The year I started college at the University of Cincinnati’s DAAP (Design, Architecture, Art & Planning), I started making my own Christmas cards. I have only missed one year since then. With that being said, there are three missing from the collection and a handful of cards that I don’t know what year they are from. My cards have changed throughout the years reflecting the type of artwork that is occupying my interest that year. If there was something other than a handwritten Merry Christmas on the inside of the card, I have included that as well. The majority of the cards are initialed but some have a logo or my name on the back.
The first year was a perspective drawing of my parents fireplace at Christmas time and is one of the ones currently missing. Another that is missing, I believe, is a little girl in a snowsuit making a snow angel. The third one missing is from 2008. It had embossed snowflakes made with silver foil HVAC tape and was one of my favorites.
These three are from the Christmases I was in college 1991-1995 and reflect different drawing and painting techniques that I was learning in school at the time. The paint that I use on my cards is gouache. It can be used like watercolor or acrylic but has always been my favorite type of paint to use. You will see gouache used early on but as the years go by, I have used it off and on throughout the collection.
1997 - This card was painted with gouache with a bit of metalic paint.
This is the part of the collection that I was unable to figure out what year they were made. Stamping and embossing techniques start being used.
2004 - This card is a combination of layered paper and layered stamped images.
These are also undated but you start to see other techniques come in like stitching the snowflake card and digital editing in the angel card.
Gouache is used in these cards.
The bakery window card is one of my favorites but it was also one of my more time consuming designs.
2009 - This card is another of my favorites and also time consuming. The two deer in the photo wandered around our yard that summer. I also taught myself to do ribbon embroidery that year which is the technique used on the card.
2012 - By this time, I had learned to do Zentangle drawing and still remains one of my favorite types of drawings. There were a variety of Christmas related words used on my cards that year. The words were spelled out with stickers. I painted over them with gouache, then peeled the stickers off revealing the white underneath. I zentangled on top of the gouache. This particular card was a postcard. I love using watercolor paper because of the wonderful texture it has. I was so excited to find watercolor postcards at the art store downtown.
2013 - Each of the ornaments that I Zentangled on my cards that year were a different design but all of them had a red ribbon threaded through the top of the ornament.
2017 - This is a photo that I printed on watercolor paper. You will also see this photo used as the header on my recipe website. I took this photo when I was making Chicken & Dumplings from my Grandma B’s recipe (also on my recipe website).
2018 - This is the year I started working for the company I currently work for. Digital artwork quickly became a big part of my life.
I also started designing our company Christmas cards in 2018. At the time, our company was BigCo. SmallCo. My husband took the pine branches and the ornament topper & ribbon is a graphic I found online. I drew the 3-dimensional ornament as I began to expand my knowledge of digital illustration.
2019 - This is also a digital design and the first time I had one one of my designs sent out to be professionally printed. My daughter became obsessed with cows that year when she was away at college.
The theme for our company Christmas party in 2019 was stella di natale or star of Christmas which is the poinsettia. My boss also likes art deco so these two things became the inspiration for this card.
2020 - This was the year of COVID, enough said…
In 2020, my company rebranded to NephōSec. The beach Christmas theme is reflected in this card with our company icon hanging among the branches with the seashells.
2021 - This card was also sent out to print like the cow card. It features a photo of the Christmas chocolates I make each year, All the recipes can be found on my recipe website.
My boss spent several years working in Italy. This is a drawing I did of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence near where he lived.
2022 - This year’s Christmas card design is more simple but probably my favorite. For the past year, I have had a pair of cardinals visit me almost every day. My daughter gives me a hard time because I have named them Lucille & Charlie. Charlie sits in the trees while Lucille comes up on our deck and pecks on the window repeatedly until I come down and talk to her or close the blinds. Over the past couple of years, I have been told that seeing a cardinal can be an indication from a loved one who has passed that they will always feel your love and will be near you.
This year, I combined my photo editing and digital illustration skills in our company Christmas card. The inside of the card says “Giving the gift of hope, peace, and security this holiday season and the whole year through.”
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