The theme was supposed to be JOY, and though that word is a good one, when it comes to religious overtones it has a bad vibe for me. Back when I was a juvenile fundamentalist, some masochistic individual in my parents' church decided that JOY was an acronym for "Jesus-Others-Yourself." That hierarchy haunted me for many unproductive and self-effacing years. So when it came up for this prompt, I decided to turn joy into joyous, and follow it up with yule, with which no one seems to have a problem even though it's pagan and not Christian, mainly because all it brings to mind is a nice cozy fire. (The "yule" was also prompted by my first idea for a card, which was, naturally, a pun.)
These card "designs" were a good exercise in lack of planning for me. Some people got really elaborate, but I decided that I would allow these to be spontaneous and unique, and I would do them as and when I found time. I did prioritize the three that were going out of state, and did the ones closer to home a little later.
Here is one that I couldn't resist for my new penpal in Australia:
This one below went to Salzburg, Austria (each of those trees was made with one continuous pen line)...
And this one to Victoria BC, Canada.
This one went to Tacoma, Washington...
This one to Marietta, Georgia...
And this one, fulfilling the obvious cliché, to Los Gatos, California!
I hope all the recipients enjoyed them as much as I did making them. I did fancy envelopes too, but neglected to scan them, because they featured people's full names and addresses and I didn't think that would be appropriate. But they know who they are!
