Cards on sale soon

Councilwoman Toni Iseman has fulfilled a longtime dream by creating boxed cards using past designs from the city’s annual Palette Competition.

The cards, the proceeds from which will benefit a local nonprofit organization, will be available soon at several local shops.

Iseman, who was recently reelected to the City Council, said she has suggested having the palettes reproduced on holiday cards for years.

She finally took on the project herself and now has 2,000 boxes of cards on order, which will be available at stores like Tuvalu, Hobie and the Montage Resort & Spa gift store. The Montage provided the seed money for start-up costs, which will go back into a fund to allow for the production of additional cards in future years.

Profits will benefit the Sawdust Art Festival’s Artists’ Benevolence Fund, which provides grants to any Laguna Beach artist in times of severe need.

Past grants have helped landslide victims and those afflicted with life-threatening diseases.

Iseman worked with community members including Jeanette Heartwood; Greg O’Laughlin, who photographed and touched up the digital images of the palettes; and Ron Geisman, who designed the cards.

They pored through several years’ worth of palettes, finally settling on two boxed sets of four designs, three die-cut cards per design. They will sell for about $20 for a box of 12.

The back of each card will feature the artist’s contact information; the inside will be blank.

“It was much more complicated than I ever anticipated,” Iseman said. “If somebody told me how hard it was going to be, I wouldn’t have believed them. It takes a maniac to get this sort of thing going.”

That said, Iseman is now looking for someone to take over the project in the future.

“I know it will never be this hard again” now that the groundwork is laid, she said. “But I need somebody who will shepherd this project, which is a big deal.”