Isn't that a beautiful photograph?  It's from the Paperdoll Studio.  Who would have thought ice cubes could look so pretty?  But then, flowers almost always look lovely.  It's probably one of the reasons they are so popular on fabric - for dressmaking, quilting, bag-making, etc.

So, it's about time we had a few more floral designs on our web site!  To encourage you, this month's design competition theme is Summer Flowers.  The flowers can be large or small, all-over or in groups, true-to-life or as abstract as you like and in any colour you can think of.  There's some inspiration on my 'Inspiration' board on Pinterest - look all the way through, not just at the top few.

Designs should be uploaded to our web site by midnight on Tuesday, August 12^th, voting will open on Facebook on Thursday, August 14^th and close on August 19^th.  The winner will be announced on August 21st.

Full competition rules and details:

Please upload your competition designs to your account on our website.  If you haven’t already got an account, it’s simple to set up.  You just need an email address, password and name, which can be your own name, a nickname or a business name.  (You will be prompted to log in or create an account when you try to save your design.)  Then email me at admin@printmepretty.co.uk, to tell me the name of your design.  (So I can find the right one!)  I will then put them onto Facebook for voting.  The winning design (and possibly one or two others) will be put into our competition winners slot.  In case you're wondering about the order in which designs are listed on Facebook, the first to arrive in my inbox goes at the top, with the rest listed in the order in which they are sent in.

So, the competition is:

Create a design suitable for printing on fabric based on 'Summer Flowers'.

Technical matters:

Your design should be at a resolution of at least 150 dpi, but not more than 300, using RGB colour space.

When it comes to printing, the repeat options are:  Straight, Centre, Half-drop, Half-brick and Mirror.  Once you’ve uploaded your design to our website, you can play around with the repeats to see which one will look best.  For pictures of what the different repeats look like, check this blog post.

To enter:

Upload your design onto our website by Tuesday, August 12th, giving it a title.  Email me at admin@printmepretty.co.uk, telling me the title of your design and the name of your account.

The closing date is midnight on Tuesday, August 12th, after which designs will be displayed (at the fat quarter size) on Facebook for voting .  Voting will close at midnight on August 19th.  The design with the most votes will win 3 metres of 100% cotton fabric (150cm wide), printed with your design.  The winning design will also be available for sale on our web site for at least 1 week after the close of voting.  

The official bit:

By entering, you agree to our competition terms and conditions.

You may only submit one entry, which must be your own work and based on the theme of Summer Flowers.

All entries will be displayed for public voting, unless we feel that the subject matter is inappropriate.  Copyright will remain with you, but by entering the competition, you give us the right to use your design in any way we wish on our web site and social media, for advertising purposes.

The winning design will feature on our web site and will be available for sale for a week after we announce the winner.  After that time, the designer may leave the design for sale, or remove it from public view.  The designer will be paid £2 per metre commission on any sales of the design.

Happy designing!

Flowers by Debora Sayuri from The Pattern Library