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.

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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!

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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!

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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 :)

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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!

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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 :)

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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!

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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.

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

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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!

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

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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 :)

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

hand drawn nature on fabric, accessories & homeware