Sweet Tidings to You!

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It's only October, but the holiday card making season has just begun.  This week was the first week of MATS B (Make Art That Sells, Part B).  It was a good thing that the course started when it did as I got things somewhat in order and got back into the "making" groove here in our new home.  I set up a workspace on the kitchen table that came in the mail a few days before class began.  We put it together pretty quickly and cardboard boxes became work-space dividers, empty yogurt containers became brush holders, and old palettes from undergrad saved the day!



On a side note, though, does anyone else do that?  Do you leave things for your future self just in case x, y, or z happens?  I left a mini travel kit at my mom's house and unearthed a bunch of my tools last year when I visited during the holidays with the baby's first visit to the U.S.  And lucky for me that I did because I had a great little kit waiting for me this time around when I had nothing but my 2 suitcases for the baby and me after the move from Germany!

The first week of MATS focuses on paper (greeting cards in this case).  And our theme was holiday cookies.  I started the mini using my dipping pen and nibs with Windsor & Newton india ink.

Then, I did some icon painting with gouache.  And later I did some in Copic marker.


Next I put it together in Photoshop and Illustrator and worked on icon placement...


It seemed too brown to read as a holiday card, so I added blue and white to get that winter feeling in there.  Then, I added some extra cookie illustrations within the jar, added texture to a bunch of items (jar, sprig, thread, tag, etc.).  Finally, I put it all together in InDesign and added a few stationery accessories like the gift tags and possible stamps that I thought would work well with the remaining icons.  See the first photo for the final result.
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