Are Spoonflower Challenges Worth It? What 10 Entries Taught Me
Anastasiia MarmyzovaIf you have ever looked at a Spoonflower challenge and wondered, “Is this even worth it?”, you are not alone.
It can feel like a lot — coming up with an idea, finishing a design on time, putting it out there without knowing how it will be received. Especially when you are already juggling creative energy, life, and maybe even self-doubt quietly sitting in the background.
I have been there many times. I am a surface pattern designer and watercolor artist, and I have entered numerous challenges not always knowing what the outcome would be, or if anything would come from it at all. And to be completely honest, I still have moments where I question it. A lot.
Recently, I shared inside one of the creative memberships where I work as a Community Guide that I was feeling stuck and a little discouraged. I have been consistently entering Spoonflower challenges, and while I have been getting closer, I have not quite made it into the Top 100 yet. The closest I got was #105 with my Delft Tiles design, and my last two entries landed around #430.
It is very easy in those moments to feel like you are doing something wrong, or that your work is not “good enough.” But as I was expressing that frustration, other creatives gently reminded me of something I already knew, but needed to hear again:
This is growth.
Because when I zoomed out, I could see it more clearly:
- I have submitted 10 designs, consistently, every two weeks
- I am building my Spoonflower shop with a growing body of work
- I am developing full collections from those challenge entries
- Just last week, I updated my portfolio and started pitching it to fabric manufacturers
That is momentum. Even when it does not feel like it.
After that session, I decided to dig a little deeper and ask other artists who consistently enter Spoonflower challenges about their experience. What they shared genuinely surprised me.
Placement does not necessarily translate into sales.
Some of their Top 100 designs — ones that performed well in the challenge and got real visibility — never sold a single yard. Meanwhile, other designs with just a handful of favourites quietly became bestsellers. Steady earners that no ranking would have predicted.
I had suspected this, but hearing it confirmed shifted something in me. It means that what happens inside a challenge is just one small piece of a much bigger picture. The ranking is not the destination — it is one data point among many. What matters more is building a body of work that connects, over time, in ways you cannot always predict or control.
So now, I see these challenges a little differently. Not as a scoreboard, but as a practice.
A way to show up, create, learn, and slowly refine both my style and my voice. A place where each design, regardless of ranking, becomes part of something larger I am building. I am still determined to figure out the Spoonflower game — but I am no longer measuring my progress by a single number.
If you are sitting with that same question right now — is this even worth it? — here is what I can tell you: keep going, even quietly. You will look back and realise you built more than you thought.
And SEO optimization matters more than a Top 100 placement anyway. But that is a story for another day. 😉
