Christmas break

It's very nearly Christmas! I've decided not to close the shop but I have changed my shipping settings so any orders will be posted out next week. In the meantime - I will be drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows!

I couldn't resist having a look on Instagram to see the images that people have most liked this year. It's really made me smile as these are some of my favourites too - a couple of mug pictures and the rest are sketchbook shots of directly observed seasonal studies. I hope 2018 will be filled with many more pictures like this!

Bees

This is the complete Bee collection in the shop at present!

- 100% recycled Bee Tote Bag - shop here!

- Bee Merry, Bee Christmas Cards - shop here!

- Bee Temporary Tattoos! (perfect stocking filler!) - shop here!

- Bee Greeting Card - shop here!

- Bee Enamel Mug - shop here!

- Bee China Mug - shop here!

Christmas treats

There are lots of lovely potential Christmas gifts in the shop...

including...

- 2018 Woodland Flora Calendar

- Christmas Temporary Tattoos

- China mugs

- Woodland Alphabet print

- Woodland Alphabet tea towel

you can find them all in the shop by clicking here!

China mugs

These are growing in popularity recently - the China mugs that I have put my illustrations on. This picture was taken back in the summer sun... before I added my rainbow flowers, my peonies, the rivers mug or the on the pond mug into the mix. In recent times, I've also added the three in the picture below - particularly good for Christmas gifts! 

Visit the shop by clicking here!

Autumn drawings

I've been trying to squeeze in a botanical drawing a day again recently - I've still been doing a drawing a day but often it's something in the house or somewhere I've visited that day. My favourite thing to draw is something I've found outside, ideally in the woods or in the garden. This is part of my Sketching the Seasons idea - one year I'll manage to do a botanical drawing a day to document the whole year. Here are 4 of the recent ones. 

I share these regularly on Instagram (follow me there) and I've just started an album for these on Facebook (follow me there!).

Holiday fun!

To coincide with the school half-terms here in Shropshire Alice has launched her latest product - Animal masks. 

These are painted by Alice and are available either as a digital download - so you can print and use them almost instantly, or you can buy one printed out already.

For the badger mask download, please visit the shop with this link, for the fox mask download - use this link 

To order a printed copy of either mask, please click here

The masks are designed on A4 - so you will receive a printed piece of A4 card, or you can print your own, and then all you have to do it cut around the mask, cut out the spaces for your eyes and hole punch at the edges ready to attach the string / ribbon/ elastic (this isn't included) to keep the mask on.

When you cut it out...

And then add the string...

Then pop them on and enjoy! - maybe go for a walk in the woods, or make a den, or go to a masked ball!

Some new Christmas Card designs...

Look what the postman turned up with today - hot off the press we have 2 new designs and and old favourite!

There are other designs in the shop too - visit the shop and have a look at them all by clicking here

Birthday Calendar or Special dates Calendar by Alice Draws The Line

I've just created a wall calendar that you can use year after year for remembering Birthdays and Special occasions. 

There are no days of the week just the dates with lines for you to write the important names and any other info on. For more photos and details of this listing please see the shop here.

Recycled Tote Bags by Alice Draws The Line

These have just arrived in the Alice Draws The Line Etsy Shop! They are 100% Recycled Polyester Tote bags. I've created 10 designs in total... here are a few for you to see! To view them all, do have a look in the shop by clicking this link!

A couple more mug designs

I have recently designed two more mugs, first up is the River Mug;

Inspired by the River Severn which runs through Shrewsbury, as I frequently walk along it's banks (often on the way back from the post office). You can find the River Mug by clicking here

The other design started as a 'Mere Mug' inspired by the mere's in Shropshire - Colemere and Ellesmere in particular. I've now renamed it 'Ducks and Friends', you can find it by clicking here

Both of these designs are available both in Enamel and China. For more picture and a list of species that feature on the mug, please see the links to the shop. 

Sorry it's early...

There are some festive items now in the shop - these include two new china cup designs - Holly & Ivy and a Christmas Badgers design. 

I've also been rash and designed some festive temporary tattoos - perfect for Christmas parties or stocking fillers.

There are currently two new Christmas Card designs too - Christmas Badgers and Chocolate Coins.

All of these can be found in the Etsy shop by clicking here!

Feasting in the Forest part 2 - campfire doughnuts!

Having looked through the photos from the bank holiday of camping in the woods I realised there are so many food pictures it is worth a couple of blog posts at least. 

Here is another easy one that I've done with children at work in the past - but was really fun to do socially. 

We made two versions, the first with Elderberry and ginger jam and the second version were lemon curd doughnuts. 

To begin with, buy or make some white bread, choose your filling and make some pancake batter...

Spread the filling on the bread (we didn't bother with butter) and add another piece of bread to complete the sandwich.

Next, cut the sandwich into squares - we went for bitesize and did 9 squares out of the one sandwich. We also left the crusts on.

Dip these into the pancake batter so that it covers all sides (we lowered them into a jug of pancake batter with some tongs), then add to the pan with some butter or oil

Turn them so they cook on all sides...

... temporary tattoo wearing is optional! (but if you feel it would help you can buy them here!) I also highly recommend using a handmade spatula - made by another member of the team (and hopefully soon to be available to buy - watch this space!).

Finally, when all sides are cooked, take them out of the pan and cover in sugar - we used granulated as forgot to take any caster sugar (or you could use icing sugar) with us. The jam will be HOT! so this sugar covering stage gives it some time to cool a bit but do check the temperature before enjoying as they keep their heat for a while (especially if you are doing this with children).

We had ours out of another beautiful bowl by CalderWares (they are busy making at the moment but do check out the Etsy shop for handmade goodness!)

The bank holiday weekend - feasting in a forest!

Last bank holiday a tiny, select few of us decided to camp in the woods. We fitted it in around other family commitments and so spent just a bit of evening and breakfast time at our camp before going and washing the woodsmoke out of our hair and doing something quite different. 

This year, we had no other plans - just to be in the woods, from Friday until Monday. There were a few more of us at times and we were all able to use and share our different skills to make a thoroughly enjoyable time. 

One of the things we were most excited about was cooking / food - so I thought I'd share a few pictures here... there is going to have to be another blog post as it turns out we cooked too much / took too many photos!

I took some mugs along - which we used throughout! Above is a morning cup of tea - the mugs can be found in the Etsy shop here

Something we sometimes make in my day job (Forest School) is chocolate orange cakes, cooked in the orange skin in the embers of the fire. This weekend we built an oven and so sat them in a pan (just to stop them wobbling over) and popped them in that! Here is a step by step guide - we just used a packet brownie mix and used some of the orange juice from the hollowed out oranges instead of water.

 I'll write another post with a few more of the treats we cooked - for now here is some of the lovely summer sun on the bracken. The temporary tattoos can also be found in the shop by using this link