The Keepsake Studio spoke with Hallmark Artist Tim Bodendistel about himself and shared a glimpse of an ornament he created for 2025.

Tim: “My journey is longer than most because I’m just starting my 30th year! Before I came to Hallmark, I worked in advertising art for about 10 years. The art there was a bit more commercial. I always loved Hallmark, and as my work slowly became more character-centric and fun, I thought Hallmark would be a terrific fit for me, so I applied and I got in. I didn’t even realize it at the time, but my portfolio included things like The Flintstones and Marvel and DC characters and other properties. I loved working on them but to me, they had been advertising clients.

So, when Hallmark asked me where I wanted to work, I asked where I would fit in best, and that led me to Licensing. When I learned I would get to work on all these properties I love, I thought wow, what a cool opportunity! In fact, I was only at Hallmark 2 weeks when they sent me on a trip to Disney. To be in a place working on properties that were so dear to me was just amazing—especially having the opportunity to be trained by Disney artists. Hallmark is one of the only companies outside of Disney that’s allowed to create original Disney artwork.
 
I’ve had the opportunity to go to the places where these properties were created and immerse myself in the properties and storytelling, and I just love it. I do non-property work as well and I love that too, but there’s just something about helping people connect back to their childhoods. In fact, one of my specialties became Winnie the Pooh to the point where coworkers were calling me Timmy the Pooh. What I love about Winnie the Pooh is it brings you back to the innocence of childhood. Like when you step into that world, you’re stepping back to before you had any of life’s pressures and it’s all about being with people you love and doing special things with them. The ability for properties to do that for you—to take you out of your life and bring you into a loving and imaginary world—is really special.
 
I’ve also focused on Innovation a lot while at Hallmark. I worked as an Innovation Art Director for a while and then about 10 years ago, I transitioned to fully focusing on creating 3D product. I’m full time in Keepsake Ornaments now, and I love working on 3D products because you get to hold them, you get to play with different materials and you to play with more physical storytelling. With a sculpt, you’re capturing a whole story in one pose. It’s been a lot of fun. And we do a lot of collaboration in the studio, which is great. I’ll do research and detailed sketches to get the poses right, and then I’ll pass it along to another artist that does the sculpt. It’s a team effort!”

Tim: “My biggest activity outside of Hallmark has been 27 years of being a scout leader. We do a lot of high adventures. In fact, we just got back from backpacking around England, Scotland and Ireland. But we’re not doing it fancy, we’re not staying in hotels. We’re connecting with other scouts in those countries. The greatest joy of these trips isn’t seeing the beautiful sights or the epic hikes we’ve done, and those are amazing. It’s when you get scouts from these different places together and see people from different worlds connecting. It teaches you that everyone is pretty much the same when you bring people together. Seeing that energy when kids connect and how much they want to get to know one another is really one of the biggest payoffs. Not to mention the fact that I just love mentoring youth. My scout group is the oldest, so I work with both boys and girls from ages 14–21. The trick for me is that as I get older, I must make sure I’m ready, because we hiked 130 miles on our recent trip!”

Tim: “I’d start with the Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown! Table Decoration. The thing that made it so fun was bringing part of their world to life. I love trying to tell a whole story in a single ornament, but when you get to create the whole stage and put people within that scene in the TV special, that’s magical. This piece was fun because of all the different ways they can talk to one another. As you combine them differently, they say different things to each other. Like, Charlie Brown and Linus will have one conversation, where Lucy and Linus would have a different conversation, and it’s fun to see them brought to life. It’s also in the little things we do. For example, the actual stage doesn’t have stage lights on it, but we added stage lights to give other dramatic lighting. And there are little things from the special like in the background, you see the rigging tied off and a stepstool and paint bucket. It’s those authentic pieces that we slip in there. Then the other trick—which is very similar to creating any ornament—is that you tell each character’s entire story in one pose. So, like, Charlie Brown is always a little bit dejected, Lucy’s always a bit of a curmudgeon and Linus is always optimistic. It’s fun to capture each of those personalities by creating their poses and expressions.

The North Pole’s Countdown to Christmas Ornaments and Book Set

Another one I really love is The North Pole’s Countdown to Christmas Ornaments and Book Set. We’re really trying to do things that are new and special for our Keepsake Ornament family and this set has the potential to start some meaningful Christmas traditions. I just had my first grandchild, she’s 3 1/2 months old, so I can see my son and daughter-in-law creating traditions with her with this set. It counts down the 12 days of Christmas and has a little story to go with it. I imagine hanging all the ornaments on the tree at once, with their numbers showing. Then you turn them over day by day to see a new character and read that part of the story in the book. Each character has their role, right down to the very last ornament, which is the bell, and that’s what lets Santa know where you are. These ornaments were inspired by classic Christmas tins, and one of our special secrets is that the ornaments open, so you could put little surprises in each one! And the idea of having this tradition where you put something special inside and you share this story and the tradition year after year—I really want to pass that along to my kids and grandkids.“

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown
Table Decoration