Santa's R & R

Whoo hoo, this one tickled me! I had so much fun making it and thinking of Santa's sweet little vacation at the beach after the stress of the Christmas season. Notice that I gave him a bit of a tanned belly and a belly jewel! But I don't think he used enough sun screen because his nose and bald head is lookin' a little sunburned.













This card is built on a shell of Tempting Turquoise and then a layer of last summer's Basic Grey Euphoria designer paper. I went around the edge of the BG paper with Stickles for a little bling. Then I embossed a layer of Pretty in Pink with the D'vine Swirl CB embossing folder, topped with another layer in Rose Red. The top layer is watercolor paper. Each double layer was machine stitched. I stamped Santa and the palm tree once with my stamps inked once with Versamark and then inked with Basic Black. With that combination, I clear embossed the images. Then I stamped them both again on scraps, watercolored them, cut them out and layered them on top of the previously stamped images. They were each popped up with craft foam. I freehand watercolored the beach and the ocean and applied a bit of Stickles to the crests of the waves for sparkle. Santa's beard and the puffy clouds are liquid applique. I painted the entire palm tree with a mixture of Simple Solutions Solution #2 Medium and a small amout of LuminArte Metallic Mica Luster Pearl. When it dried, it gave the tree a nice shimmer. I also used some Crystal Effects on the bulbs of the Christmas lights strung on the palm tree. The Warm Wishes sentiment was clear embossed having been inked with Versamark and Tempting Turquoise classic ink. I notched the edges of the "sign" to make it resemble a bamboo sign that you often see at the beach. Then I painted the whole sign with more of the LuminArte Metallic solution and then went around the edges with Stickles. The stocking and contents were also watercolored with my SU classic pads and painted with the LuminArte Metallic solution. The hanger is just a bit of brass colored wire that I coiled around a round toothpick to make the coil.

Here's to wishing Santa a relaxing R&R on South Beach!