beetlegrass

Christmas Card 2003

In 2003, my sister Jane & I were heavily into... altered books & the like, so it was the various accoutrements from that art form that inspired my Christmas (or New Year's) card that year.

Besides being one of my all-time favorite winter birds, the Cardinal has a great song, which is "Cheer! Cheer! Cheer!", so I thought it be fun to "cheer" in the new year with this little guy. Anytime I can combine some bit of trivia with an illustration is a good time for me.

Also a good time for me: YOU having a Merry Christmas!
Do so, wouldya? ;-)

© Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Christmas Card 2001

In Christmas of 2001, after the attacks on the World Trade Center & the Pentagon, there was a renewed feeling of patriotism in the United States, with American flags everywhere & on everything.
Because of this, I decided to combine Santa with Uncle Sam (making him "Uncle Santa") in the classic "I WANT YOU" poster, but replacing US's dour expression with a more jolly one.

The inside of the card read:

... to have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

© Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Christmas Card 2000

2000's Christmas card (and I mean it this time: it really WAS 2000) centered around a peace theme. Doing a "Christian spin" on the yin & yang sign, I implemented the Lion & the Lamb, who co-exist in the Peaceable Kingdom.This design was a rubber cut print-- much easier to do than a linoleum cut!

On a personal level, I had been through a lot that year, having been both diagnosed with & healed from cancer all within a 5-month period. Not a "fun" time, for sure, & not one that I would care to repeat, but all the same: it grew my faith in God, softened my heart, & gave me a first-hand knowledge of His healing grace. What this experience taught me about the character of God helps me now, when going through hard times. Testify, y'all! :-)

© Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Christmas Card 2002

ETA: I'm a bumbyhead. This card was actually from 2002, not 2000 like I initially said. Doh!

I love this poem written by Eleanor Farjean (or Farjeon), which is usually sung to a traditional French melody -- I always knew it as a hymn. This was my inspiration for 2002's Christmas card, as the words are beautiful; the message hope-filled.

As the words and images of this poem/hymn conjure up quilt images for me, I wanted to try to create that look. I did all the linework for this card on a piece of acetate, and glued pieces of fabric (some vintage; some not) to the back side. I then placed this on another piece of paper onto which I had drawn the brown "stitching" lines.
(Now I would be able to do all this in Photoshop, but keep in mind that this was the year 3 B.P.)
Color-copied the whole thing on one side of 8.5x11" sheet, folded into quarters.

Illustrations © Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Christmas Card 1999

I do a fair amount of American Sign Language (ASL) illustrations for educational publications, so decided to go this route for 1999's Christmas card. The words I chose are the four that are highlighted during Advent, for which a new candle is lit each week. The candle color order goes lavendar, lavendar, pink, lavendar, so those became the background colors for each kid.

© Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Christmas Card 1998

1998's card was fairly simple, with individually-done linework, & featured some great marbleized and gold papers.
I love this Bible verse from James, and handwriting all the cards proved to be a great way to memorize it!

© Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Christmas Card 1997

For Christmas of 1997, I made a lacing card in the shape of a gingerbread man. It was made from craft foam that comes in sheets. The features were painted with acrylics, and then shadows were drawn on with Sharpie. I remember that making these required the purchase of a smaller hole punch, which I am proud to say I still own & use to this very day.
I packaged these with lengths of white yarn, cuz I was too cheap to buy shoelaces for all of them. Oh, if I had only known that in the future I would see bundles of shoelaces for sale @ flea markets, who knows what direction my card-creating life would have taken.

If you can't read my handwriting, it says "Season's Eatings!" on the back. The Har-dee-har Factor is off the charts!

No Christmas card from me is complete without EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS on how to use said Christmas card. I still use my sample guy as a tree ornament.

© Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Christmas Card 1994

1994's 11x17" angel calendar was another Christmas card that required lotsa research, writing, organizing, and illustrating. All things I'm crazy about.

Below are some highlighted sections so you can see them up close & personal-like. Click on to see larger.

You may notice a fair amount of movie trivia. That's for good reason. My father is known as "Master of Trivia"; my sister nicknamed me "Master of Trivia Junior". I used to be really good at movie trivia. I've slacked off in this department.

© Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Christmas Card 1992

In 1992, I made an 8-page newspaper for children as my Christmas card. This consisted of two 11x17" pages, printed front & back, folded in half. In addition to sending this out to friends & family, I also sent it out to clients who'd given me business from the prior year, as a way of saying "Thank you!", & to a few prospective clients I particularly wanted to get. Click on the pages to see them larger.

 

Whooo likes writing reports? Me.
Whooo's a giant Poindexter? Again: Me.

 

I didn't make up the jokes. I believe in complete disclosure. Look, I spelled 'doughnut' wrong in the 3rd frame!

 

While this was not a project I invented (we used to make these when I worked @ a day care center), I did break the steps down. Sequencing, baby, sequencing!

This was a recipe (credited above) that we used to make a lot @ home. We rarely ate chocolate growing up. We had carob instead. And we ate dandelion sprouts. Did I tell you we grew up in the '70s?
We did.
Reading this recipe again makes me want to make these. They're good.

Page 8, above, was a little nod to Highlights Magazine. This Christmas newspaper folded into 3rds, so page 8 was also the area for mailing info.

© Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Christmas Card 1991

Well, it turns out I couldn't find 1990's card. It was an advent calendar with kids & their animals & toys dressed up for a Christmas pageant. I think it was in my box of decorations, and since it was paper, it succumbed to The Great Flood of '05. I only kept the one copy for myself. Whaa-whaa-whaa with a couple of boo-hoos thrown in for good measure.

Moving on...

Here's my card from 1991:

One of the things you do a lot as an educational illustrator is what's called "sequencing". That is, breaking down an activity into what happens first, second, third (or first, next, last), etc. Mixing up these events and asking kids to put them in the correct order helps them develop important problem-solving & life-management skills.

So, a tip for budding educational illustrators: Make sure you have some sequencing images in your portfolio -- processes that require 3 or 4 or 5 steps -- that show a kid or kids doing a kid-like activity. Art directors also like to be able to see that you can draw a kid a # of times & have him look like the same kid. I've now exceeded my quota of the word "kid" for the day.

Above is what I hand-wrote in each card. Har-de-har-har! The rest of the card was color-xeroxed. Think I learned my lesson by hand-coloring cards two years' prior.

Above: the crucial answer key, found on the back of the card. Don't impede Christmas merriment by leaving folks in a quandry, I always say.

These concepts & images are © Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.