Picking Up The Pieces

    I've been making my own Christmas cards since 1962, the year my father died and I was almost 17. To this day I never understood the reason why. My father died the day before my sister's 8th birthday and I was staying with an aunt and uncle when he passed. We were all still stunned as it ended up being a tramatic year. Death, the Cuban Missle Crisis, Portland completely without power on Columbus day at the same time. I think being high school yearbook editor helped me through those traumatic days.

The Blanks

    By Christmas our small family had no spirit left. So paper and paints in hand I created those first cards, a tradition I maintain today, 62 years later. 

     Coming up with an image each year is never easy. In Africa, during my Peace Corps years I hand made 30 "Wishing You A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" in the letters of JOY. They took forever. 

Creative work on Santa's
beard made me
reconsider the possibilities

    The first year my son was born I took a beautiful photo of him sleeping, something he rarely did. Lots of comments on that. When first my son and then son and daughter were able, we would struggle to get a printable, decent card (I don't know what it was but bring out a camera and they would begin to fight) I had them printing postcards of the "best" Christmas shot. I would expose the paper, my son would develop the print, my daughter would fix then put into the water bath. We started her a bit after age 1. 

     Her knowledge served her well when she was an exchange student in High school. Her Swiss class traveled to France where the teachers gave them cameras and for some reason use of a darkroom. No one knew what to do so she quickly organized them, put the film on reels to develop, lined them up to develop the prints she made. She surprised everyone, and I think even herself. You just never know what your kids will remember!

   Recently I was looking at all the after Christmas bargains I had bought at Michael's and JoAnn's that are years old. They were thin wooden ornaments some blank, others with a printed image to paint. I suddenly realized I could paint them and could attach them to a card, taken off and then hung on a tree. AND, not just hung this year but depending, maybe for many years a memory of dad, father, uncle, cousin, friend. 

Cute but not memorable.

    

    So I got to work, first on the one sided designs but soon realized when I got to the 5 Santa's, they would be nothing remarkable. So fresh off a frenzy of 3D Zentangles bee and birdhouses (in 3D form I call them Doodling) I experimented with Santa's hat and beard. I liked the look then played with snowflakes, Angel's and stockings. Before I knew it (well after two full day sessions that exhausted me) I had 20+ ornaments, each one building on the lessons learned from the one before.

Great diversity of even same style blanks.

    It was not easy after straying from the printed design. These are cute but not memorable no matter how hard I tried. There comes a time I learned that you truly must think beyond the box or in this case the ornament. 

Same blank, different designs!

    Sitting on my cluttered 

workbench was the Mason Beehive. Its sides were decorated with bees and Zentangle flowers and designs. Eyeing the blank forms that clearly showed by their shape what they were made me feel it was an open invitation to experiment! So what was i to do? I doodled. As you can see, like them or not, they ARE memorable. 

    What especially makes the blank shapes so wonderful is the same shape can be decorated in unlimited ways. Things can be added, wooden hearts, jewels, shiny hearts and patterns that make them so different from each other. You can even modify printed designs (the two snowflakes above.) One blue, one yellow where each arm has a different design.

    To the above here you see a stocking blank and two variations, one with a thin painted wooden heart and another with a Christmas tree with jeweled ornaments...both sides. I will drill them for hanging thread so they (hopefully) decorate a tree for many years.

    We are creatures of habit and sometimes need to think out of the box. What items have you had for years and never used? Dig them out and see how else you could use them  It's been great fun and got the creative juices flowing again!!!

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.