But then I got a special request from one of my customers for a Christmas card with my Gila Woodpecker on a Saguaro image on it. So I finally had to get my act together and create borders and a layout for holiday season greeting cards.

At first, I thought I could just find some seasonal clip art and use it to make a festive border around the images on my birding note cards. Since my first cards would depict birds in the desert, I wanted borders that would be distinct for the American Southwest desert. But the longer I looked for green or red desert Xmas clip art, the more I realized there wasn’t much out there. Besides, the clip art I did find was either too cartoonish, or didn’t match what I had in mind. I didn’t want some hokey saguaro cactus with Christmas lights, or cartoon roadrunners. Which made me realize I was going to have to go through my own images to find something that I could make Christmasy for the borders of my birding Xmas cards.

Fortunately, I have an extensive library of images to pick from, and so I was able to find what I wanted. I found mesquite leaves in my Vermilion Flycatcher in Mesquite image, which happens to be a first-place winner in the Arizona Game and Fish 2009 Calendar Contest. And I found branches of red berries in my Hermit Thrush with a Berry, another award winner and a favorite of my customers. After some cutting and pasting and hours of trying and retrying different layouts, I came up with two Christmas card border designs – one with berry-laden branches of pyracantha in the corners and mesquite leaves along the sides, and one with larger mesquite leaves in the corners and simple red lines. I think you’ll like them. I’ll be working on more border designs and will (hopefully) get them done before the next holiday season…