Win an Illustrated Christmas Card!

In case you’re new to my blog, illustrating my family’s holiday card is one of my favorite traditions. This year, it brought a bit of normalcy to a super weird holiday season. My ninety-year-old mom is staying home in Wisconsin. My son is coming from California with his girlfriend. They will drive straight to the mountains to quarantine for a week. Life is nuts.

After coming up with an idea back in July, I thought I had this year’s holiday card in the bag. I would finish it super early. When I started on the prototype a week ago, the Christmas card elves smote me. Nothing worked. I gave up after a couple of hours.

Would I embrace the COVID insanity in this year’s card or totally ignore it? Hmm. I put on my thinking cap.

I reviewed cards of Christmas past.

Some of my cards have been simple, straightforward drawings.

In recent years, I constructed pop up cards. They included pieces and parts. I still have painful memories of piles of paper snippets — that’s a lot of p’s — hand cramps while clutching a scissors, and glue stuck to everything.

One year, I missed a couple of parties because it took about thirty minutes to construct EACH CARD. Ughh. What was I thinking? I accidentally mailed all of them and didn’t keep one for my family. Mistakes were made.

This one was returned to sender for more postage. Everyone got them late that year. GAH!

Last year, I compromised and limited my cut and pasting to a tree on the front and two sheets pasted in the center. Still, they took over a week to make. The envelopes kept ripping since they barely fit inside.

While I perused past projects I wondered why I would add to the stress of 2020 by killing myself over a card that’s supposed to be an enjoyable project?

This card would be simpler. It would be a year to enjoy what there is of this insane and sometimes depressing holiday season. An executive decision was made.

I returned to FUN.

The card is finished. Woohoo! After a celebratory dance around my kitchen, I’ll send them out today with the hope that they arrive before Christmas. Last year, making them took so long, the card reveal and contest winners were blogged on Christmas Eve. Yikes!

I’ll reveal the 2020 card and winners in a blog post next week.

So, what did I draw in this year’s card?

Here’s your chance to win!

Yes. YOU!

Guess what my family is doing in this year’s illustrated card and I’ll send you one. Don’t worry. If no one guesses, I will draw names from a hat!

Want me to send you one of my cards? Well, then. Go ahead. Make my day –

TAKE A WILD GUESS!

How weird is your holiday season? Are you embracing any holiday traditions? Have you added any new ones?