©Gartner Greetings

I illustrated and planned the subject matter for this religious greeting card collection called ‘Sharing the Faith’ from Gartner Greetings (an imprint of Gartner Studios ). It’s a beautiful collection that has a soft natural look, lots of textures and patterns and art that ties in nicely with its up-lifting verses. It’s a 40 card collection that I shared with another fabulous illustrator and was a joy to work on.

©Lesley Breen Withrow

Today I woke up to a ton of snow on the ground. What a surprise it was! Unfortunately, it turned over to rain and now it is a slushy mess. But, the snow has helped to put me in the holiday mood. Well, the snow and the Christmas tree we just put up! There are no gifts under it right now and I’m not sure if we’ll ever has as many gifts as those under the tree I illustrated. Ha! But that’s okay.

Here are some more of the cards that I designed for Expressionery.com. I got to create baby, engagement and birthday cards…some friendship cards too! It was fun because I got to round up some art that I had wanted to work with that I was “sitting on” for lack of a better term. I find that I have done that quite a bit. I have art that I like that is just waiting to be used but I don’t necessarily have an entire collection for…they are perfect for projects like this!

©Lesley Breen Withrow

What a beautiful day it is again here in New England! Here’s some art I created for a greeting card that reminds me of the wonderful weather we are having. I hope it stays like this for a little while longer.

Today is my daughter’s 4th birthday! We had a wonderful birthday party for her yesterday and she got all the Smurfs and My Little Ponies that she had been dreaming of! (Including Papa Smurf and Smurfette). It’s funny, because those are the same gifts I dreamed of getting back in the day. Gotta love retro!

©Lesley Breen Withrow

I’ve been busy creating greeting cards and so I thought I’d show a sampling of them. They are filled with my painterly textures and patterns. So much fun to make! (To see a close-up please visit Lesley’s blog)

©Lesley Breen Withrow

Are you ready to start your Holiday shopping? The MoMA just posted their 2009 holiday card line in their online store. The line includes two brand new cards conceptualized, illustrated, and engineered by Mary Beth Cryan.

“Light the candles” on this card throughout Hanukkah.

Hey, I recently saw a note card set that I illustrated of these cute little snails at my local Papyrus store! It was great to see it along with all of the other fabulous gift products they have. I love the boutique quality of their stores and products. So beautiful and inspirational.

For those of you not familiar with the Louies, the award is the “Grammy” of the Greeting Card Industry. It recognizes the most outstanding cards marketed in the previous calendar year.

Two of my cards were nominated by the MoMA and both cards were finalists in their categories. My “Bumper Sticker” card was a finalist in the category “Christmas/Holiday/Seasonal Boxed/Catalogue – Humorous above $1.25″. My “Urban New Year” Card won the Louie in the category “Christmas/Holiday/Seasonal Counter – General $3.00 and Below”.

I traveled to New York City last week to attend the award ceremony (and the National Stationery Show/Surtex show). It was an exciting night.

I am so thankful to the MoMA for giving me the opportunity to compete in this arena and obtain this career goal.