Every year I send out a special Christmas card. I am really too practical for the whole idea of Holiday cards, to be honest. I hate to think that I spent all that time and money buying cards, writing imessages, mailing them, only to have them thrown away on Jan 1st. So, to help myself deal with the odd custom of sending out holiday cards, I only send cards that I can fool myself into thinking people will keep and get some use out of. Usually I make a holiday bookmark with pictures of the kids and send them out as cards. I tell myself that its practical and sentimental. Maybe I am wrong, maybe people still throw them away, but at least I feel better.
I make the bookmarks on a Print Shop program, nothing fancy. I import some pictures, add a border. For the backside I usually write a few family news items, sort of like an abbreviated Holiday Newsletter. I put the pieces front to back and run them thru my laminator (yes, I have a laminator). Punch a hole in the top, add a ribbon, plop in an envelope and its done. Not as hard as it seems. I have done it for Valentine’s Day and “Just Because” in the past too.
This will be my 5th or 6th year, so I am running out of cute ideas. Plus, we keep having more kids, so its getting hard to squeeze all their pictures on the bookmark (hahaha). But, more importantly, the kids are old enough now to help me design the bookmark. Hoping for some quality input, I announced an Art Contest the other night.
Contest? Did someone say Contest? That brought Geetle running. God love her competitive personality. To be honest, I was playing right into her hand. I knew she would be the only enthusiastic entrant and I knew she would come up with something I could use. She is beginning to make some great creative drawings. I asked all the contestants to draw a holiday scene and I would judge the winner. Before I finished my sentence, Geetle was digging for markers. When she heard that I was offering a prize of $1 per year of age for the winner, she nearly fainted.
She made 4 entries in 30 minutes. As she finished, I already knew that her second drawing was my winner. Its very cute and perfect for a bookmark. (I will show you when I design the card in a few weeks). Pookie did not want to draw, but he loves his Mother, so he cranked out 2 entries. His were very good, but not quite print quality. I did, however, save one of his non-Holiday drawings for another project I have in mind. Giggles scribbled on a Christmas Tree I drew for her. Again, it was cute, but not a winner. BAGD played along and tried very hard to win a $34 prize with his drawing of a perfectly round Santa Claus. I entered a sorry looking Gingerbread Boy.
Later, when I judged the contest, I pretended to seriously consider the Gingerbread Boy as the winner. Geetle held her tongue but later told me that in contests its not fair for the rule-maker to be the winner. Of course, I chose Geetle’s #2 entry as my winner and awarded her a $6 prize. She was ecstatic and immediately asked me to come up stairs and help her count her piggy bank (new total= $7.25).
I was happy to award the prize to such an enthusiastic entrant…and her drawing really was the best. I can’t wait to turn it into our Holiday Bookmark.
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What a good idea. She was so excited about it and mentioned it to me several times yesterday.
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