Watercolor Christmas Cards: A Christmas Tradition
I’ve been making Christmas cards for craft fairs, over the past five years. They were meant to be a “bread and butter” item…something inexpensive that people could buy, alongside my pricier artistic handmade dreamcatchers.
In addition to selling my cards, I got into the habit of handing some out to my favorite shopkeepers, librarians, etc. It’s my way of saying “thank you for your service to the community”, as well as spreading some holiday cheer.
From Cutout Cards to Watercolors
The first year, I made the cards out of paper cutouts. I made reindeer, snowmen, Christmas trees, etc. Then my therapist encouraged me to make some snow women, as the final frontier of women’s equality. So, I did. And then I really got into that and I made only snow women for a couple years. Then there were my angels, with shiny/sparkly cut-out wings and penned bodies and faces.
Last year, I surprised a friend with a watercolor Christmas card painting of her beloved bird (I’d seen a picture of it on her Facebook profile), wearing a Santa hat. I also made watercolor cards from paintings of my gorgeous red amaryllis, that had bloomed in mid-December. I did a few llamas and had fun with a “fa la la la llama” greeting. I had a special request for a mermaid, so I tried my hand at that, too.
Duplication
The watercolor Christmas cards from last year all turned out well and I wish I had scanned them, for the sake of posterity. The best recordings I have are pictures that I took with my phone. It’s something, but less-than-ideal. Also, I think these cards were fun and I did my best with them, but they were a little more homespun and not what I would consider professional quality. So, I wanted to up my game.
This year, I decided to try my hand at watercolors, again, but with a slightly different approach. I love cats and I know that many people in this area are super into dogs. I found some really great photos on Pixabay.com, using the keywords “Christmas dogs” and “Christmas cats”. I thought I would create watercolors of some of them, scan the images, and then make prints out of those, so I could easily duplicate them.
Why Prints are Better
Tidyness: I don’t know if you’ve ever made watercolors, but it can be a messy process. There’s paint everywhere and it often gets on the inside and the back of the card. So, it doesn’t exactly lend towards a professional look and feel.
Flatness: The paper curls, so trying to use an original as a card is usually not the best idea. Or if you do, you have to carefully prep the card, ahead-of-time, by spraying the back with water (to pre-emptively curl it in the opposite direction) or firmly tape it down.
Efficiency: Plus, each painting can take a while to create, as there are many steps involved. You might have to wait for a section to dry, for example, and come back to add another layer in, later. You can do a painting once, though, and make multiple prints out of it. So, that’s a much more efficient process. Scalability. It’s a thing!
Cost: Watercolor paper is expensive, too. While making prints still costs something, it’s not as expensive. So, I might be able to sell the printed versions for a bit less than my completely handmade cards.
Well-being: Also, I have a neck injury, so I have to be mindful of how much I am bending over a desk to paint or do anything, really. I could do all of these individually, but at great cost to myself and my well-being. It’s just not worth all of that. Duplicating the watercolors, by making prints out of them, cuts down on the time that I spend with my head bent over the cards, which is a very good thing.
Attempts at Straightening
Because the original paintings had curled, quite a lot, I tried flattening them down, overnight, with a very sophisticated method: pressed in the pages of a hardcover book and then weighed down with a tray loaded with 8 cans of beans. I would have thought that would do the trick, but…the dreaded curling prevailed :/
Professional Polish
While I’m very pleased with how the paintings came out, I think the prints look a lot more professional. There aren’t splotches of paint on the insides and backs of the cards. This is what they looked like printed on high-quality card stock, before I cut them out (see pic).
I used my paper slicer to get clean edges, which is really necessary for a clean, professional look, in my experience. You can also a ruler, pencil, and sharp paper scissors.
I personally love adding a bit of glitter glue, as a finishing touch, to highlight accessories, like the hats and scarves. It gives them just a little extra depth and sparkle.
Using All My Tools
In between scanning and printing, I resized the images, to make sure that they came out well in the printing (300 dpi) and would fit on my premade cards.
One of the hardest parts of using watercolors is getting a good solid color, because of the variation in the pigment, the amount of water used, the rate of drying, etc. Fortunately, I was able to use my graphics program to make a splotchy red background a beautiful solid burgundy, before printing. So, let’s say that these are technically multimedia cards.
Playing Santa
I really enjoyed handing these watercolor Christmas cards out to my friends in the community 🙂 They seemed quite pleased with the cards and the gesture of goodwill.
Someone said that these are professional looking, but also have a homey feel. That’s the best of both worlds, if you ask me. Also, she asked me if I did commissions and might want me to paint a portrait of her aunt’s dog, as a gift. Considering that I’ve never painted a dog or cat, before making these cards, it was such an honor to be asked if I did commissions.
The girl that was helping me make the prints really took to the cats, as one of them reminded her of her recently deceased black cat. It was fun showing people the collection on my phone and asking which ones were their favorites.
I think people really enjoyed the silly “meowy Christmas” and “happy howlidays” greetings that I used, too.
From Concept to Creation
I love my ginger cats. They are sweet and sassy and I’ve had a few, throughout my lifetime. They were all memorable, in their own ways.
Of all the cards that I made, the ginger cat one is by far my favorite. It took the longest, but I think it really stands out, among the rest.
I wanted to show you some of my process in creating this card. The first image is the picture that I got from Pixabay. I did a drawing from it. Then I filled in some of the base color of the cat and the red of the Santa hat. After that came the detailing.
Getting the colors right was one of the biggest challenges, because it’s not like these beautiful hues come out of a tube, LOL. Mixing them involved some guesswork, on my part, as well as some trial and error. I think I did a good job, though. He definitely looks like a ginger, to me!
Some of the color got lost in the printing, but I still think he looks good. I will be more careful about the shading, next time around.
The last two pics of are of him on a paper card, plus an E-card that I made, to send to my friends, from afar.
Next Christmas…
I didn’t have any craft fairs lined up, this year, and was sort of late in getting these made. But, next year, I plan to make batches of them, to sell online and at craft fairs.
I think I’m also going to do some more designs, so I have many options to work with. I would love to do some more “fa la la la llama” cards, as well as ones of the amaryllis.
There are some new ideas that I’m playing with, involving owls and sloths, LOL. I’ll probably do some with sheep, too. I really like the “fleece navidad” idea, pictured here. I imagine I’ll pick up some more inspirations, along the way, as well.
Alright, so I didn’t quite have things as together as I would have liked. But, planning ahead for next year is a very good thing, in my opinion.
Anything for a Laugh
What can I say? I love a goofy Christmas pun. I’m not ashamed. I’ll do just about anything to get a good laugh.
Let’s face it: the weeks leading up to Christmas are sometimes the most grueling for people, for a multitude of reasons. There’s so much added pressure and expectations of Christmasy perfection flying around. Everyone’s in such a hurry to get s#%* done. There are a lot more accidents and near misses. There are probably a lot more arguments and conflicts, too. Plus, the weather can be really crappy. For example, we’re expecting a wind chill factor of -30, today, here in Colorado. Some, like myself (where are my fellow black sheeps at?), are really missing their families, but don’t feel safe in engaging. There’s a lot less light, especially when the sun sets at 3:30, LOL. Some people really suffer from SAD.
My point is that I feel that most people could do with some extra holiday cheer. If my cards bring a smile to someone’s face, make them laugh, or give them the sense that someone sees them and cares about their well-being, I feel that I’ve done my job to bring a bit of light into the world, during a really challenging time.
