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I’ve discovered the secret to Dueling Thanksgivings!

You know, where you do it once on Thursday and then again with the other side of the family on Saturday?

All these years, I’ve been doing it wrong. Sick of turkey and turkey sandwiches by the time I get to the weekend.

Here’s my newly discovered secret:

Schedule the bad cook for Thursday, then host it yourself on Saturday.

We’re having good turkey today!

MARINATED CARDS

Some of you have been chipping away at your Christmas cards for weeks or even months now…

You stamped a bunch of images and as you find the time, you’re coloring them little by little. You’ll assemble them all next week.

Maybe you’re feeling sick of the project at this point.

I know the feeling.

See, I tell people I don’t make cards but the truth is, I did one massive card project.

Once.

Only once.

I hand-colored my wedding invitations way back in the 90’s— back when I was young and stupid.

Like you, I did them in phases. I drew the image and had 300 copies letterpress printed. I painted all the ribbons, then I painted all the roses, then I painted all the greenery, then I added the gold leaf…

Nightmares. I have nightmares even remembering it.

Anyway, I understand mass hand-production.

The feeling when you’re finally done is unbelievable.

But when it comes to Copic-colored cards, there’s also a massive benefit to production mode.

By the time you’re ready to assemble all the pieces, your marker coloring has been well marinated.

Marinating?

Oh yes. And marination is something we normally don’t do.

Did you know that your Copic projects look different today than they will next week?

Yep.

What you color today is not what you'll see tomorrow and what you see tomorrow will look better next week.

Especially if you’re working on high quality cardstock made for markers.

We call it the marination effect.

The inks take time to settle into the paper fibers and for the color to mature.

Colors get richer and the blends get blendier.

But there's also a psychological marination time which you need to be aware of.

Five minutes after you've colored something?

That's the absolute worst time to stuff it into an envelope and mail it off to Timbuktu or Kalamazoo.

Definitely don't frame anything five minutes old!

Think about it— you've had your nose hovering about four inches away from the project for hours. You know where all the oopsies are. You know where the blends are choppy and your eye heads straight to the little blue blob in the bottom left corner.

You’re an expert on everything you've done wrong.

When you look at fresh coloring, all you see is the bad stuff.

The OMGs, the goofs, and the could've-done-betters…

But something interesting happens when you tuck your project into a drawer for a few days.

Out of sight brings clarity of mind.

When you pull it out again, it’s better than you remembered.

And yes, it's due in part to the marination time for the inks. They're more mellow than they were before.

But it's also because you've also given your inner critic a rest.

You haven't been hyperfocused on the mistakes in several days, so the boo-boos don't seem as bad anymore.

Here's the other benefit to some away-time.

When everything is finally colored and you’re ready to die cut and assemble?

You’ll spot a bunch of weird things you missed.

Like the third button on Santa’s jacket that you somehow forgot to color. The one snowflake that you forgot to blend-out. The eyebrows on Mrs. Claus that you forgot to fill-in.

Letting your project marinate for several days gives you fresh eyes.

Fresh eyes are better able to find, fix, and improve your coloring before you give it away.

Me? I don’t do cards (except for the once)

But I still practice marination time.

I let projects sit on my desk for a week and if I can manage it, I’ll tuck ‘em in a drawer for a good part of that time. This is all before scanning and going public with them.

Things can change a lot in a week and it's always for the better!

When you’re knee deep in 32 half-colored reindeer,

It’s natural to wonder if production mode is worth it.

Maybe it’d be better to color the reindeer once and send out photocopies?

That’s neither here nor there to me. I’m actually pro-copy because there’s no way I could mass hand-produce the stuff I color now.

But no matter what you do…

Keep that buffer time— the two weeks of marination that would’ve happened while you were cussing at the die which doesn’t cut the E in MERRY as cleanly as it should.

Build in some marination before you seal and stamp ‘em.

Marination time adds flavor but it also prevents the embarrassment of missing eyebrows.