Christmas in July--A Partridge in a Pear Tree

I'm working on a new series of Christmas designs in keeping with my current shop theme of menagerie.  I've decided to limit the series to the first four days of the Twelve Days of Christmas--the partridge, the turtle doves, the French hens, and the calling birds. These will be printed as luxe cards on metallic stocks with gold envelopes and liners.  I'm pretty excited about how they will look in the end...Christmas is definitely the time for luxurious things. Here's the first day.  Because he's the root of all of the gifts, I've nestled him within a pear tree and a pear and holly mirrored border.   Enjoy!

"The First Day of Christmas" Pencil Copyright 2011 Jessica Boehman

Hedgehogs in a Briar

"Two Hedgehogs (For Jackie and Sam)" Pencil 2011 Copyright Jessica Boehman

This is a design that I originally made for my former college roommate's thank you card for her wedding.  I modified it to be its own design.   I've been playing in my head with this idea for a while and I was glad to realize it for a friend.  I've been working with mirroring and knotwork since college, when I worked on my senior concentration.  The combination of hedgehogs and wildflowers is a motif common in Finland, where she now lives, but I modified it to have personal meaning as well.  I used roses, fiddlehead ferns and blackberries, all of which appeared in my own wedding bouquet.  I quite fancy this one.