I wanted to share with you the final sets of art cards for the Winter solstice swap Michelle and I agreed to do. Winter is a time of year when the days are shortest and the nights are longest. The first day of Winter came just a few days before Christmas, so I took advantage of the opportunity to make a “gift card” for my partner as well as to illustrate a winter solstice star.

Here’s the adorable set I received from Michelle which makes me smile! Now I have the urge to try making mulled wine.

This officially concludes our year of art cards! I have to confess that I already miss this tiny form of art and expression as well as the weekly routine. Our Flickr group, with contributions from Michelle and Sandra, is full of a variety of art, capturing wonderful illustrated life experiences from the past year.

I finally made my last set of art cards for the year! Yes, this was week 52 of making a set of art cards.

Making these cards was all about New Year’s. We usually don’t do anything wild and crazy on New Year’s Eve, but I still like to make our little party festive with decorations and fun new appetizers and champagne.

I have always wanted to improve my handwriting, so I thought it would be a fun challenge to play with typography on my very last card to shout out Happy New Year!

Our Flickr group has been a great place to see the art Michelle and Sandra have been creating over the past year. I have also created a page on the top of my blog, which is fun to scroll through.

I can’t tell you what a great feeling it is to have this amazing collection of art cards, two each week and sometimes a couple extras because I was struck by inspiration. So cool to look back on!

My time last week was filled with working a big commissioned sewing project and making gifts, so I thought it would be fun to illustrate my sewing machine and a stack of presents.

I spent a majority of my days at the sewing machine. (BTW, my sewing machine isn’t really orange. It’s just a fun color to illustrate with.)

It felt great to get so much accomplished, especially the week before Christmas.

Thanks to Michelle for the awesome glitter pens! They worked perfectly to make my gift illustrations shine and shimmer.

I’m not quite caught up on shopping for and wrapping all the gifts we are giving, so I have a little more work to do this week.

Stop by our Flickr group to see the art Michelle and Sandra have been creating over the past year. Only a couple sets of cards left to make!

I got to spent a lot more time at home last week week, laying low, which was awesome.

I kept quite busy, finishing a few handmade Christmas gifts, finishing my quilting bee quilt top, and finishing a couple more little handmade projects, all while I was supposed to be working on commissioned work. (oops, shh!)

I also got to spend time with my mom last week, helping her with some shopping and enjoying girl time. I thought it would be cool to honor her with an art card.

We will still adding pictures of our art cards to our Flickr group for just four more weeks. Then I have to figure out what weekly or monthly project I want to work on next year, which could be tricky since I’ll have a full load of classes again. I’m sure I will dream up something challenging and creative.