Monday 12 August 2013

The Spirit of Christmas Present


The theme over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is "make-the-cut", which is to say die cuts, whether that be with an electronic cutting machine or traditional dies.   Earlier this week I watched the old 1951 movie Scrooge.  I was struck by the fact that the ghost of Christmas Present is always presented as a bearded man with a crown of festive greenery on his head, and I decided that the time was ripe for a female re-interpretation!  I bought Tim Holtz's Festive Greenery die specially for this project, the first of his dies that I've bought.  I sense other purchases in the offing! :)

I started by stamping the face on a manilla tag and cut it out.  I used several copies of the hair from Tim's David stamp to "build" the hair that she was missing, colouring it (and her lips, eyes and eyelids) with forest moss distress stain.  Next I cut several copies of the festive greenery die and coloured them with Promarkers.  The flourishes were coloured with tarnished brass distress stain. I arranged the greenery in her hair and fixed it in place.

The Christmas carol was stamped with black Archival ink on white card with gathered twigs distressed edges.  I fixed the "ghost" in place and trimmed the whole thing down to a neat rectangle and then mounted it on my card.

I think she works just as well as the ghost of Christmas present as any man would, don't you?  In my family it's the women who seem to be the ones that do the most to make Christmas special so it's about time they got a bit of recognition! :)

Supplies I used included:

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher as the prize again this week, just make something for the challenge and you could the winner! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try? At the very least why not head over to the Challenge Blog to see how the other members of the design team have interpreted this weeks theme! :)

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19 comments :

barbarayaya62 said...

Your work is beautiful, it touched my heart! The face is fabulous and the crown of leaves absolutely fantastic! BArbarayaya

misteejay said...

This is fabulous Dan - such a lovely piece. The colours are beautiful and give that vintage feel to the finished piece - just lovely.

Toni xx

Sid said...

Looks very effective Dan !

Craft Addicts - Tracy Evans said...

I always love your interpretation of the theme Dan and your image looks fantastic surrounded by the crown of greenery. Love how you combined the stamps and the touches of green. Fabulous. Tracy x x

Trish said...

Your ghost of Christmas Past is a gorgeous piece of
Cad Art. Thanks for sharing this wonderful interpretation of that Classic. Her face is beautifully haunting!

Candy C said...

Dan...that creative brain of yours is clicking all the time...isn't it? :) I love how it works! Once again, you've taken the challenge, twisted it and given all of us such a cool and provocative piece. I love your idea of using Tim's beautiful lady from Classics 5 as the ghost of Christmas past. She's always had a haunting face and you've incorporated her into such a cool Christmas Carol inspired piece. Love it! <3 Candy

Wendy said...

This is fantastic .... now you need to complete the trilogy :-)

Anna-Karin said...

Fantastic idea and I love that crown of greenery. Great use of that die and the face stamp.

Scrapthat said...

Very nice work!! TFS Dan!

Redanne said...

She does work wonderfully well as the Ghost of Christmas Present, I love your innovative use of David's hair and the leaves created from Tim's die make a perfect topping. An inspired project! Anne

Meihsia Liu said...

what a fabulous work,Dan. Love the beautiful stamped image and the die cuts on the hairs are awesome! Thank you for sharing. :)

BarbaraW said...

Dan, I let out an audible gasp when I saw your work. It is awesomely gorgeous. Wow!

email: Steph@SimonSaysStamp.com said...

Cool FEMALE "Ghost of Christmas Present", Dan! Fantastic interpretation, but, are you really watching Christmas movies already? ;)

*mwah*
Steph
Simon Says Stamp!

Michelle said...

When it comes to stamping, you are a guru. A very clever interpretation of the Christmas ghost. The die cut is a great touch.

lorby said...

Simply put - beautiful.

toni said...

Love your Christmas in August, great interpretation of the theme and as ever beautifully done ! X

Words and Pictures said...

Yum - I love that holly/flourish hair: she looks utterly beautiful, and haunting too - the green eyeshadow is a wonderful touch!
Alison x

Suzanne C said...

Brilliant take on the Christmas Carol!

Monika/Buzsy said...

Fantastic project Dan. The music background looks great with the face image.

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