Winter Guy, Santa and Ellen

I live in a large suburb of Dallas that still has quite a bit of "little town" atmosphere.  Our local arts group puts on great live productions at the Uptown Theater - the old movie house on Main Street that has been renovated and reopened.  Thursday night my friend Liz and I went to see one of our favorite kiddos, Michael, on the opening night production of Miracle on 34th Street.  Dang, he was good and his mama, Amy, had found him the best (most authentic) costume for his role as Jake - a speaking part as he sat on Santa's lap. 

Of course I couldn't take photos during the show, and Michael pulled the hat with the ear flaps off as soon as he possibly could, but I did get a photo of him autographing Liz's program.  He has been dancing publicly since age 3 where he could be seen  performing to Greased Lightening (music in his mind, moves from John Travolta) during lulls in the action of his soccer games.  His Mom is the coach and she eventually taught him to dance only on the sidelines not on the field during the game.  Oh this kid is CUTE!

This is my winter guy inspired by Michael and his costume...

This uses a couple of new things from the Occasions mini catalog that will be available January 5.  One is the heart punch for the whites of the eyes.  Regular readers are used to seeing me use the smallest heart in the heart to heart punch for this - but the new Small Heart punch is even better for this - it gives you just a little more white showing so you can put the black part of the eye in different places and get more 'expression'.

The other new item I used is the solid stripes stamp which will be sold as a single stamp (not in a set).  It is just what the name says - solid stripes.  For this jacket I wanted a subtle plaid effect so I stamped bravo burgundy onto red with this new stripe stamp but I stamped it again with the stripes running the opposite direction.  Ummmm,  I think you will be seeing me use this stamp and this punch a lot!

Here is a photo of the hat in progress so you can see how to make it...

Wide oval punched on the edge of the paper to get flat bottom - then I just snipped up both sides with scissors to get the angle you see here

Flaps are small ovals punched on the edge of the paper to get flat "inside" edge. 

Hat brim is small oval snipped with scissors (actually I just picked up a random scrap from my desk but you might not have the same mess I do)  I put the brim on a bit of dimensional to adhere it.

Sponging info - I am no artist so I can't tell you how to sponge and highlight your pieces the "right way".  My sponging is usually so you can distinguish one piece from another  - like seeing the sleeves against the plaid jacket.  I usually just go around the whole item - but on these sleeves I decided the inside of the elbow would be darker. I guess it works - but however you add sponging, it will give your punched characters more depth so play with it and when you figure out the "right" way please come back and teach me!

At the Miracle on 34th production you could have your picture taken with Santa so....here I am with one of my best punch characters in real life!

See my new bifocals? I like 'in your face' readers so I got 'in your face' glasses too. Not so sure I like how I look with them but I sure like how I SEE with them.