No to the Nutcracker!

Back in October I started on a project, as one of the live briefs for ABSPD Ultimate Portfolio Builder course. This one was for Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine who asked for a set of Christmas stamps and papers. They were particularly interested in the theme of The Nutcracker ballet but were happy to look at other Christmas themed collections.

I found out last week that my work wasn't picked up which on one hand sucks because I really worked hard on this project...on the other hand I can now share it with you and do what I like with it!

Someone very recently told me that if you are going to make it in this business you have to be ok with 'No', people that you want to work with aren't always going to want to work with you, and that's ok too. I'm really happy with how everything came together...check out some of the sketches I did for the project below. I hadn't really drawn anything like this before so I'm quite proud of myself. It was an interesting challenge to work on characters and a seasonal motifs...



Working on poses for the Sugarplum Fairy

 

Most of the Nutcrackers I found actually looked quite scary
so I tried to make mine more friendly looking.

 



I ended up doing over 20 pages of drawings



Working on the Sugarplum fairy in Illustrator.

The final main pattern.

Snowflakes

 

 

Christmas Trees

 



 

I wanted to use a colour palette that was pretty and a bit different but incorporated those frosty, Christmas tones so I went with a mixture of teals, pinks and greens and tried to use both light and dark backgrounds to add some variety to the collection.

I'm really pleased with how it all turned out. I hope you like it too. Maybe next year some of the designs will make an appearance as wrapping paper? I might even start working on some cards to add to the collection...watch this space!