Rockin' Santa

Well I faced an interesting pair of challenges this week that I was determined to combine with one card. The first challenge by Daring cardmakers was to use a Father Cristmas image and this week they have a prize to go for kindly donated by Crafty Emmas Store. The second challenge from Bah! Humbug! was to make a card for a teenager. Now many of you will say that teenagers and Santas don't mix, but in my household they did. I had five boys who all loved the traditions we had, including a very well decorated tree which among other things, carried the memorabilia of many happy nursery school 'makes'. We also had at least three Nativity scenes on various ledges, sitting happily alongside snowmen and Santas. You get the picture? Now by their teenage years, my boys had no illusions left about who played 'Santa', but they still expected a stocking on Christmas morning, one of which had to contain a new pair of drumsticks and another a full set of guitar strings! One of my sons is a drummer in a heavy metal band, one plays the piano, guitar, saxaphone and sings, two are into playing vinyl, and the fifth is now a vicar who still likes his music loud and heavy, so most cards I make for them feature music somewhere. Hence the Rockin' Santas on my card. My teenage boys would have loved this, partly because I had 'tuned in' to what interests them.

So how did I do it. Well, these are not your usual images. So I started with a SeeD stamp of Santa and stamped him and coloured him with copic markers. Then I cut him out. I had some pictures of guitars from a birthday kit I purchased a while ago from www.craftuprint. I used the computer to make it the right size, printed it and cut it out. Then I just had to bend Santas arm a little so it looks as though he is playing (in his mitts!). The drummer was a bit more difficult but eventually I came up with this copyrite free clipart picture of him in his workshop, making toys. He was in the right position but it took a bit of fiddling around in my photo editer to turn his hammer into a drum stick, and remove the toys from his bench and lap. I had the drum kit picture in the same card kit as the guitars so I made that into a transparent layer and pasted it on top of the Santa picture, resizing it until it looked about right. I added a deeper red to Santas waistcoat, decoupaged both images and added some sparkle with irridiscent glitter.












The tree in the centre is another SeeDs stamp, the writing is computer generated using a font called Grunge! purchased from scrapnfonts, and the music across the top is paper lace from a Christmas pack by Woodware.

I am entering this card for :
Bah! Humbug! Challenge 23; "Whateva" - A card for a teenager.
Daring Cardmakers Challenge: Use a Father Christmas image.
Crafts and Me Challenge 38: Stamp something.
Fabs Big Christmas Card Challenge for June:Christmas Sentiment.
Christmas Cards all the year round June Challenge: Anything goes.