Lino Printed 2021 Xmas Cards – trying something new

     Hello everyone, how’s it going?

     As you know from my previous post, I struggled with being creative in 2021 and that really showed when it came to making Christmas cards. I make my mum Christmas cards every year for her to send to people and I’d usually have them made by mid-October at the latest but it was mid-November and I hadn’t even started them so I needed something simple to do to get them done in time.

      But I also had the urge to try a new craft – a.k.a. finally use that lino printing kit I got in 2018. Okay, it’s not trying an entirely new craft. I have actually done lino carving before but that was probably in art class when I was 13 and in 1st year of secondary school, so quite a while ago!

      I’m not very good at carving though so I settled on the designs above by browsing Pinterest looking for lino cut inspiration that looked easy enough to replicate. The bear design was inspired by an image I stumbled across that reminded me of the kinds of cards I’d get in primary school to give to school friends (this image) and the deer one was inspired by a lino image I just really liked the look of (this image). The robin was my own design. It would have been nice to come up with more original designs and not just almost copy images I found but I just liked those images and it made me happy carving them and these were just for personal use rather than selling.

     They are separate lino prints but I did try make them into a set of cards by adding some red to each one for a pop of colour. I used my Derwent Inktense paint for that and I really like the effect of it.

     The bear was particularly fun because I painted all the scarves red and when that had dried I doodled over using a white Sakura gel pen to make different patterns. I made each one different too so some are simple stripes while others have a lot more shapes. It was a little time consuming but relaxing to do while sitting in bed watching YouTube.

     So those were the Christmas cards I created for the 2021 holidays. Quite different to my usual style but the medium and my skill in it definitely influenced that. What do you think of them and have you tried lino carving before?

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