Happy Holiday Cards

Every year I decide to make my own Christmas cards, and most years I never get around to it. This year, in the nano spirit, I signed up for an Artist Trading Card (ATC) exchange of holiday cards. Participants create small (2.5" by 3.5") cards in any medium for other participants, and each person ends up with a set of cards by different artists. This is done all year round by dedicated artists, usually with seasonal themes. The one I am involved in is holiday or winter themes and there are 12 participants, which means I have to make not one, but 11 different designs. Sounds like fun. :-)

I have already made numerous cards, often redoing cards several times before I am satisfied with them. By satisfied, I mean, I don't think they are going to get any better. So here are a few, most still in draft form, for your amusement. They are cartoony, drawn in ink and water colors.


This is the third time for this design. The chocolate chip cookies still look like potatoes. It represents those calm happy warm social moments of the holidays.



This is a small version of a card I made maybe 25 years ago. In the larger original, there is a tree cookie cutter, so you can tell the intent is to make Christmas cookies. This is based on my cat and kitchen at the time. And I still have the canisters. The original was more festively colored, and I will probably do this one again.

This is a poinsettia. I have since downloaded a zillion photos of poinsettias from the Internet and even went out and bought a poinsettia--before Thanksgiving!--as a study for this. I have done this several times, and will probably do it several more times.


This is not a Christmas theme, but I like it, just the way it is. I am going to try to make it holiday-ish, perhaps by tossing in a poinsettia!