July already, what a strange year so far - and slightly terrifying if you don't mind me saying so! I hope you are all keeping safe and well in these strange times. Hopefully you are finding some distraction from the worries and such - I am flipping between getting loads of work done and then laying around doing nothing lol
Anyway, as usual, the point of this blog is to go into details about the latest Drix box so lets begin shall we?
As some of you might know, this box was a slight pain for me. I had a pin made originally when the concept for this box was "cylinder animals" which was literally just how it sounded - pretty boring and slightly awful. When the pins came (a chicken design) not only did I realise they were a bit boring, but that the colour was really quite off. Pins are made with pantone colours and for some reason, they dont include a nice white/cream just a very weird green tinted cream :/ I was concerned that the pin wasn't great so showed a friend who suggested he looked a bit like a marshmallow so I ran with that theme, pushing the box back another month (and bringing strange animals forward). That meant doing a new pin and all new designs but I could cope....right?
So the pin.....I am much happier with this design than the chicken! He's a marshmallow puppy and I actually think hes the cutest pin so far. I don't think much to my work to be honest so I hope that doesn't sound big headed but I'm very rarely proud or happy with anything I have done. This pin though, I do like him. At first, I was going to design the backing card like a mug of hot chocolate so he could be floating in it but then thought it might be a bit traumatic! I actually hated the idea of him melting away into nothingness so gave him a more normal background with hearts - because he loves you! And working very closely with my pin manufacture enabled us to come up with a new cream colour by mixing other colours together. They were incredibly helpful and even showed me the colours before they were applied to the pin.
The sticker in this box is vinyl so can be used outside and I went for another puppy to keep in the same theme with the pin. This is a puppy s'more though! We don't really have s'mores here in the UK but I've always wanted to try one. However, my only time around a campfire was with a school trip and it was totally disastrous - lets not talk about it but needless to say, it was not an enjoyable experience! I think you can buy s'mores in the USA but here I'd have to make some - once I find veggie marshmallows again, I will be giving it a go!
The actual designs for this box gave me a bit of trouble to be honest. There were more designs almost finished but I just didn't like the look of them so they didn't make it into the box - a fox and raccoon. I didn't even finish the last design until the day before the box was released! That's cutting it fine even for me! I just didn't gel with them for some reason (which can't be said for the next box as I've enjoyed those loads!) though a friend - the same friend who suggested marshmallow animals in the first place - said a bunny might be cute so he replaced the cat. And I had a sudden strike of inspiration the morning before the box was released. Is anyone familiar with flumps? They are long marshmallows here in the UK and I suddenly realised....flumps are long....snakes are long.....flump snake! Dont even ask me about the pig and goat on the stick, I have no idea what I was really thinking.....I just like drawing goat faces lol
The sharkmallow became the mystery item for this box which is an acrylic key chain! Unlike the other mystery items in previous boxes, this little guy is not limited as there was a minimum order on the key chains so I have some left over which will float on over to my stores in the next few weeks.
And so that's the marshmallow animals box! I really hope you liked it if you got one :) I might keep the enamel pin as a regular design but the vinyl stickers and key chains I will only sell in the shops until the stock runs out, they won't be replaced.
I'm hitting my stride with these boxes I think now, all of the themes are more or less set for the rest of the year and I'm getting on top of designs and ideas for everything. Ordering the pins is always a bit of a wobble moment as I have to make 2 at once which is quite high cost and then they take a little while to be made. I'm hopefully putting the order in for the next 2 months this week so that should give them time to arrive before Sept.
Anwyay, who wants to know the theme for the next box? Its:
YO HO with Capt. Toebeans!