May's theme was "British woodland". I choose this theme because I love our woodlands and countryside. British wildlife has a certain charm to it and they seem very.....well, British somehow! I've seen a little bit more wildlife since moving to Devon as we are right on the edge of the rural countryside and some areas of woodland. I've even seen a couple of deer! I'm always amazed and slightly humbled by nature so its always really special whenever I see a wild creature going about its daily business.
Anyway, onto the box - lets take a look at what was inside!
First of all, the pin. All Drix boxes will have a pin now (unless you would like the other items without a pin, thats always ok! Just drop me a message first ^^ ) and one of my more popular pin designs is the fox. I wanted something that would pair up with that and for me, fox goes with badger - don't ask me why! These were ordered a long time ago, around January, so Drix box has been delayed but obviously with the world how it is, that was ok by me. I think this is my first pin with a silver coloured metal which I chose because badges have black markings. I didn't want to lose the detail and outlines in his fur by using my regular black outlines! How cute are badgers though? They are like long, short dogs and are certainly a good representative for Britain in my humble opinion - gruff and a little grumpy but good hearted at the end of the day!
Next of all, we have the sticker pack which will also be included in every Drix box - and it always has been I think! Since sticker packs are my main line of work, it always seems appropriate. These stickers will be added to the shop at some point but they wont have the flower crown fox, hes a special design just for this box :) Anyway, the actual designs are the animals I first think of when I think of our woodlands. I thought about redrawing the fox totally but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do a better design. Now, that's not to say that I think my fox is the greatest fox design ever - he isn't!! But I think that's the best I can personally do. I hope that makes sense, I don't want you to think I have an inflated head lol I couldn't leave out the fox though and since (for some unknown reason) I added a flower to the deer, I thought I could add a whole crown of flowers to the fox ^^
I had to do a reasonably simple design for the badger pin due to how they are manufactured and how I feel about potentially making a complicated pin so I wanted to do a more fun design for a sticker. I can relate to him actually, struggling over that huge log with grim determination XD;
I chose a red squirrel since they are our native squirrel even though they are quite rare - I've never seen one myself but I hope to one day. How bright and colourful are they though? And super cute, just like rats with a huge tail!
The deer/fawn has a flower, as I mentioned before, don't ask me why. Sometimes these things just happen with art - I never quite know where the pencil will take me even though I am supposed to be in charge. Its possibly because deer have always seemed quite ethereal to me, almost elven, so they remind me of tall ladies covered with flowers walking peacefully amongst them.
There are two bird stickers in this set (I could actually do a whole box in the future just for birds since I love them so much)- a barn owl and a pheasant. I love to hear the owls hooting at night around here, they are a little eerie but I'm always pleased to hear them. How different does this look from my old style owl though!
And the pheasant....I can't even tell you how much I love these birds. I just think they are hilarious because they look so pompous but act so stupid! Did you know I once got very minor whiplash from a pheasant? We were driving to Scotland many moons ago and my (now) husband had to emergency stop the car as one just strolled out in front of us. It stood there looking at the car with us all in agony inside, bobbed about for a bit and strolled back into the hedge. Thanks for that.....
I wanted to feature the fox as he was a special design for this box and a magnet seemed like a good choice. Since they are nocturnal, it seemed appropriate to put him on a night time scene but again, he seems a bit elven somehow - maybe I just need to watch lord of the rings again to quench my elf lust lol Of course, I had to add a galaxy/star pattern because is it even me without a galaxy?
Lastly, the deer vinyl sticker. This sticker was not supposed to be this sticker. That is, it was supposed to be holographic. I ordered these ages ago when a company was running a special deal on some holo stickers - "Great!" says I, "A holo effect I can't do and for a price I can afford!" (they are usually 3x the price!) I follow the link in my email, upload, pay, get excited and when they arrive.....they are normal. I thought I was going a bit crackers so emailed the company who told me they ran out of the holo deal and replaced it with normal stickers. This put me out a bit because they actually told me they went out of stock on a certain date but sent me the email with the deal the day after (and the email link still said holo stickers!) I couldn't afford to have them redone as holo versions and didn't want to throw these away so they went into the box. But they are totally water, weather and scratch proof so they are still "special" as its something I can't produce myself ^^
I do like the idea of more waterproof stickers so I will be including vinyl stickers in future boxes ^^
So there we have it, May's Drix box! If you got one, I really hope you liked it! Its hard to make a mystery box because I never know if people will like the designs or items....which is the main reason why I changed it to always be a pin, sticker pack and special sticker (+ mystery changeable item!) - you always know more or less what you are getting then. I feel like the pins are collectable and can be used on bags, coats etc and stickers are easy to put anywhere or share with friends. I have to make one mystery item a month though, just for variation! I'm hoping that as the box grows, I will be able to add in another item every month. The pins (and sometimes special stickers) have a minimum order which is reasonably high so at the moment, I can't afford to put another item in the box. If I can sell a few more boxes each month though, I will be able to ^^
Anyway, thanks once again for buying a box or just reading this blog, next months theme will be *drum roll please*......Strange animals!! (If you read that before, I have changed the theme due to issues!)