and now for something a bit more domesticated

This week, our inspiration comes from retro patterns on dishes. Pots, pans, coffee cups, casseroles, plates, dishes, caraffes, juice glasses ... you name it. Anything with a funky pattern, crazy colors or bit of nostalgia will do. I love looking through thrift stores at the old dishes and have always wanted to incorporate them somehow into scrapbooking.

The challenge is simple and there are so many ways to interpret it. Just use a dish pattern on a scrap page or journal entry somehow.

*Scan an old plate, print the image out on paper and cut it out or use the whole thing as a background for a journal or scrap page.

*Draw or paint the pattern on a piece of paper.

*It might be cool to tell the story of where it came from, who used it – if it was your mom's or grandma's or had any sort of story in your family.

*If you have a collection of a certain pattern, you can write about that.

*Or just use it as a visual element if you just like the pattern and bought it at a thrift store.

And now we'd like to introduce our lovely Guest Designer for this challenge...


The most fabulous Patty Zimmerman, a.k.a. "coloredsprinkles." We are so excited to have her! She is the creator of the challenge blog The Creative Type which celebrates the love of all things typography. And she absolutely amazes us with her colorful textures, layers and rad illustrations. You can't help but love this girl... we certainly can't. So here she is!

"Hello, hello!! So glad to have been asked to guest design for Work your Soul. I think I can really relate to this challenge. Growing up my parents had these dishes from Pyrex which had small tiny green flowers around the rims of the plates, mugs, bowls, even butter dishes. Back then I thought our family was the only one who had this pattern; little did I know that as I grew older I found that pattern everywhere. Such is the wonders of Pyrex and all of the retro, funky, colorful designs they put out. It's funny to think how all of that is back in style now, flooding ETSY shops and Ebay, who could not love it. As for me, I have a huge passion for doodling and coming up with designs in my sketchpad, so this was totally up my alley. I decided to find two patterns that related to an Autumn theme (gotta love this time of year) and really work them into a colorful, fallish layout using a favorite fire pit photo of mine. I don't know about you, but sitting in front of a fire and adoring all of its colors is really a beautiful experience. And lets not forget about the colors, I really wanted to show that throughout my layout, allowing the two designs to take the lead. I mean, who wouldn't love to have a dish with little blue and green trees on it?? Well I would, but instead I will settle for it on my layout for now:) Thank you Jen and Kim for allowing me to share my take on your retro dish design prompt, I just knew I had to do something with my childhood memories of Pyrex!"


Lyrics from Bjork's "Unison" ... 'One hand allows the other, so much and me. Born stubborn me will always be. Before you count, one two three. I will have grown my own private branch of this tree.'



(Check out Patty's fun illustrations. So inspiring!)

Here is KIM'S AWESOMENESS!


I've been collecting some plates and kitchenware for university, because i don't want to show up with IKEA things like everyone else- so i've been looking in thrift stores and vintage shops and i've found some really great deals! I've got a whole tea-cup and sauser set, plus some plates and a milk jug. But my newest findd was this coffee maker from the 60's! and it works!

i wanted to take a lo-fi picture of the actual coffeemaker to give it some mystery, and i wanted to show-case the design at the same time- so i just water-coloured it onto the background, then traced over it with black pen! so much fun!
(Gorgeous job!)

And Jen's project:

I used the lotus pattern by Grete Prytz Kittelsen for Cathrineholm as my inspiration. (Here's a photo of Grete, just for fun – she just looks like a pretty neat lady if you ask me. Photo from www.dagbladet.no)

I fell in love with this design when I saw it a few years ago at my local thrift shops.

I'm just drawn to the clean look, bright colors, and cool shapes.

And you may or may not know that my daughter's name is Lotus, so it's interesting that I was a fan of these dishes before I knew it was actually called the lotus pattern.

I'm especially in love with the teapots and kettles.

Here's my page with a little bit about the name Lotus, my grandma, and little bits of things I have collected ... a tag from some lotus tea, a lotus postage stamp, and a fun Amy Butler lotus felt flower and button. I used paper cut-outs for my white pattern along the top.

All right, soulies - be sure to play along this week and post links to your projects here or in our Flickr group!

The winner will receive an awesome prize package from Amy's Attic, including a vintage book, paint, brush, vintage buttons, lace, trims, flowers, sheet music, book pages, tags, library pocket, stamps, cards and chipboard!

And our winner from our last fun photography challenge is Robin Stedem!

(Just check these out - unbelievable!)

She did such a fabulous job taking some very cool shots of her kids and their friends, and totally knocked our socks off. So Robin - email your address to kim [at!] smithdata.com and she'll send you your fabulous prize! Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful photos with us.