Santa is Coming!

Only 42 sleeps to go until Christmas!!  For many of us that is a frightening statement, so it's time to kick those creative genes into gear and get our Christmas cards made and posted so we aren't madly doing them at the last minute!!

Today I've used a fun set by Flourishes called Sweets of the Season because I just adore these sweet candy canes!  They are such a good size and perfect for cards, ornaments or even decorating little gift boxes!

Start by stamping your canes in Memento Tuxedo Black onto X-press It Blending Card and lay down a base of R32 on every second stripe on the canes.

 To give your canes a curved appearance, add shading to each side of the stripe with just a touch of R35.

I'm not blending as I go this time because red can be tricky to use and it won't bleed outside the lines if you allow your paper to dry a little in between layers of colour.  Deepen your shading with R37.

Now the canes are starting to have a curved look!  Blend with R35 and R32.  You don't need to blend a lot and often just a dot of colour will work well with the X-press It Blending Card.

 

The canes are looking good, however I like lots of contrast so I'm deepening that shading even more with R39.

Now lets get started on the holly!  Lay down a base of G20 and add shading with G21 and G24.

Deepen along the veins with G28.

Lightly blend with the next lightest colours from above!

For the holly I've used a different pair of reds - R24 and then a dot of R29 for the shading.  You certainly don't need much in such a small area.

For the bow I've chosen golden yellow, starting with Y21 - one of my favourite, most used colours!

Next I've shaded with Y26, under the loops of the bow, under the holly and where the ribbon twists are always going to be darker.

Deepen with Y28.

Now I'm quite happy with the way this is looking, however I've decided that although the red parts of the candy cane look beautifully curved, the white isn't so I've used a little C1 on each side of the canes just to add a little shading.

And there you have it!  Fun and beautifully coloured candy canes just waiting to adorn your project!  I've made a card, what projects could you make with these candy canes??  :)

Hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial, thanks for visiting!