Watercooler Wednesday Challenge 146 - Kath's "All About Christmas" Challenge

Christmas is nearly here.  Just another month (and a couple of days) and it will be here.  I really do have to get my Christmas cards written.  Thank goodness, with the help of challenges like this, I've managed to make enough to send out.  Yay!  This week Kath is hosting our "All About Christmas" challenge.  And wouldn't you know it--I had a little "whoopsy" with this card.

It all began when I decided to use the gorgeous Father Christmas stamp set.  I had a scene in my mind and hoped I could recreate it in a card.  Father Christmas is such a wonderful image.  He's nothing like the modern Santa Claus.  This image is more European--older--wiser--probably less jolly.  I wanted him out in the snow, among trees.  Now I have quite a number of tree images available among my shelves of Stampin' Up! stamps but what I had in mind was more along the line of those trees for which we only have framelits--the ones from the Carols of Christmas bundle.

Well, rather than mope around wishing, I decided I would use those trees and proceeded to cut them out from a rectangle of Whisper White.  That piece became my mask (stencil).  After I had stamped Father Christmas, I used the stencil to place the trees and used my Aqua Painter and some Old Olive ink to get the shapes in place.  After that it was easy enough to layer my greens to create the trees.  I used my Aqua Painter and a variety of my inks to colour in Father Christmas and also to give a wash to the sky as well as shadows on the snow.  The only areas not Watercoloured were the pocket watch and the trumpet.  Those two were coloured with the retired Silver Stampin' Dazzle and the retired Gold Wink of Stella respectively.

Yes, Father Christmas is wearing a Fresh Fig coloured fur-lined robe.  The European Father Christmas is not your jolly red and white Santa Claus.

For the inside I decided to add a piece of Fresh Fig to the base Heavy Whisper White and then added two rectangles of Whisper White to that.  One has the images while the other bears the greeting.

I hope you'll check out the wonderful creations by the other Watercooler Artists at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.

I'm also entering my card into the CAS Watercolour Challenge which is all about Holidays.

And finally I'm adding my card to the Addicted to Stamps and More Clean & Simple Challenge.

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I said earlier in this post that I had a little "whoopsy" with this card.  Well there is a bit of a story which goes with that.  Some years back when we were still living in British Columbia and my parents were alive, my daughter and I created a special Christmas present for them.  The face and hands are porcelain while the rest is wire structure and clothing which I designed and sewed.  It took us a while but my parents loved it.  When they passed on, the piece came to me.  And in time it will go on to my daughter.  It means a lot to both of us.

So one of the first things I had done when designing this card was to stamp and fussy-cut a reindeer from the Nature Sings stamp set.  After that I had water-coloured the image and set it aside.  Well, if you look at the card front, you'll be struck by the absence of that very reindeer.  Did I lose it?  No, I did not.  It is safely lying precisely where I put it.  The thing is that when I finished the card up to the point where you see it posted above, I loved the way it looked and totally forgot all about the reindeer.  It wasn't until I told my daughter about the post I had scheduled and about the card which I designed because of the piece we had created, that I remembered that poor missing reindeer.  And so here is the alternate version of the card.  The reindeer is only barely holding on--I didn't properly adhere him.  I can't decide which way I want the card to look now.  What do you think?

I'm entering the reindeer version into the Cardz 4 Guyz Challenge which is all about Reindeer.

And finally I'm adding this card to the Retro Rubber Anything Goes Challenge.  The Father Christmas stamp set was released in the 2016 Holiday Catalogue, over a year ago.