Christmas Card I Write...

This was the first year I decided to tackle the elusive 'Christmas Card'. I've made individual ones before for significant others and family before but had never branched out. This year, an idea came to me and I decided to run with it.


The concept: a quiet night in the museum. A tree stands out-of-place amongst the still forms. I have a peculiar love of taxidermy, dioramas and, as logic follows, Natural History Museums. I am not, however, a train-o-phile. That obsession must have skipped a generation.

A few folks (my mom, basically) thought I snapped a shot of a diorama at the AMNH and Photoshop'd in the tree. Here's some pictures to see what went in to my first official Christmas card and set the record straight...


The lions were bought at one of the only Toys 'R Us still in business. It took a whole day of driving around Brooklyn and Queens to find it (yes, I know... there's one in Times Square but I didn't want to trek all the way into Manhattan especially with the car). I have the most patient co-pilot EVER.


I spent a long time at the Toys 'R Us deciding what animals to use. The lions came in a 'family pack' and the cub offered a nice pose in relation to the tree. By the time I had finally decided, my co-pilot had complete re-organized the trashed section so that all the animals were now filed under their appropriate name (though we still aren't sure if we put the right cow under 'Holstein').


The Savannah tree was cut from a fallen branch pilfered off some church's yard in Red Bank, NJ. The tall grass, faux rocks and yellow 'earth' were purchased at various art/hobby shops.


The center-piece was bought from Ace Hardware through Amazon.com. For all my worrying that it wouldn't arrive in time it was the least stressful part of the project. It came already wired with lights and a battery pack, all I had to do was saw off some of the base to help it fit.


The wood was cut and stained while watching the Eagles destroy the Giants (maybe I should have cut and stained some more last Tuesday). Those pillars are a paper towel tube cut in half and painted. The floor texture and background 'painting' are images found off teh internets and printed at teh Staples.

The final card was printed twice, once at a terrible place called Paper Presentation Print on 18th and then again at an amazing place called Printicon, also on 18th. Make sure you go to the right one! I accidentally walked in to the first thinking it was Printicon and their terrible service cost me a day.

And for anyone looking to build their own dioramas, I found this user's Youtube videos extremely helpful as is his website, www.stormthecastle.com.