CASE STUDY: It's the Small Comforts That Matter

 A sweet chipboard mousy peers out from one of the cards made for Mark to send to his loved ones this year.

Season's Greetings, Paper Foresters! Popping in to share the fun of this year's handmade Christmas card making, from concept to into-the-mail. Not only did I make our usual limited edition of 100 but this year for the first time also made up an additional series, with slight variations, of 35 for my card-making cohort, Mark Fullerton (the great guy with a laser beam that cuts any kind of card or paper!) So he could have cards to send himself instead of just generously helping me make mine each year.

This design began with a box of chipboard someone was getting rid of who thought I might like to use it.  Viva la repurposing! Eco chic! Without knowing how, I started in by quickly drawing a simple mouse character in white paper and crudely crushing and folding him to fit inside a tiny woolen mitten for the "Take Comfort in Small Things" concept. (see photo on left)

These rough fold experiments became my guide in the digital file while making a dieline to send to Mark and his laser cutter. (see center photo). I wanted the character to fold up from a single plane into as much shape and attitude as possible with just a few simple cuts and scores. I changed his eyes from ovals to paisley shapes and bent his pointed nose downward for example. I emailed the finalized file to Mark along with mailing a stack of the cardboard to test. He sent the photo on the right showing how the tail extends beyond the card size. I explained the tail would be shaped to fit as the mouse was folded into 3-dimensions.

For a wintery demonstration of how the folding looks after I'd had about 20 to practice on...

I made hay while Mark was busy lasering the stacks of card mice by carving a rubber address area stamp to decorate the small brown paper bags I bought to mail the cards in. I took the same mouse art as the dieline to add a small line drawing of the little guy to the packages as a foreshadowing of the character inside. The bags were stamped with a mix of white paint and acrylic flex gel. The meece noses were touched with pink paint, and later all the eyes were dotted with a black marker and made to look sideways at the return addresses. Cute!

I then turned my attention to creating the hoards of thick woolly mittens (for our cards) and little woven stockings (for Mark's). All fabrics were found at the fabulous Mood Fabrics LA where what I  came out of the store with was worlds away better than what I came in there to get. I actually found real linen, woven wool and cashmere in rich holiday tones that were perfect for the homey idea without my having to spend a year weaving the cloth for these myself!

It took me a while to get a system down for churning out consistent little mittens, the thumbs were the trickiest bit to work out, but once I hit the groove, I could whip up a batch of 30 in a few hours. But you realize, that only left me over 100 more to go!

Once the stack of flat laser cut mouse cards arrived, and all the mittens were made, then the task of assembly and finishing began. I wanted a humble message at the top of the card that suggested itself to be like a fortune from a fortune cookie to match the card style. I used my inkjet printer to print out the message onto thin, crisp, crinkly food wrapper paper bought from a restaurant supply and trimmed out the strips of words. These were then sewn with tatting thread in little x's at the top by hand. I had placed the 8 tiny little holes into the dieline file to make this step easier to get through the cardboard. It took me a while to work out how to align the strips with the holes (answer: use a bright light) and to finish fast and neat without having to take the time to make knots on the backs. (see photo on right)

It all came together in the end as each sweet friend was painted, blushed, folded, sewn into his mitten, slipped into the hand-decorated bag, sewn shut and sent on their way! Always the best part.

Last year, a Paper Forest Reader asked how she and her family could get on our holiday card list in the comments. So--we sent them one this year! (Hi, Melissa & Tim in Australia!). It was so fun giving a card to someone who loves paper and handmade things, I've had the thought to pick one person from the Forest each year, if you're up for it?

I have no idea what next year's card will be, but if you'd like to receive one, just make a comment on this post or contact me via email. (I wouldn't cry if anyone else wanted to put the Paper Forest on their handmade card list either! I'll share!)

 In the meanwhile, here's a big wish from here that you stay safe, well, and appropriately warm all through the winter.