I will be doing vignette comics this week. Especially since I didn't really think about the comics until Sunday. Yep, it's that time of the year.
Time to make the Christmas cards.
We had a lovely Thanksgiving, but it did seem to sneak up on me, as it has for the past few years. I started to panic because I've spent most of November trying to think up my card designs and every year it gets harder. I try not to use designs from past years because there isn't much thought involved in recycling old artwork. To be honest, on some level I must enjoy the challenge that comes with agonizing over the cards.
So Friday was spent thinking. Thinking while trying to read. Thinking while checking emails. Thinking while playing computer games. (It's a process.) Finally I just folded up a couple of pieces of paper and sat down and sketched. The cute card came easily, as it usually does. The spiritual card featured heavy rubbings from the eraser end of the pencil. I always have a harder time expressing my spiritual side. It's a more intimate, personal topic for me, something that is very important to me. I want to express myself, but at the same time I don't want to offend anyone. At the same, same time, I realize I don't always look at the world the way others do, so it is always a gamble to set my imagination loose on an unsuspecting world.
Anyway, after staring at my paper for a while, I decided on a design I envisioned a while ago when I was thinking about angels and how they might appear. My husband liked it, but he tends to like most of my work. That's why I keep him around. I'll post the cards later in the season, once I make a dent in my Christmas card list. And bake cookies. And drive everyone to their things. And I think I have a birthday somewhere in there, but I'm trying not to think about that...
It's that time of year.
4 comments:
I do this same thing, but not with the cards (they are purchased, not illustrated - I am so impressed with you!). Instead, I agonize over the picture that goes into the cards; I want it to be just perfect, and find myself refusing a lot of 'fine' photos and putting my poor kids through heck to attain that perfection. Maybe it's because I was a photography student for part of my college life?
Good luck with knocking down your to-do list - and happy birthday, too!
:-)
Karen
It IS that time of year! I design our card, too, though I do a photo card, which somehow seems easier. This is the first year that I just sat down and did it...I didn't spend days agonizing over it. And I really like it. And it is ordered before December 20th, which gives me some hope that they will get in the mail! One thing off the list, now on to the next...
Wow -- so, how does this process go? Do you design, then copy (by hand, or with machine?). I enjoy paper crafts, too, and have once or twice thought of making our cards by hand -- but usually my computer takes over. Our oldest has been taking many very creative pictures this year, and so I used all his wacky close-ups of all of us to make a photo collage.
Can't wait to see your angel card -- I like how you described the process. I'm like that, too. I don't need to sit down and "do" until I've "thought" - for a week or so. Then, I can just sit down and (usually) do it!
God bless,
Laura
Laura: I sketch and ink my designs on paper, scan it and then make copies. This year I actually used the computer's graphic program for lettering to make my life a little easier. I'll also post an ecard.
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