sketchbook

Wild Things Mail Club

| terriaw

Join the August 1 waitlist for an envelope once a month, full of wonder!

Small Illustrated Wonders and Stories, Delivered Every Month

A monthly collection of illustrated paper goods inspired by the natural world—gentle, story-driven, and designed to be collectible.

Sign up here!

Be the first to know when the first collection is released.

What is This?

There are small worlds everywhere—tucked beneath leaves, hidden in garden corners, woven quietly into the changing seasons.

The Wild Things Mail Club is a monthly mail subscription built around those worlds.

Each collection is illustrated by hand using watercolor and colored pencil, then turned into a set of paper goods—postcards, greeting cards, stickers, bookmarks, and small printed pieces—designed to feel like something found and kept.

It’s not just stationery. It’s a monthly moment of delight in your mailbox, a collectible art experience, and a break from the digital world.

Wild and Free Mail by Terri Wilhelm

What You’ll Receive: Tier 1: Nature Wonders

Each month, you will receive a themed collection that may include:

  • An illustrated postcard
  • An coordinating greeting card with envelope
  • A die-cut sticker or sticker sheet
  • A bookmark
  • A set of tiny nature notes

This club may grow additional tiers where you could also receive washi tape, notepads, sticky notes, enamel pins, art magnets, a coaster, a custom mini puzzle or a mini zine artbook compilation.

Wild and Free Mail by Terri Wilhelm

Monthly Themes

Each month’s collection will explore a different corner of the natural world:

  • Hidden undergrowth
  • Garden wanderers
  • Tree canopies
  • Under the sea
  • Quiet winters

…and the small stories that live within them.

Why You’ll Love it

This new club is intended for those who:

  • Love nature
  • Love stories
  • Notice small details on walks
  • Love collecting stationery, paper, texture, and quiet rituals
  • Still believe in the charm of sending and receiving something in the mail

This is for you.

What You’ll Receive – Tier 2: The Storykeeper

Those who join the waitlist now for Tier 2 will receive something special each month:

  • A story card—featuring a new character and story each season.
    Each story card will be part of an ongoing series, with the story connecting from one month to the next.
  • A collectible paper artifact or ephemera from the character and their world.
  • All monthly items listed in Tier 1 above
  • I hope to offer access to behind-the-scenes, process inspiration and product sneak peaks

There will be a surprise bonus item for early founding members!

Animal Character illustrations by Terri Wilhelm

Come find the small wonders.

Sign up here!

​Wild Things Mail Club is a monthly invitation into a world of curious wanderers, hidden discoveries, and nature-inspired stories. Each mailing contains illustrated treasures designed to be collected, kept, and revisited like pages from a beloved field notebook. 

The August 1 collection is coming soon. Secure your place now to receive our next curated box of hand-illustrated wonders. Join the waitlist to be notified first when we open for new members.

Hand Drawn Repeat Pattern

Hand drawn pattern by Terri Wilhelm
| terriaw

One of the lessons in the Surface Design Immersion course I’ve been taking for the past couple months includes creating a hand drawn pattern. I love everything analog! This method is such a great way to understand how repeating patterns work.

Hand drawn pattern Step 1 by Terri Wilhelm

My vision was to draw bits you might see on the forest floor when your walking on a trail in the woods. I personally love to pick things up and bring them home with me as reminders of the adventure and for drawing reference.

Step one was to build a repeat tile by hand using a square piece of paper and a black pen.

Hand drawn pattern Step 2 by Terri Wilhelm

Step two was to cut your square paper in half both ways and rearrange the sections. Then you can see how the motifs connect across edges and how the patterns flow when repeated. It’s magical!

Hand drawn pattern by Terri Wilhelm

After digitizing this pattern in Adobe Illustrator, I loved it! But it was all line work and I wanted it to be a little bolder, so I filled in all the shapes and colored it with my collection color palette. This is the First Frost color palette.

It has become my hero print for my new collection – coming soon!

Wood Lands Map

| terriaw

There’s always a big list of ideas to draw, brewing in my head. My husband recently suggested I draw a map. Which I jumped on right away. I love looking at maps!

This illustration project was a lot of fun to play make believe and dream up a new wood lands.

Woodlands map by Terri Wilhelm

I started out with a version in my sketchbook using colored pencils. I loved it so much I did a second version on Arches paper with watercolor paints so I could have it as a stand-alone print.

Woodlands map by Terri Wilhelm

This illustrated map is full of deer grazing in a clover meadow, fox and raccoons drinking from a river, bunnies romping among the trees, squirrels hanging out in their tree hollow, turkeys chasing each other, bear surveying the woods where their secret den is. There’s also a crow and hawk flying overhead.

Woodlands map by Terri Wilhelm
Woodlands map by Terri Wilhelm
Woodlands map by Terri Wilhelm
Woodlands map by Terri Wilhelm
Woodlands map by Terri Wilhelm

Fallen logs allow for crossing the river and tracks help you make your way on the trail. A couple run-down outbuildings might be a good spot to rest and have a picnic.

January’s great illustration project was all about Stargazing, February was all about this woodlands illustration map. Stay tuned for next month’s great illustration project!

Woodlands Advent Calendar

| terriaw

I had a lot of fun making this Woodlands Advent Calendar in Melanie Chadwick’s class.

Woodland Advent Calendar by Terri Wilhelm

The front piece is a tree with doors cut into it for each day. I painted the background with watercolor and the tree with colored pencils and Neocolor II wax pastels.

Woodland Advent Calendar by Terri Wilhelm

The piece behind is a grid of woodland flora and fauna illustrations for each day of Advent.

Woodland Advent Calendar by Terri Wilhelm
Woodland Advent Calendar by Terri Wilhelm

I also cut out a mat frame to put over the illustrations so I could display this all year long.

Woodland Advent Calendar by Terri Wilhelm

I adore Advent calendars so I’m already starting a second one with a frosty blue background for winter animals.

2024 Recap

Art versus artist by Terri Wilhelm
| terriaw

I made so much art this year that I adore! I created the art I want to see out there, and then had it printed on stickers, coasters, tote bags, mugs and so much more. And I self published my own picture book! Cheers 2024!

Art versus artist by Terri Wilhelm

Best of all, I opened a print-on-demand shop and started printing my illustrations on products!

Great Lakes Wildlife Gifts by Terri Wilhelm
Great Lakes Wildlife Gifts by Terri Wilhelm
Great Lakes Wildlife Tray by Terri Wilhelm
Great Lakes Wildlife Tray by Terri Wilhelm
Ornament by Terri Wilhelm

Coasters by Terri Wilhelm

Stickers by Terri Wilhelm
Stickers by Terri Wilhelm

I am so grateful I got to travel to Naples, Florida earlier this year for some rest and relaxation and one of my favorite things – beach time. I also got to spend time at the lake house on Lake Michigan in Door County.

Naples Florida by Terri Wilhelm

Micro Adventures by Terri Wilhelm

I spent a week galavanting around Los Angeles with my sister and nieces.

Los Angeles by Terri Wilhelm

I finally got to go to the ICON Illustration Conference, ICON12 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I’ve been wanting to attend that conference for ten years! It was so fun to be immersed in a crowd of illustrators talking about art.

Many local micro adventures brought me great joy!

Micro Adventures by Terri Wilhelm

Cheers to more art and adventure in 2025!

New Wild Things Collection

Wreath drawings by Terri Wilhelm
| terriaw

I started a new collection in my online shop called Wild Things, which is filling up with more fun products with my illustrations printed on them, such as ornaments and postcards, new tote bags, stickers and coasters!

Wreath drawings by Terri Wilhelm

I adore doing these nature-inspired wreath illustrations with some of my favorite sayings in my sketchbook with watercolor and colored pencils, and then turning them into fun products!

Ornaments by Terri Wilhelm

Ornament by Terri Wilhelm

Ornament by Terri Wilhelm

Ornament by Terri Wilhelm

Coaster by Terri Wilhelm

Stickers by Terri Wilhelm

A few screenshots from my online shop of new products:

Tote bag by Terri Wilhelm

Coasters by Terri Wilhelm

I’m always drawing, practicing and filling up sketchbook pages with nature-inspired illustrations so check back for more fun projects!

I Love Stickers

Animal Faces Sticker Sheet by Terri Wilhelm
| terriaw

I love stickers of all kinds so I’m having lots of fun creating stickers with a variety of my illustrations, and creating illustrations that I can turn into stickers. I’m also working on getting my artwork printed on coasters and ornaments.

Thankful Sticker by Terri Wilhelm

Animal Faces Sticker Sheet by Terri Wilhelm

Animal Faces Sketchbook by Terri Wilhelm

Stickers by Terri Wilhelm
Stickers by Terri Wilhelm

I have sketchbooks full of illustrations that would work perfectly for stickers and sticker sheets, coasters, ornaments and more, so stay tuned!

Let me know if you’re interested in any of the stickers featured in this post!

Daydreaming Fox

| terriaw

Remember this illustration I did in my sketchbook of a daydreaming fox? I used watercolor for the background and base layer and colored pencils for the details.

With a little Photoshop magic, I turned it into a badge for advertising my illustration business on Illustrators For Hire.

I recently had the illustration printed on a coffee mug and a zipper pouch! How beautiful are these!

Check them out in my new nature center gift shop!

Sketchbook Art Lately

ll Good Things are Wild and Free by Terri Wilhelm
| terriaw

I read this advice recently: “Create what sets your heart on fire and let it illuminate your path.” That’s what I’ve been trying to focus on with my sketchbook art lately.

When I was in Minneapolis last month for the ICON12 Illustration Conference, I stayed at my cousin Linda’s house in the country and we saw a doe and three fawns come out of a clearing and cross the road. They were such a lovely sight I wanted to remember in a sketchbook spread, combined with all the wildflowers in bloom in late summer using with watercolors and colored pencils.

I painted a light wash background on this spread and decided it was perfect to draw backyard wild things with my colored pencils.

I love stickers so this sketchbook spread of small vignettes was inspired by nature things I might want to make a sticker from.

I love water more than anything! I love to drink it, swim in it, shower in it, and watch it. I also discovered I have a lot of boat pictures in my photo roll so I did these little vignettes using a watercolor wash background and neocolor II pastels, which I haven’t used much. It was great fun to experiment with a variety of mixed media.

Speaking of watching the water, it’s fun to watch water birds like gulls ride the wind over the waves, so I played with blues and textures in this sketchbook spread.

I’m always working on several art projects at the same time, so stay tuned for more nature and wild things illustrations. And thank you for stopping by!