TIME FOR 2013 ANNUAL FAMILY AND FRIENDS CHRISTMAS CARD DESIGN

   MYSELF CUTTING CHRISTMAS CARDS IN 2011  LITTLE
   PAPERS WERE EVERY WHERE. I WAS SO BUSY CUTTING, I DIDN'T 
  HAVE TIME TO CHANGE MY SNEAKS INTO SOMETHING MORE
 'GLAMOROUS' FOR THE PERFECT PHOTO!

      'SNOWMEN ARE REAL COOL DUDES!'  
(inside) SO, YOU BE A COOL DUDE ,TOO!    2007
(c) Loren Fidalgo 2007

Oh my gosh... holy cow....Oh, boy..... Yippee...Yowza... I can hardly believe that it is that time of year again for the Annual Friends and Family Christmas Card Design 2013.
Each year I create a new Christmas Card Design, totally handmade. You can read more about it here and here and here.  Each year it gets harder and harder to create something that is unique and innovative and one that I can create solely by hand. I stress and worry over this project each year.  I ask myself, "can I come up with a 'winning design'. Can it out do last years? Will it have the delight it always has. Will it have my signature style and charm?"  I have to say that each year I brainstorm inside this quirky brain of mine and I feel as if I ultimately try to pull the rabbit out of the hat.  I am never confident, never arrogant, never under estimate my card receivers.  They expect the best.  They remember all the years designs gone by, all those designs hanging on their trees and all that gives them the 'MIND GIGGLE when they receive it in the mail and then they take it out of the envelope.' They remember...  I have my work cut out for me.  Printing, folding, scoring, coloring, cutting, gluing, punching are just some of what goes into creating my handmade card designs.  Pop-ups, swinging and hanging, mobiles,  rubberstamped designs, tree ornaments, and paper punched are just some of what will have followed this years' design.  I have to 'hunker down' for a couple of days in my creative isolation zone and go to town constructing these little wonders of joy for the people who are most important to me.

    'Dear Santa, We have been really good this yearr so, please send 
some hope, love and joy!  If not...  (inside) Just send Cash!'
(c) Loren Fidalgo 2012

   'This Season, Let's Celebrate... (inside)  World Peace.  Happy Holidays.
(c)  Loren Fidalgo 1996

I've made some pretty interesting card designs and I have to say it takes some time to create each one.  If you are on the list, you can be sure you will receive this years 2013 card design.  Every year I say that I am not going to be able to make the card. I either don't feel I have the time and energy, my mood is low (winter blues) or I am just not into the holiday spirit.  Then I think of all the people who will wait for this card to arrive each year and signal that indeed it is the beginning of the Christmas season.  I have to ask myself, "Would Santa get out of not delivering the presents on Christmas Eve because he is too tired or just doesn't feel 'in the mood'?"  Absolutely not, so here goes." Do I have a design idea for this year yet?'  I am happy to say ,"I am almost ready to start the marathon cutting session!" Follow along as I try to chronicle the evolution of this years design with sketches and photos of the design.   You can also read more about ths project on my painting blog here.

Cheers,
Loren

HOW I CAME UP WITH AN IDEA FOR A NEW CHRISTMAS CARD DESIGN?

It's official!  The new 2011 Annual Family/Friend Christmas Card has arrived at everyone's home!

I want to share some info about this card design and how it came about.   People often ask me how do I come up with my ideas?   I thought that I would like to give you a step by step, inside look at how I think up all my zany and kooky concepts?  I'd like to let you in on my little secret to see if you can also come up with your own ideas.   Let's go...

I had been getting a little worried because Christmas was quickly approaching and I had no idea in sight!  I've been feeling low since my Mom passed away in May, as I have mentioned and I began to think that it was just not going to happen. I wasn't up for the challenge.   I thought of ideas that were just not going to meet the expectations of the family/friend card getters. The pressure is always on!   I had all kinds of ideas that did not seem like viable options and I was seriously getting worried that possibly I was not going to get one done this year.  "Not get one done" I thought as I was mulling over my meager and sorry ideas.  "I have to get one done this year.  I do it every year".  Some years my designs have been better than others and I was beginning to think that this year it was going to be the 'others year'.  Well anyway, I sketched out this little drawing on a torn envelope one day and I thought , "Hmmm, I can create one of a Christmas tree that moves.  I'll attach it to jump rings (tiny little jewelry rings) and it will move.  Okay, now I'm making progress." Unfortunate as it was however,  I did not have a clear concept in my mind. "How was I going to link up the moving tree to a concept without an expression?" Each day passed and I did not know how I was going to tie in the moving tree with a sentiment. I had used 'Oh, Christmas tree, Oh, Christmas tree' two years ago , so I was still having a serious issue with the sentiment.   I was also anticipating the time factor. How long was it going to take me to make each one of these cards if I did not come up with a fully fleshed out idea and soon?   So, I mulled and I pondered and I searched my brain for a 'hook', a 'link' or a 'connection' but nothing was coming to fruition. What was I going to do?  Pressure, still on. "There will be no card design this year",  is what I began telling myself.  I had no other ideas in my pocket to pull out at the last minute to create the Annual 2011 Family/Friend Christmas Card Design.  I was disappointed and I had resigned myself , that there would be no card done this year and I went on living my day.

One day, about three weeks ago, in the evening, I was driving home from A.C.Moore after a couple hours there (love this store) and for one day I was unusually feeling on top of the world. "Why?", you might ask. Well, I did not know but I was certainly feeling awfully joyful.  At the same time.  I began to also think about my sentiment for my Christmas tree design. I was toying with the idea in my mind. It was not a stressful type of thought, but an inner calmness that came over me as the idea slipped right out of my head.  I was pulling up to a traffic light and it was as if I had known the idea all along and it innocently lit up in my mind. Bingo!!   The light bulb had gone off. 'Rockin' around the Christmas tree' popped right into my head.   Could there be a better sentiment/expression?  "I will make the tree 'rock" is what I thought as I continued my drive home.  And the rest they say is "history"!

I  wanted to tell this story to illustrate how you don't have to be a genius to come up with a great idea.  You just have to think about it when you are relaxed.  When you force an idea to come about , it does not allow for the mind to actively search through the enormous vault of thoughts, images, memories, etc..  As I have expressed above, I was demanding ideas to come out of my mind that I was not opening up to let the connections happen, smoothly and naturally.  It was when I was calm and also joyful, that I really made progress. I might also note that it was as if I was getting in my own way.  I said above,  "Let's go..." so just  'let go' and ideas will happen.

On Monday evening, my brother called me to tell me he received the card and it was 'the bomb'!   He said it made him feel so happy and it was awesome.  Can you get any better than that?