December Newsletter
- Rachel Nieman
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Happy December, My Nutty Nutcrackers!!!!!!
I am absolutely flabbergasted that 2025 is coming to an end!!
But, I truly am so in awe at what all I have accomplished this year. I'm definitely still adjusting to moving at a slower pace with a little one in my life, but I'm slowly starting to embrace it. I'm trying to work more intentionally since my work time is limited compared to my pre-baby days. But I tend to have bigger eyes than my stomach can handle. I make a list at the beginning of the year for goals, priorities, and whatnot, and this year I tried to make it smaller. I didn't hit all my goals, and some priorities needed to shift with some life changes, BUT I'm really happy with the number of things I crossed off. One of those things was getting some Nutcracker art up in the shop!! AND I did just that!!! So, for my December post, I thought it would be super cute and super fun to show you some behind-the-scenes pics of this little number coming together.
Let's dive in!
So, I started with a sketch of the main characters on watercolour paper, so that I could paint them all by hand. I wanted them to be cute and quirky....my vibe if you haven't guessed.
I started off with the Nutcracker, Clara, and the Mouse King
Adding in some other characters like The Queen, A Soldier, and of course, the kinda creepy Uncle.
My ultimate goal with this Nutcracker artwork was to create a pattern, so I needed to add in some Christmas-y spot illustrations to complement the characters.
After finishing the illustrations, I scanned them all into Photoshop. I edited the pieces and separated each and every piece into separate layers so I could arrange them all into a cute little pattern. This was a longer and more tedious task if you can imagine. Here's a snippet of the pattern I made below.
After making the pattern, I wanted to make a couple of art prints and cards to complement it.
This helped make it a true collection!!
I came up with these art prints first, rearranging and adding more elements!
Next up was creating some cards to round out the collection and product offerings.
I wanted to feature the pattern and the characters. I really liked the pink border in the first print, so I repurposed it on the cards.
Super cute, right?!?
I ended up making this into a card set on my Etsy shop, with two of each design.
Last up was to upload the pattern I created on Spoonflower so it's available as fabric and home goods!!!!
Here's a snippet of the fabric and two items you can purchase on Spoonflower with the pattern (A throw pillow and a tea towel!!)
You can see the fabric, pillow, and tea towel at the links below:
I'm seriously soooo happy with these cute little nutcracker illustrations!! I hope you enjoyed taking a little peeksie into how they were made. You can find the cards and prints in the link below. Hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season!!
See you in the next one,
Rachel
