Cutting Up at Christmas

One of my favorite  holiday traditions is illustrating a family Christmas card. Over the years it has often included skiing and snowboarding off cliffs and roof tops. Some represented traditional themes like baking cookies together as a family and others illustrated what my family had been up to in the past year; a brag letter without the GPA!

This year I found myself drawn, (no pun intended) to a card I created two years ago. I knew it would be time-consuming and a huge challenge, but hey, that’s just how I roll.

As I began my first prototype – and there were many – I realized how much this year’s card resembled the basics of writing a story.

Both of them start with inspiration. Amazing pop-up books created by Robert Sabuda greased my rusty cogs and sent them spinning.

They both require an interesting cast of characters

with a plot to pull the characters together.

Detail helps convey the theme.

Tension must be created in order for the story to unfold.

Suspense should build up to…

A CLIMAX THAT POPS!

It is an added bonus when the moral of the story leaves you smiling.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

With Love,

Danny, Susie, Kelly and Courtney

Writing a story and hand-made Christmas cards both require a lot of time and can present unique challenges. After two weeks of drawing, cutting, and pasting, the cards were dropped into the mailbox. Just like pressing “publish,” I smiled and hoped everyone would enjoy what I created.

Update!

After I posted this morning, there was a glitch that sent my post back to last night’s blogs. Later in the afternoon, I discovered all my Christmas cards were returned for more postage. How ironic that they both had delivery problems! – The similarities continue… (Thank you to the three Happiness Engineers who helped me on the forum yesterday!)

Do you look forward to receiving holiday greeting cards?

Do you send them?