TO MOST people, connecting with nature indoors means stroking the cat. But there is a slightly more exciting alternative.

Emily Campbell has perfected the art of bringing woodland inhabitants inside without fear of owl pellets littering the living room floor.

The Penkhull artist has just unveiled a series of rugs, tablecloths and table mats pretty much guaranteed to spark the imagination of any youngster. Rock-pooling, pond-dipping, butterfly-chasing – idyllic summer images transferred to carpet or vinyl through the medium of digital technology.

Already they're causing a stir, with renowned designer Derek Taylor using one of Emily's creations on the forthcoming series of ITV's 60-Minute Makeover, claiming it to be one of the nicest products the show has ever used.

Emily is perhaps best known in North Staffordshire for her Love Ties project, vast steel letters which stirred the emotions of passers-by in Hanley Park with messages such as Do You Feel It Too?

She has combined her role as a Staffordshire University lecturer in fine art with similarly original public art commissions nationwide. Her light boxes, which can be viewed as a modern take on stained glass windows, are as popular with health centres as they are with police stations – both keen to exploit their undoubted soothing effect.

Her Blue Butterfly exhibition at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, meanwhile, saw her create the illusion of the floor cracking and the natural history collection making a bid for freedom from below. She's now taken that Blue Butterfly name to launch a new venture which she is hoping will excite children both at home and school. Already there's a Healthy Eating Veg Rug on which a fox crosses a bridge of carrots and leeks, and cute furry animals nibble on healthy vegetables; and a Furry Beasts Story Carpet, where small creatures bask in a floral landscape and children stroke the cat at story-time.

Similar images have been reproduced on vinyl to allow for somewhat messier scenarios.

Emily, aged 43, who holds an MA from the Chelsea School of Art, has had the perfect audience to test out her products. Being a mother-of-three – Eliza, aged 15, Saskia, 10, and Cassidy, four – she has witnessed first-hand how younger children enter their own imaginary world.

"I've taken them to arts festivals and people are just blown away by them," she says. "In some ways, it's such a simple idea but as far as I know there's nothing else quite like it out there.

"Children really do enter a different world. I've seen that with my own eyes. It's really special."

Emily uses her own images for her designs, enabling her to provide bespoke products, for adults as well as children, featuring urban landscapes, sporting venues, or maybe lighthouses.

The versatility of the idea means pretty much anything goes. But it is the natural world that dominates.

"I know from days out and trips to the zoo how much children enjoy animals from a very early age," she says. "To encourage their creativity and imagination is a special thing."

Cambridge born – "I see Stoke-on-Trent as being a bit more real" – Emily headed north 20 years ago to take up her teaching post at Staffordshire University.

Art has dominated her life since her early teens and its flexibility has allowed her to raise a family while not compromising on the calling which continually drives her.

She admits that, with interest rising in her new creations, 2011 could be a big year. A piece of Blue Butterfly artwork flooring could yet become the norm in schools and homes across the country.

Whatever happens, Emily hopes her own success will serve as an inspiration for other artists.

"I want them to see that art doesn't have to just be about gallery work," she says.

She mirrors an ever-changing world herself – a self-confessed art "obsessive" – never sitting still.

On the day we speak she reveals it's her 43rd birthday tomorrow. "The kids are begging me not to do any work!" she laughs.