This year's Christmas.

These are the Christmas cards we sent out this year and I couldn't forget you, lovely blog (and all who read you of course!) I hope everyone has a really great festive season and that 2013 will be happy for you :)

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Snow Doves Gift Tags

Snow Doves with stars and mistletoe.

Zoom!

Snow Doves Gift Tags - details.

Hello! This is a new version of Snow Doves with brown paper, stars and mistletoe for Spoonflower's gift tags contest. To see some excellent gift tag designs and vote, click here!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Antidote for wintery symptoms.

Icy drizzle, low clouds and grey skies - all the symptoms of an oncoming winter! Here's an antidote I've been working on this week for this contest:

Lagoon details: threadfin butterflyfish, flame angelfish and sergeant major fish.

Lagoon details: anthias, clownfish and flame angelfish.

See other t-shirt designs and vote here or read about how I made the water texture here!

Lagoon on a Riviera Tee

Lagoon on a Riviera Tee - the pattern is from One-Yard Wonders.

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Sumerian Triangles

I liked the look of the stamped triangles in my last design and thought they deserved one all on their own:

Sumerian Triangles

They remind me a lot of the marks made in cuneiform so the pattern's named after the people who invented it.

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Nasher Museum of Art

This week the Nasher Museum of Art is holding a contest with Spoonflower to celebrate their exhibition of works by Matisse, Picasso and Gauguin among others. Matisse had a huge and varied collection of textiles that he often featured in his paintings and the brief is to design a textile that would be at home in one. The top ten designs will be displayed at their Art for All event on December the 6th! The design is restricted to four colours plus white (see below).

Au Jardin

Au Jardin with specified colours

I'd love it if you'd take a couple of minutes to vote for me and have a look at all the amazing designs people came up with - click here!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Get stuff sent for free :)

Hello! If you were thinking of making some luverly stuff for the festive season this year, or if you're like me and just like a bargain, then head on over to the shop and you can get stuff sent for free!!

Free shipping at spoonflower is from 12pm, Thursday November 15th - 12pm Friday November 16th EST (if you're in the UK that's 5pm today until 5pm tomorrow).

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

IF: Tree

Flowering Horse Chestnut

See many beautiful tree illustrations here!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Snow Doves on Grey

Another version of Snow Doves, this time on a grey linen background. It's available for order if you'd like some (on cotton, linen, silk, wallpaper, decal, or wrapping paper!) just click here!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Snow Doves in Cranberry

Snow Doves in Cranberry

No, not a recipe! A new and festive design for this contest over here. It's also available for order on 10 different fabrics, wallpaper and it must be that time of year again peeps because spoonflower have introduced seasonal gift wrap!

Forest & Sea wrapping paper, to be found here! 

By the way, there will be free shipping on everything at spoonflower on November the 15th! Hope you have a happy weekend :)

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Twit-twoo!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Buy one get one freeee!

New in the shop:

Surf in Indigo, Pines & Cranes, Palace Garden Repeat, Butterflies, Lagoon and last but not least Honey Bees!

If you'd like to order one of these prints or any others at Spoonflower, they're having a fat quarter sale from today until Wednesday the 31st - buy one get one free!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Woodland

The doves and sparrows from a few posts ago were going to be for this new calendar. In the end it took an entirely different direction than I first intended and this is the result:

Woodland Calendar

Woodland Calendar Details

I'd love it if you'd take a minute to vote for me over here. Or if you fancy one for yourself, you can find it here!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Linen Journal Cover

I've also renewed the linen journal cover that goes with the Love, Luck & Happiness calendar for 2013:

New for 2013: dragonflies!

A calendar inside the front cover and a note leaf at the back.

It comes, complete with instructions, on a fat quarter of linen-cotton here!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Moon Gazer

Love, Luck & Happiness Calendar 2013

Hello! The Love, Luck & Happiness calendar has been updated for 2013 if any of you lovely people would like one. Added to the auspicious eastern symbols of last year are a pair of dragonflies (on the left over there) for extra good luck.

(Update Sep '14: you can find the new version for 2015 here!)

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Doves & Sparrows

A couple of sketches from my latest project:

I can hopefully show you the finished thing by Tuesday. Have a fun weekend!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Stadig cool!

A brilliant advert for public transport if ever I've seen one:

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Forest Garden

I ordered some proof swatches from spoonflower a while ago - for some reason it takes weeks and weeks for the post to get to Europe from North Carolina but they're finally here. First up in the shop, as requested, Forest Garden!

Forest Garden

This one's based loosely on the deciduous forests of Asia and I've decided to donate 10% of all commission earned on this design to BirdLife International. They work with local charities all over the world preserving bird habitats and thereby improving global biodiversity. Forest Garden is available on 10 different fabrics here!

I hope everyone's enjoying their last little bit of summer in the northern hemisphere. Wouldn't it be great to have a house in both hemispheres so you could have summer all year round?

Forest Garden sample on cotton.

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Is There Life On Mars?

Vector Illustration: Earth

Vector Illustration: Mars

It really doesn't feel like over eight months since I posted these two but the view from Curiosity right now is already more like the second picture than the first. The mobile laboratory, which is the size of a car, is scheduled for an ambitious landing in Gale Crater at 05:31 GMT, August the 6th and we'll definitely be watching. Happy weekend peeps!

August 6th:

New pictures of Mars, credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The crazy sky crane worked! Such a great achievement - congrats everyone at NASA! I'm really looking forward to finding out more over the next few years.

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Today I Don't Feel Like Doing Anything...

.. and, of course, she doesn't have to! I hope you get the chance to have a few lazy hours this sunny Sunday.

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Starburst

I had a lot of fun designing the pattern for this week's Spoonflower contest. The brief was to design a mid-century print for the Carey Players' upcoming production of 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying', set in the early 50s.

Starburst

There are some subtle textures on this one - click to view larger details.

In one of the scenes, Rosemary is hoping to impress with her new 'Paris Original' cocktail dress, only to find that she's not the only one...

These mock-ups show the dress that will be used (a Butterick) with the Starburst pattern. I really enjoyed doing these; it was great seeing it come to life like that! I've already seen there are some amazing designs over there so vote for me if you have a minute. Whichever pattern you choose Carey Players, I hope you have a great production - wish I could be there!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Pomegranate Trees

If I had a time machine, one of the places I'd want to visit would be Henry VIII's court. I'd have to be wearing an invisibility cloak or I'm sure it wouldn't end well - back then you were beheaded, boiled to death or subjected to some other imaginative and painful demise if you didn't fit in - but I love learning about the customs of other times. Comparing them to our own reveals a lot about what's human, what's just custom and often about how good a lot of us have it today, don't you think?

Anyway, when pomegranates were mentioned over here, one of the first things I thought of was Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife's, family emblem. So my design of birds and pomegranate trees uses the faded colours of a tapestry from that time:

Tudor Tapestry

Where would you go if you could time travel?

Update:
If you like this design, you can order it on fabric, decal, wallpaper or wrapping paper here!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Distant Suns

A while back we were walking home from the cinema and it was a really clear and starry night with those high, translucent clouds you get in cold, dry weather. I've wanted to try them in a design since, so with the 4th of July coming up and a stars & stripes spoonflower theme, I've put the stars on an ombre striped sky:

1000 Distant Suns

I also tried it with a smooth gradient:

First Light

And finally, my original plan, with light clouds:

Summer Night Sky

If you have a mo' this week, head on over here to have a look at all the stars and stripes designs and vote for your favourites :)

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Ocean 2012

I found out about Ocean 2012 through this stunning animation from Uli Henrik Streckenbach - have a look!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Denim Dinos Repeat

Denim Dinos repeat pattern.

I've adapted the dinosaur print I made last year into a repeat pattern and added a few extra characters for this contest over here.

Details - click for a larger view.

The creatures and plants are all from the Cretaceous. Butterflies are rare in rock fossils but these amber pieces from the Dominican Republic have shown that they're much older than once thought and could have coexisted with T.Rex!

Have a great weekend whatever you're up to :)

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Polkka Jam

I hadn't heard of this Finnish design team until Deborah at Kickcan & Conkers hosted a great giveaway a while back, in which I won not one but two of their fantastic linen-cotton tea towels.

Lintukoto (native bird) and Kissanpäivät (cat days) linen-cotton tea towels.

Kristiina Haapalaisen and Sami Vähä-Aho have a beautiful range of posters, postcards and home textiles which are produced as ecologically as possible and all in their home town of Turku. See more of their range here or read their design news on their blog.

Deborah has a brilliant collection of modern and vintage books, toys and games in the Kickcan & Conkers shop and she writes daily about her life in France and hunt for vintage gems here!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Midyear Calendar: Love, Luck and Happiness

Midyear Calendar: Love, Luck & Happiness

I can't believe midsummer is almost here (we definitely haven't had the weather for it the last few days)! To celebrate anyway, I've made a midyear calendar which runs from July 2012 to June 2013. It's based on this one I did for the beginning of the year featuring symbols used in many eastern cultures to bring prosperity, longevity, happiness, harmony and good luck; so if you fancy a bit of zen in tea towel form, you can find it here on a linen cotton blend!

Calendar detail with different colours for 2012 and 13 :)

Details - click to view larger.

............................................................................................................................................

Update 2014: The new 2015 calendar is available to order here!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Palace Garden Repeat

Hi all, hope you had a good weekend! We had a relaxed one with a bit of shopping, a bit of wine and plenty of reading and sleeping!

I've been meaning to make a repeat pattern partner to this design for quite a while now and last week I had the perfect opportunity to concentrate my efforts with the hand drawn design contest. There were over 500 entries this week, the competition over at spoonflower is growing fast!

Palace Garden Repeat

Details of Palace Garden Repeat - click to view larger!

I'm planning on reworking the original too, as soon as I have enough time; so if any of you have had your eye on the colours currently available, now's the time to grab some!

............................................................................................................................................

Update 2014: You can read about the new colours for this pattern here; they're available to order here!

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware

  

Kitchenalia, Retro Stylee

Spoonflower are keeping with the trends for this week's contest by combining a kitchen theme with a retro one.

Everything but the Sink

The palette was limited to these four colours plus white; I really needed to see some blue or green after staring at this for hours but for the retro-vintage theme, they were perfect.

Details - click for larger view!

See what everyone else came up with (and vote for your favourites) here! Have a great weekend :)

May 17th:
This design won 6th place! Thanks so much if you had a chance to vote, you can see all top ten fabrics here :)

................................................................................

Forest & Sea ▪ www.etsy.com/shop/ForestAndSea

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware