Holiday Day 4: Flowering Santa

Today marks the HALFWAY point of our Happiest Holiday sneak previews — can you believe we have four more sets to share? And we still have so much creativity to explore.

It always strikes me as funny to work on Christmas designs in the middle of summer. Sometimes my mind wanders a bit while I’m sketching and scheming. One minute I’m thinking about Santa... but in the midst of gardening, dreaming about plant combinations, or dare I say, designing my wedding flowers, Santa’s curly beard morphs into a blooming bouquet.

Notice how closely Santa’s beard resembles a cascade of flowers...

To my mind, it’s a no-brainer — Santa’s beard was meant to bloom! I loved the image above from an old Neiman-Marcus Christmas catalog, a very clever quilled paper construction, where the beard swirls into beautiful snowflakes. But then look at those winter bouquets, spilling over with flowers and leaves. Why, some of the bouquets are the classic shape of Santa’s beard! Hmmm...

I let my mind wander, and Santa Claus and I took a merry skip through a fantastical winter garden to create our new stamp set, Flowering Santa.

In my interpretation, Santa’s curly strands have twirled their way into a bouquet of poinsettia and holly, starry-shaped daisies, and plump berries. Whether you color this large-scale image in full flowery splendor, or you keep it more monochromatic and even metallic, you’ll come away with a card that totally dazzles and delights the recipient! Flowering Santa is going to be the image I use on my cards this year!

I’ve included three sentiments in sweepy script for a myriad of holiday uses — but this Santa says so much all on his own, with his sweet smirking eyes and rounded spectacles. Don’t you just want to give him a hug?

To help your Christmas cards come into full bloom with Flowering Santa — just look at what the Bloom Brigade made:

Allison Cope

Christine Okken

Julie Koerber

Stacy Morgan

Tosha Leyendekker

What vision those Bloomies bring to everything their talented hands touch!! And I KNOW that YOU TOO can bring out the sparkling awesomeness within to create cards that are special and unique in every way. This image would be fun embossed, watercolored, and glittered, and could be completed en masse! Ohhhh I can already see the assembly line I’m going to mount on our dining room table... come here, children, Mama needs you... 

Psssst! Fans of one of our recent holiday digis (one that MIGHT have featured a whole lot of berries!!) will want to tune in to see what’s coming up tomorrow...