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Can you feel the excitement building?  Every time I pop over here to add a new post, I can just FEEL how anxious you all are through the manner in which you write your comments.  What a blessing to be able to bring a little sunshine to someone’s day just by sharing what I love here on the blog!

So only two more days to go until the BIG reveal at Papertrey.  Out of the four sets that we will be debuting Friday night, I have yet to share any images of the fourth and final set.  I have to say that this set is really a labor of love!  It is my very first linear image set that I have drawn by hand.  We had been receiving several emails from people requesting that we do a Santa, but every time I even tried to THINK about approaching that subject, I just became overwhelmed at the task.  Then one day the idea for this Santa just popped into my head.  I have no idea where it came from, but I was so happy to receive the "random act of inspiration"!

So I drew him up that very night.  It took some time for him to evolve into something just right, but in the end I am SO happy with the results.  If you’ll notice, he doesn’t have any hands!  I promise, that it isn’t an error in the image!  I wanted him to be able to hold different objects, without having to do any time consuming masking (especially if you needed to mass produce 50+ cards!)  So I gave his sleeves a little extra length and omitted his fingertips.

Now, to choose what he shall hold! You will notice that there are six different options!  Fun, isn’t it!

For today’s project I selected the wreath (it’s one of my favorite little pieces from this set!)  I just inked it up and stamped it directly into the space between his sleeves.  Super easy!

Now onto the subject of coloring.  Anyone that has followed my work would most likely notice that I am not a big "colorer".  (Is that a word?  Well if it isn’t, then I am now making it an official term.  How do I get in contact with Webster’s?!?!?)  Solid image stamps appeal to me and the idea of coloring kind of, well, scares me!  Don’t know why, it just does!  Coloring just usually doesn’t mesh with the clean approach I usually take with my projects.  (You would really chuckle if you happen to have the current October issue of Paper Crafts.  They assigned me with the task of doing a special feature in their Face Your Fears column on watercoloring…bwahhahah!)  So, I figured after I designed this stamp set, I would have to get over it and play a little bit. 

While playing I made the COOLEST discovery!  If you color with normal water-based dye markers (I used the Stampin’ Up! brand) on Kraft cardstock, your stroke marks virtually disappear!  I know, it may be hard to believe, but I swear it works!  Here is a close-up view of my results.  Now granted, it makes your colors a tad darker than they are originally intended, but just go with the flow and coordinate your cardstock based on ink results rather than their "real-life" hues.  The white areas were colored in with a White Sharpie Poster Paint Pen (love these things, the paint rolls evenly when coloring in large areas, more so than the Signo white gel pen ink).  The poster paint pens can generally be picked up at any Wal-Mart.

Here is a look at my final project. All the images used on the cover of this card are included in our new Santa set.

And you can’t forget the inside, can we?  Do these fonts look familiar?  This interior sentiment is from the set I introduced to you yesterday.  It was a perfect compliment to the Santa set, I think.  I stamped the sentiment in white and added the berry accents in black, going back in and coloring the images appropriately.  The color looks so vibrant!

And last but not least, the back!  If you look through our stamp sets, just about every single one of them includes a "handmade by" stamp that coordinates.  This set is no exception.  This "handmade with love by" stamp has a miniature version of the berries to accent it.

So tell me what you think of the Papertrey version of linear images?  Is this style something you would like to see more of?  Or is it not really your style?  I would love to hear your thoughts!

You will want to be sure to stop by tomorrow.  I will be answering questions posted here the last few days along with more fun projects.  I’ll see you then!