If you’ve been following along, you might remember my post last fall about my first collaboration with Villager Puzzles a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to bring a whimsical illustration to life as a puzzle. I’m thrilled to share that we’re back with something new, and this one feels especially personal: Tulip Season is now part of Villager’s spring collection.
A City That Greeted Me with Color
Before I became a full-time illustrator, I spent nearly a decade studying and working in engineering. It was a career that took me all over the map — literally. Working in the construction industry meant going wherever the projects were, so I lived in different cities across Canada and the USA over the years.
My last construction project brought me to Ottawa. I arrived in the spring, and I had no idea what was waiting for me: the entire city was absolutely bursting with color. Millions of tulips were in bloom everywhere I looked.
What I’d stumbled into was the Canadian Tulip Festival, which happens every May. The festival has a beautiful origin, it celebrates the tulips gifted to Canada by the Netherlands after World War II, as a tribute to the friendship between the Dutch and Canadian people. It’s one of those traditions that feels both joyful and quietly meaningful, and experiencing it while settling into a new city made a deep impression on me.
From Engineering to Illustration and Back to Those Tulips
A few years after Ottawa, I made a big life change. I left engineering to become a stay-at-home mom and launch my freelance illustration practice. When I finally sat down to draw the things that had been living in my imagination, those tulips along the Rideau Canal were among the very first.
There’s something about Ottawa in spring that’s hard to describe if you haven’t seen it. After a long Canadian winter, people pour outside — walking, biking, soaking up every bit of warmth and color. It has such a welcoming, open energy. After years in the rigid, technical world of engineering, drawing that explosion of life and color felt like exactly the right way to mark my new beginning as an illustrator.
It was the image I kept coming back to. So when Villager Puzzles put out a call for art submissions last fall, it felt like the most natural answer. I submitted the design but it wasn’t selected as the winner. Shortly after, Villager reached out wanting to add it to their spring collection, and here we are.
This Win Belongs to More Than Just Me
I have to be honest: this puzzle almost didn’t happen the way it did. While I was working on the design for that submission, something wasn’t working and I couldn’t figure it out so I did something that felt a little vulnerable: I asked for help on Instagram.
What happened next reminded me why I love this community. Fellow artists, colleagues, and friends showed up with suggestions, ideas, and encouragement. The submission came together because of them.
That’s something I think about a lot as a freelance illustrator. It can be easy to fall into the trap of seeing other artists as competition especially when you’re submitting work to the same calls, chasing the same clients, building in the same spaces. But I truly believe that’s the wrong lens.
Stephen Covey wrote about the “abundance mindset” the idea that truly successful people don’t compete, they collaborate. There is enough work, enough opportunity, enough success out there for all of us. This win belongs to my community as much as it does to me, and I’m deeply grateful for every person who showed up when I needed them.
If you’re a fellow freelance artist and you ever find yourself stuck, my DMs are always open. You’re not taking anything from me. We rise together.
About the Puzzle
Tulip Season is a 500-piece puzzle designed for adults, and like all Villager Puzzles, it’s designed in Canada. The illustration is packed with the kind of detail and warmth that makes a puzzle genuinely enjoyable to assemble, you’ll find yourself lingering over little moments in the scene as you go.
You can shop Tulip Season directly through the Villager Puzzles website. You can also find it at retail locations that carry Villager Puzzles products – check their store locator to find a location near you.
It would make a wonderful gift for puzzle lovers, anyone who’s ever fallen in love with a city in bloom, or anyone who just needs a little color in their spring. I hope it brings as much joy to your table as it brought me to create.
