Itty Bitty Fun with Illustrator

Because....Bitty Birdies make me smile. 

Lounge Lizard

I am in LOVE with Mid-Century Modern design!  I love all of the funky, geometric patterns that came out of the mid 1950's era!  So, when Print & Pattern put out a call for submissions for their new Print & Pattern Geometric book, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to design some fun mid-century modern inspired patterns.  Here are four of the patterns that I completed for my collection 'Lounge Lizard'.  With 470 designers that submitted to Print & Pattern for inclusion in the new book, I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed for the chance at a spot!  It would be a dream come true for me!  I have looked through all of the Print & Pattern books about a million times...drool marks to prove it!  So, here is my collection.  Please let me know what you think!  Thanks so much! XO

Awesome Spoonflower Giveaway!!

Spoonflower has a wonderful giveaway this week!!  You can enter to win a Wacom Bamboo Splash Digital Drawing Tablet....just click here for your chance to enter.  You also have the opportunity to earn up to 5 extra entries by sharing the giveaway with friends!!  I did it...why don't you!?!  Whoo Hoo....my kind of giveaway!  Best of luck!

  

Front Row Society Competition

Front Row Society is currently running a competition for Art Deco Handbags.  I rummaged through my designs and decided to enter 8 of them.  You can check them out below.  I would really appreciate your vote if you like my designs.  You can vote for as many of the designs as you like, but just once for each design.  Thanks so much for your support!!  I really appreciate your vote!

Click on each design to be redirected to the voting page.  :)

Deco Chair Black

Deco Chair Blue

Deco Chair Gray

Deco Dots Blue

Deco Dots Gray

Deco Dots Multi

Deco Florish Dark

Deco Florish Light

BIG BIG BIG News!!!

I am totally excited to share some really BIG BIG BIG NEWS!!  I have signed my first licensing contract with UncommonGoods for my 'Vintage Telephone' design.  I entered my design in their Art Phone Competition earlier this summer.  A huge THANK YOU to everyone that voted for my design!  My design ended up being in the top 5 and the buyer for UncommonGoods contacted me and said they loved my design and wanted me on board!  The cases sell for $29 and are available for iPhone 4, iPhone 5 and Samsung S4.  Again, I could not do this without the support from my wonderful family and friends!!  

THANK YOU!!

Connecting Threads Fabric Competition

I entered the Connecting Threads Fabric competition, and there are 29 pages of entries.....can you believe it?!?! Would you please pop over and vote for my designs? I submitted 6 of them. My designs are featured on page 10...not sure if they get mixed up every time you go to the site. (They are displayed below and my logo is displayed in the bottom right hand corner)  You can vote once for each design. Thanks so much for your support!!

The five designs that get the most votes will be finalists, and each designer who makes it to the finals will get the opportunity to design coordinating prints to support their focal and a $50 gift card to Connecting Threads. A panel of judges at Connecting Threads will select the winner. You can vote for as many designs as you like!

Another Keeper!!!

And here is the blue colorway!  I love it!!  Although, now I am envisioning a few other colorways that I would like to try out.  It is possible that there may be 'Something Fishy' happening late at night in my studio!  :)  Happy Fishing!!

It's a Keeper!!!

I had so much fun recoloring my 'Something Fishy' design yesterday, and I completely fell in love with the new colors!!  So much so that I decided to develop an entire collection around the design.  And....IT'S A KEEPER....I LOVE IT!!  My son Gabe just adores fishing, and he had fun suggesting design combinations that he thought would be cool.  It warmed my heart that the two of us could work on this together!  He really made my day!  Here is the pink colorway.  I will post the blue as soon as it is complete.  After that....we are going fishin'!

Something Fishy...

Tonight I decided to breathe some new life back in to an older design with color!  I had fun playing around with color combos, and asked my kids for their input.  I am loving this design again!  I also added 2 coordinating designs.  Fun colors...and my kids LOVE THEM!!  Mission accomplished!!  :)

Something Fishy - Blue

Fish Head Scales - Blue

Fishy Bubbles - Blue

Something Fishy - Pink

Fish Head Scales - Pink

Fishy Bubbles - Pink

Flora Glen Collection

Today I finally finished compiling the last of my designs into my new collection.  After much thought, I have decided to call my collection Flora Glen.  I feel like I put a lot of myself into this collection, and I am very pleased with how it turned out.  Please let me know what you think of my collection.  Thanks for looking.

Reykjavik Houses

This design was inspired by a friend of mine who has traveled to Iceland many times.  I was intrigued by the beautiful photographs of Iceland that she posted on her Facebook page, so I started doing some research of my own about this breathtaking place.   I was completely captivated by the stunning beauty of the land, as well as the colorful homes all nestled together.  This fun design called Reykjavik Houses was born.

Photo by Travel Punk

Most houses in Reykjavik are clad in brightly colored corrugated steel.  



Reykjavik Houses

Summer inspired designs...

Summer...I LOVE SUMMER!!!   These are a couple of designs that were inspired by SUMMER, my local farmer's market, and my own garden.  My garden is full of flowers and caterpillars...monarch caterpillars!  My kids just love collecting the caterpillars, growing them in to beautiful butterflies, and then releasing them back in to my garden.  It is great fun to watch the caterpillars grow and turn in to graceful butterflies!

Farmer's Market

Flutterby

More Pattern Play Today

I am really loving black these days!  Playing and reworking a sketch I did a while ago.  Whatcha think? 

Trees Please...

Pattern play for today...

 

Forest Dawn

Forest Dusk

Free Shipping from My Shop at Society6

Are you in need of a stylish new Iphone or Ipod case?  How about a trendy new laptop skin? Or maybe you just want to treat yourself to a new t-shirt, tote bag, or throw pillow.  Well, for a short time you can order any number of these items from my Society6 shop and have them delivered to your home for FREE.  Right now Society6 is running a promotion that offers my customers FREE SHIPPING on anything in my shop.  So, now is the time to treat yourself or a friend to a fun, stylish, trendy new item!  Please click on the link above to stop by my shop and take a look around.  Thanks so much for shopping!

Pattern Design Pin-hop 2013

Welcome to the Pin-Hop June 2013!  I am so excited you joined in the fun!!  We are a group of over 50 designers participating in the first ever pattern pin-hop on Pinterest.  The concept and preparation for this pin hop was orchestrated by the talented Tina Olsson of FYllayta.  

My designs were inspired by the "Midnight Garden" concept board from Patternbanks A/W 2013/2014 trend .  I hope you enjoy browsing through my interpretation.  Please be sure to stop back and check out all the other designers on the Pin-Hop June 2013 Pinterest board.  You can also find many of the designers and their fantastic work on the Find New Designers Pinterest board.  

Midnight Garden Sketchbook Collection - Holly Helgeson Designs 2013

I sincerely hope you enjoy this event and leave inspired to create fabulous designs of your own!

Also, please make sure to check out the beautiful designs from the very talented Femi Ford! Enjoy the Hop and Happy Pinning! 

iPhone Case Design Challenge by Uncommongoods

Last week I entered an iPhone Case Design Challenge for Uncommongoods.  They put a call out for designers to submit their artwork for a chance to win $500 plus 5% royalties.  Each designer could submit up to 5 designs to be considered in the contest.

Today I got word that my design "Vintage Telephones" has made it to the semi-finalist round!  WHOO HOO!!!  Now, I NEED YOUR HELP IN THE FORM OF VOTES.....PRETTY PLEASE!!!  The winner will be determined by the most number of votes.  Please click on this link to vote for my design.  I would be so grateful for your support!!  I am doing everything I can to follow my dream, and every step I take gets me a little closer.  Thank you so much for supporting my dream!!

                        

Love to pin? Love pattern? Why not save the date and join the Pinhop event starting on the 15th June

If you say yes to either of those two questions then there is no excuse not to join in the Pinterest Pinhop starting on the 15th. A group of 40 or so talented SP designers will be presenting brand new designs via a special Pinhop board located on the Find New Designers Pinterest site-there will full collections presented by those designers own web sites or blogs but the main design you can pin to your own board.

The concept and preparation is by Tina Olsson of Fyllayta who has done a great job putting this together.

See you there I hope?

Because...

I am a glass half full kinda girl!

Summer Folly...Ahhhh...Wishful Thinking!

In Minnesota, 9 times out of 10 Memorial Day weekend is rainy and cold.  And yes, this weekend certainly lives up to those statistics.  Okay...they are not really statistics...just my opinion.  But if you ask any Minnesotan they will probably agree with me.  So, since the weather is damp and gray, I decided to create a little bit of sunshine myself.  Inspired by vintage prints, here is my playful summer folly print.

Geek Chic Sneak Peek

A couple of weeks ago Spoonflower held a competition with the theme of 'Geek Chic'.  I loved the idea, but unfortunately did not get my submission completed to enter.  Today I finally finished my design, so I thought I would share it anyway.  My design depicts what GEEK DNA probably looks like...at least I am pretty sure that this is what my DNA looks like.  Plus I love vintage glasses!!   :)  Enjoy!