye in the Sea'), 10 year old Mac ('The Crazy-Haired Family') and 6 year old Catherine (My Family Building Sand-castles).

We called it a design competition, because it replaced our regular design competition, but it was really more of a drawing competition.  We asked contestants to draw 'My Family', interpreting that title however they chose.  After the close of the competition, we gave the winners the opportunity to resize their design and choose a repeat.  We thought it was better to exclude that part of the design process from the competition, because it can be tricky, but we didn't want to exclude it completely, or they might end up with a piece of fabric they didn't want to use.

Mac and his mum worked on his design together.  They added some extra clouds so that there wouldn't be too much empty space when the design was repeated, and chose a half-brick repeat.

Mac wasn''t entirely happy with his design at that point.  He thought the house was too dominant, so they re-coloured the house:

Designing in action!  A reminder to all of us that the first (or latest!) idea isn't necessarily the best - it can often be improved on.  Don't be afraid to tweak your treasured design.  And - you're never too young (or too old!) to start designing!

I haven't been able to print all the designs yet.  I'll show them to you when I have.