Where are you Christmas...

Hello friends!

I'm up on the Hello Bluebird blog with my final blog post for 2023. It's Christmas Eve so how could I not ink up the super adorable Christmas Eve set that released last month. With the way that Santa is holding up his lantern it made me think that he is looking for something, but what could he be searching for? I stamped one of the cute reindeer from the set behind Santa, so maybe he is looking for a wayward deer from his team that lost its way in the snow storm? The lantern also lead me to creating a night scene so I could really play up the contrast between light and shadow throughout this winter scene. To create the glow of the lantern light on Santa and the snow covered ground before him, it's all about coloring with a broad range of markers that go from very dark on the parts of his body that are furthest away from the lantern to very light on the parts that are closest to the light source. For the bright white spotlight of snow at Santa's feet I actually left a lot of the white card stock showing, using a very light yellow marker (Y000) to halo the white space and warm it up just a bit. Now, leaving that white is all fine and good but it won't make a big impact unless you pair it with dark colors too. That is why I chose to use dark blues and grey tones throughout the rest of this night scene to create the contrast that would make that light look like it is shining bright.  

While I was coloring the background I happened to be listening to Christmas music and one of my favorite songs came on to provide the final bit of inspiration that I was needing to finish this card. "Where are you Christmas", sung by Faith Hill, is one of those holiday songs that always hits me right in the feels and as soon as I heard that opening line I knew I wanted it to be the sentiment on this card. The only problem being, that isn't a sentiment that can be found on any of the current HB stamp sets... so it was time to get creative. I found the perfect scripty Christmas stamp in the Bold Holidays set and I was able to piece together the rest of the phrase using three different sentiments in the Typed Christmas set. Through careful inking and some white heat embossing powder, I was able to add the perfect sentiment to go with this little searching Santa. And what I love most of all is that it elevates the scene from Santa looking for a reindeer to something deeper and more touching. The idea that Santa himself is looking to find the true reason for the season is quite impactful I think.

A very merry Christmas eve to all who are celebrating today.  :)

 

Supply list:
cardstock- Papertrey Ink and Catherine Pooler
stamps- Hello Bluebird (Christmas Eve, Bold Holidays and Typed Christmas) 
ink- Memento rich cocoa and Versamark watermark
Hero Arts detail white embossing powder
My Favorite Things A2 stitched rectangle stax set 1
Sharpie extra fine white pen
Copic markers:
skin- E000, E00, E11, E04, R00, R20, Y000
beard- E41, W2, W3, W4, , W5, Y000
clothes- C1, C2, C3, W4, C4, C6, C8, C10, Y02, YR23, E47, R20, R22, R24, R27, R29, RV99, E55, E44, E47, E49, YG21, YG03, YG95, YG99, Y000
lantern- G07, G46, BG99, Y000, Y11, Y13, Y15
reindeer- E41, E42, E43, E44, E57, E74, E77, E79, T7
sky/trees- B97, B99, BV29
snow- C0, C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, B60, B91, B93, Y000