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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 1995 & 1996

I wrote about 1995's Christmas card a couple of years back -- rather than re-post everything, you can find follow the link to see that year's red & white themed greeting.

1996 was significant for me, personally, because it was the year that I bought my first home. It was a sweet Cape Cod style with a dormered-out roof in Stratford, CT. It was a young house, so it was quite kind to me as a new homeowner. I learned about maintenance, but the best part of all was being able to decorate like I had been yearning to do.

Not surprisingly, then, that year's Christmas card took on a HOME bent, with a title of "Oh, there's no place like (a) HOME for the Holidays!"

The card was color-copied on a 11x17" sheet, front & back. Was able to get two cards per sheet of paper. Accordion-folded to fit in an envelope for mailing.

You can click on these images to see them larger. 

The house, above right, was my cartoon-y version of what my then-home looked like. Later on, I painted the shutters purple. And added a red rusty metal heart to the mailbox. When I drove past the house last year, these things were still there. Funny. Wouldn't've thought that anyone would've kept purple shutters.

© 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 1993

In 1993, I made "Christmas Memories", a card matching game.The cards were "backed up" with a red card stock, to make them more sturdy & to prevent see-y-throughiness.

I provided instructions, and these, along with the cards, were packaged in a Ziploc bag, then in an outer envelope. To really ram the "memories" feeling home, I came up with "optional play". It was gratifying to hear back from people that they were actually playing the game. And not just that year, but the years that followed. :-)

© Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.