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One of my many favorite sayings is “(insert any destination) or Bust”.  Maybe because I’m a Californian and fondly remember learning in school about the California Gold Rush with prospectors risking everything to travel West to find their fortunes.  I say it whenever possible (it really annoys my kids) especially when we’re on a roadtrip, “Santa Cruz or Bust”, “Newport or Bust” even “College or Bust” or “Whole Foods or Bust”. It was natural for me to include “2017 or Bust” as part of our journey to the new year.

The design clearly had to be travel, transportation or vehicle oriented.  It would be fun if this vehicle wrote a word in the snow like tire tracks.  I just didn’t know what word yet.  Hmmm, what would Santa write?  Joy of course since he’s on a Joy Ride!  I don’t think kids say this anymore, probably because they don’t do it, thank goodness!  When I was younger you could actually go on a joy ride (not that I ever did) and not get arrested for it.  Today the consequences would be very different.

Now I needed an artist willing to whip up a design just 18 short and frazzled days before Christmas.  When thinking of a card design to match this theme I recalled Gerda Steiner’s adorable Teamwork card depicting Santa and holiday friends pulling on a rope towing Santa’s gift laden sleigh.  I liked the idea of Santa’s sled breaking down but the show must go on.

I had a few family photos to choose from but I knew the one with my three girls in the snow would work best.  Apologies to Nasser and Thumbelina for not making it on the card this year!  And of course I always have the longest inside verse ever which makes space challenging and extra care to mind the fold line.

 

When Mindy contacted me, if I would consider to design the Christmas Card for her and her family, I was quite thrilled. It was already the beginning of December which worked out great because there was no time to procrastinate. lol! 

Mindy mentioned in her email that she pictured a ‘Joyride’ theme and a Santa on a Scooter was instantly grooming so loud through my mind that I had to sketch a rough drawing of that guy right away. A rough sketch that I sent to Mindy to see if we’re somewhat on one page and luckily she seemed to like where I was going. Yippee …  did not have a plan B! Mindy had a couple of more ideas and suggestions for  the outside of the card so that we finished that part first. For the inside of the card she sent the inside verse and a picture of her lovely daughters and I made sure to keep the inside in the same color theme as the outside. We added two pictures from two Greeting Cards that I’ve posted on GCU a while back and the inside of the card filled up rather fast. The picture that Mindy provided was actually perfect, as the ‘girls’ are sitting in the snow and it was easy to change the background to the cartoon style background. The inside verse was quite a lot of text and I had to choose a rather small font and due to the text amount and size one that was fairly easy to read. It all worked out in the end and I thank you Mindy for the opportunity to design those Christmas Cards for you and your family. 😉