Here Comes Santa Jaws

Hello, Tallie here. So we're now in the third month of this year and I feel it's time to start making a dent in my required Christmas cards stash. I am starting out with good intentions this year and starting early so I don't leave it until the last minute (something that inevitably happens every year)!

As soon as I saw the Avery Elle Santa Jaws set I knew I had to get it! I have relatives who are shark crazy (I even sewed up some shark themed PJs as pressies last year) so this is perfect for some punny Christmas cards! This first card is set in the ocean deep, with Jaws here making the long and lonely trip to acquire the family Christmas tree. He's singing along to some Christmas carols, so the bubbles are illuminated by the lights...

I stamped the fun little shark delivering his tree onto the centre of some blending cardstock in some Lawn Fawn Jellyfish ink. This is perfect for some no-line colouring with some of the lighter colours. Of course, I chose my Copic markers to colour the scene in!

As usual, I started out with the background, creating a gradient from the edge with some blue markers. This little guy has some bright tree lights on his back so the water around him would glow, so there would be a lighter halo-type glow effect around him. Don't ask me how it is physically possible to light up tree lights in the ocean deep - it's a Christmas card! :)

I then coloured in the shark, tree and lights, making sure to use a lighter yellow marker and coloured pencil to bring in a bit of reflective light from the bulbs.

For the bubbles, I used my Colourless blender to 'wick' away the darker colour in small, circular spots. I then took some dark blue and white pencils to accentuate the shadows and highlights in 'C' shapes around the bubble.

The final touch was to white heat emboss the punny sentiment to the right underneath the shark. It's best to do this after the ink has dried, otherwise you can a) ruin your marker nibs and b) run the risk of the ink staining your embossing.

Just a small reminder from me to start to attack your Christmas card pile earlier than perhaps last year! :)

Thanks for reading, catch you in a couple of weeks!