Gingerbread Men

If you bought one of Christmas Countdown colouring books then you might recognise this image from today's page!

Gingerbread men were a must when I was deciding what to include in the colouring book pages, as they've become a firm favourite for me and Jamie at Christmas time (I'll be making some this weekend!)

So I thought I'd use the opportunity today to share the recipe I use!

A couple of years ago I scoured the internet for a simple gingerbread man recipe and ended up altering a few that I'd found in order to make it work with the ingredients I had available at the time.

(I can't remember exactly how many this makes but it was enough for Jamie to take into work and share around the office!)

Ingredients:

12 ounces Plain White Flour

1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda / Baking Soda

1-2tsp Ground Ginger (You can adjust this depending on how strong you want them to be!)

4 ounces butter

6 ounces Soft Brown Sugar

4tbsp Golden Syrup

1 Large Egg

Method:

1. Sift the flour, baking soda and ginger together into a large mixing bowl.

2. Rub the butter into the flour mixture.

3. Stir in the sugar.

4. Whisk together the golden syrup and egg.

5. Stir all the ingredients together.

6. Form the dough into a ball, and roll out on a lightly floured surface.

7. Use biscuit cutters to cut as many biscuits from the dough as you can (you can use any shape, it doesn't have to be a gingerbread man, gingerbread hearts, trees and stars all taste just as good!)

8. Place on an oven tray lined with baking paper (You will either need to use a couple of large trays, or cook these in a couple of batches as it makes quite a few!)

9. Bake for 10-12 minutes (possibly a little longer depending on your oven) at 190 degrees celsius.

10. Once they're baked, transfer to a cooling rack until they're ready to decorate.

11. Decorate however you wish! Last time I went for a black writing icing face, and white icing and chocolate chips for the buttons. But this time I think I might use red and white writing icing to draw some festive jumpers on them!

And thats it! Now its time to enjoy them :)

Christmas Posting Dates

Oh dear, I've been neglecting the blog again haven't I?

I've got quite a lot of work on at the moment, and after coming up with some ideas for new colouring books I've given myself even more to do in getting them ready in time for my December craft fairs! So I haven't had much time to share anything on here, but I just wanted to stop by with some information on the final postage dates from my Etsy shop in time for Christmas!

3rd Dec - Africa, Middle East

5th Dec - Asia, Cyprus, Far East, Japan, Eastern Europe (Ex. Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia)

7th Dec - Caribbean, Central & South America

9th Dec - Greece, Australia, New Zealand

12th Dec - Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Poland

14th Dec - Canada, Finland, Sweden, USA

15th Dec - Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, Spain

16th Dec - France

17th Dec - Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland

19th Dec - UK

Please note that these dates are not guaranteed. Please place your order as early as possible to be in with the best chance of receiving your items in time for Christmas.

The final posting date before Christmas will be Monday 19th December. Any orders placed after this date will be posted on Monday 4th January as I am going away over Christmas and New Year.

If you're after one of my Christmas Countdown Colouring Books, make sure you order by Thursday 27th November in order to receive it in time for  the start of advent! (UK only, international orders can no longer be guaranteed to arrive in time, but orders placed in the next few days stand a good chance!)

Christmas Shop

That time of year is fast approaching again!  And as a result I've been adding a new range of Christmas products to my Etsy shop.

There are 6 Christmas card designs to choose from:

And my newest product, a Christmas Countdown Colouring Book!

"Colour your way through the countdown to Christmas, with one illustration for each day of advent. Celebrate the festive season with candy canes, mince pies, ice skating, teddy bears and more!"

The Christmas range is available to purchase here.

I'll be adding a few more Christmas themed products in the next few weeks (and they'll all be on sale at Renegade Craft Fair on November 7th & 8th!)

Life: Hello 2015!

Happy New Year!

Hope 2015 is treating you all well so far!

So Christmas has flown by yet again! Did you all have a good one? I had a quiet Christmas with Mum, Dad, Jamie and Beabea, and also spent a few days with Jamie's family down in Portsmouth. I was treated to lots of lovely presents this year, including:

-A few additions to my Disney Classics DVD collection

-Some lovely clothes and a pair of boots

-Some Tombow brush pens

-A great selection of books including 'Grow your handmade business' by Keri Chapin, and 'Gone Girl'.

What was your favourite gift this year?

I didn't manage to take many pictures over the last two weeks, but here are a few snippets:

-I made lots of these this Christmas! This batch in particular were for Jamie's office.

-I also did a lot of wrapping as you can see here!

-Beabea got a little snowman rope toy for Christmas which she barely stopped playing with.

-New year was a quiet one with a take-away, chocolate fondue and party poppers.

Today is my first official work day of the year. I'm spending the morning doing a bit of planning and organising, getting my self ready to get on with the rest of the new designs. I'm aiming to have everything finished and ready to put in the shop by next month, so these next few weeks are going to be pretty busy! To help keep me organised, I'm making myself both a weekly planner, and a year planner to map out what I aim to achieve each month in 2015.

The shop is now re-opened, and there's 10% off everything all through January with the code JANUARY23, as well as lots of Sale items up to 50% off.

As always I'll be sharing plenty of updates on Instagram (@EmmaMargaretIllustration), and I'm going to try very hard to keep up with blogging too!

Wise Words: Merry & Bright

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

I didn't think I'd be sharing any more "Wise Words" post until the New Year but I've managed to squeeze in one more to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone has a magical day tomorrow, and I'll be back in the New Year with more "Wise Words" and other work to share with you!

Over & over: Gingerbead Men

Just a quick one today, and probably the last "Over & Over" post until the New Year.

Christmas is approaching faster than I'd realised and I'm quickly running out of time to do all the things I had planned! So I probably won't be doing any more of these or the "Wise Words" posts until the New Year.

You can still keep up with what I'm doing and see snippets of my sketchbooks (as well as Christmas baking and present wrapping!) on Instagram: @emmamargaretillustrtaion

(Speaking of sketchbooks I'll be sharing an "In my sketchbook" post later this week!)

For now those, here's my latest festive pattern, inspired by my recent baking fun!

"Gingerbread Men"

Wise Words: So Happy Christmas

I'm a big fan of Christmas songs, as soon as the tree goes up on the 1st of December I start listening to my favourites. But I always try and avoid hearing my favourite one until then, and this year I almost succeeded, until 2 days before I put the tree up it was playing in a shop when I was out buying presents with mum!

I've always enjoyed this Christmas song, and several years ago I actually took the time to look up the lyrics to make it slightly easier to sing along!

There's some great lines in it, some serious, some funny and some romantic, but this is my favourite bit:

Fairytale of New York

by The Pogues & Kirsty McColl 

(Full lyrics here)

Over & over: Deck the Halls

Continuing with the Christmas theme, this week's pattern features a collection of festive ornaments and candy canes!

"Deck the halls"

Next week, Gingerbread men!

Over & over: Frozen

Now that December has arrived, things will be getting more Christmassy around here! I'm a big fan of Christmas, and always have my tree and decorations up on the 1st of December!

So, the "Over & over" and "Wise words" posts over the next few weeks are all going to have a bit of a festive theme to them, starting with a snowflake pattern today! 

"Frozen"

Next week I'll be sharing a pattern featuring a variety of Christmas ornaments!

Shop: Christmas Cards

Over the weekend I listed all of the new Christmas cards in my Etsy shop and on my website!

There are 6 new designs, all £1.75 each, 3 for £5 or one of each for £9.50 (+P&P)

To see all of the designs in full, head to my Etsy shop (which has also received a little festive makeover!) or my website!