Preparing Holiday Cards

2012's design, hand-stitched with painted buttons.

For several years now I have produced my own Christmas Cards for my family and friends. I've had successes, and some missteps, but few things excited me more before I left America than the idea of sending a new, original christmas card to my family and friends from the opposite side of the world.

This process always starts with my list of addresses from the previous year - I usually have between 60-80 cards to make. I have a few more this year because of new friends, which is both awesome and a little exhausting to think about.

When I envisioned this task while in America, I thought that I would have already started to practically learn more about Vietnamese artistic traditions by this point. That hasn't really happened, but I decided I still wanted something that would be iconic, festive, and really, really Vietnamese. I put my thinking cap on and got to work.

"Can I make it in bulk??"

My first thought: a photo calendar for friends and family, using pictures of xe om drivers reclining in various funny ways on their bikes, waiting for fares. The humor of it stuck with me for a couple weeks, until the sheer scale of the idea - from the picture-taking to printing to shipping - began to hit home. Project regretfully abandoned.

I needed something a tad more modest, but still unique and fun. Something that would test my creativity in this new home and try to sum up the previous 7 months in a single, visual blow. What I needed was some inspiration, and soon, it fell into my lap....

Christian

The holiday card project is often a great exercise for my artistic inclinations, so I like to choose a design that won't burn me out but has potential for a great presentation (as well as the ability to make the same/similar cards for my friends of different religious leanings, see designs at left).

Atheists that decorate trees.

Here you can see my variations on my design from 2011.

Straight-Up Atheists

In the past I've done cards featuring fabrics, paints, stencils, and other materials. My normal process involves making a couple mock-ups of different design ideas and evaluating attractiveness weighed against replicability. Last year's holly leaves used up a ton of stuff and were pretty easy to replicate.

Everyone Else

In the last few years I've also done designs that would use up more of my ample hoard of weird art materials. That won't be an issue here - virtually everything I need I'll have to buy. My only resources at home are an exacto knife, ruler, scissors, and color printer.










So what eventually happened, you may be asking? What do this year's cards look like, and will you get them in time for Christmas (probably not)??

To Be Continued...!

P.S. Do you have a photo of my card from 2010 or earlier? Please let me know! I can't find mine.