Happy "moo" year!

It's the Year of the Ox (or Cow), and (one of) the cultural tradition(s) to which I adhere allows me until the end of this month to send New Year's cards. *sigh of relief* Finding New Year's cards is not so easy, especially those with the zodiac, so I kinda end up making my own.

[year of the rat cards]

Last year's cards were cutouts on origami paper.  I enjoyed the entire process, from conceptualizing to making a prototype to refining to executing.  However, they involved a lot of time with x-acto knife and glue.  A fun project, but intensely specific, insanely messy.

This year I wanted a project that was less time-consuming in the making.  I envisioned a cool, mod-looking, retro-ish design, paired with a clever saying...But do you ever have projects that look so good in your mind, but turn out horribly when you actually do it?  That's what happened to me on this year's cards. Check it out:

 

  

 

There go any dreams I ever entertained about being a greeting card designer.  And ohmygosh it took so long to draw that cut out that heifer stencil!  I am especially disappointed at how simply unpolished my end product looks.  There is absolutely no way I can send something like this out.

I am learning, though.  Whereas in years past I would have consoled myself by saying, "I'm sure it'll look better if there are more of them," and willed myself to keep going, I nipped the project in the bud this year and acknowledged my failure.  Then I hopped over to my local Michael's and, with the week's 40% off coupon, acquired a remedy.  At home tonight I pulled out some scrapbooking paper, ran it through the typewriter, inked up my stamp, snipped a bit with jagged-edge scissors, and ended up with these:

And I still have about two weeks to get these sent out--boo yah!  Or, rather, MOO yah!