Only 25 days til Christmas!

Not long ago I wrote a post telling everyone how far ahead I was in the Holiday present preparation area.  Well... I lied!   Not really - but come on - even those of us who make most of our presents and have worked diligently over the past 10 months to make sure everything is done in time can run into problems. The baked goods haven't even been thought of, and while most presents are done I completely forgot about the Holiday cards!

I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to once again make my Holiday cards. Am I smart enough to use all those wonderful stamps and paper I bought last year?  Nope!  I had to come up with a different kind of card and decided I was going to paint snow scenes on flat board canvas and send those out as my cards this year.  I do admit that there aren't that many that we actually send out - so I don't have a lot to make. However I did not allow for drying time - as of course I have to do these in OIL!!!  GRRRR   Between trying to find the time to actually paint them to spreading them near the radiators in my craft room so they can dry just a little faster, I am tearing my hair out! 

I went through all my old pictures for ideas that weren't already floating around in my head.  After clipping them to my project board where i could see them all at one crack - I tried to do multiple boards at one time.  Painting on an assembly line works - sure it does!  You put the gesso on all the boards first - then lay in the skies, trees, snow etc on each one after the other.  After all - you are using the same colors on the brush for each ... right?   WRONG!

My problem  was that they were looking exactly alike.  I might as well BUY the cards instead of making them. After all these are kind of the presents for these people - at least that was the idea! Something for them to have and to hold and sell for megabucks when I become a famous arteest.  I'm only thinking about their future you know!  As with any good painting - each has to be created separately - to allow the creative juices to flow.  But how many snow scenes can I put onto canvas at one time... I just can't paint the same type of thing over and over and over again.

I think I had better get out the stamps and paper before it's too late!

~ Dani