Rudolph Day - May 2015 - Vintage Santa

Hi Again. Gosh, 2 posts in one day (and who knows I might yet get one more in later tonight? After such a dry spell as I had, I feel like I'm really on a creating roll! Don't get too excited, it won't last long! LOL). Also have some pretty cards I've been blessed to receive from some super talented bloggers, which I will photo and share soon.

The Rudolph Day Challenge for May 2015 opened May 25 and still has 4 days to run, so I  hope you'll find time to make a Christmas card, get a head start on having plenty of holiday cards ready by December 25, and have fun while being in the running to perhaps win a nifty die.

Off we go:

- LaBlanch image stamped with Versafine Sepia on white Copic Xpress paper. Used Bonnie's Best Speedball Stamp Press to get a good inking. I've not always had the best success with getting a good sharp image with several of these LaBlanch silicone stamps. They are certainly lovely though, when it does stamp out clearly; this one is a fairly large stamp, and the press helped get a crisp image of this very detailed stamp. Decided to color with the Polychromos pencils. When using Copics, I usually know which markers will give me the color I'm attempting. Not that confident with the pencils, and especially for the flesh tones. Had to do some experimenting with colors to try to get Santa's face right and not have it look garish. On the holly, I started with a light turquoise base for some of the leaves, and then added different greens. Berries were given a base of red pencil, then used a Staedtler fine line pen to brighten them up, as just the pencil did not show up well.

Once the piece was 'done', background was much too white. Used Copics E41, E42 & airbrushed the background, keeping a bit of paper towel over Santa's face & beard as best I could. The beard has shades of light blue & gray toned pencil coloring over the shadows. As I see the photo, it looks a bit pale, but IRL it does look nice, I think, not garish. I did want the added holly to look brighter though, hence the copic marker coloring. Gold pen was added around the edges. Sentiment will be placed inside.

- white snippets for the PBlack holly die cuts were colored with copics.

- Design paper card front is from an Authentique 12x12 Christmas pack - several years old.

Off to join in with May 2015 Rudy Day and the Snippet Playground (weeks 178 & 179). Hope I have encouraged some of you lovely readers to jump right in and join us. There's a pretty nice prize on offer at the Playground too. Big Hugs & many thanks for visitin' today.