Christmas atc trade

The final Stampotique atc of 2014 is Christmas :) The requirement for this trade is that you must include a Merry Christmas message to the recipient. My atc's :

The inspiration for this came from the knitwear patterned paper. I thought how cool it would be for Oliver to have a selection of ugly Christmas sweaters. Both in burgundy and multi colored. I like this Oliver image, he always looks so miserable, so thought I would cheer him up. I hope he gets some success in his endeavours for kisses, he should do as he looks so snazzy. LOL

The background was made with distress paint, which acted as a sort of resist when I applied the distress stain. At first I was going to do mistletoe, but I saw someone else in the trade had done that so swiftly moved on ... to sweaters, kisses, hearts, giving etc ... yes, my imagination runs amok sometimes !

 I laughed and laughed when I found this stamp in my stash: "The season of giving" and knew what I had to do was add a free kisses sign. The sentiment is in a set from Clear & Simple Stamps called O'Tree. The heart embellishment is punched out with a small heart punch, hand written and multiple layers of UTEE added. His hat was hand cut from silver paper. Oliver is colored with copics, other than his sweater is paper pieced from Trim the tree designer series paper by Stampin' Up!

So here is a close up of Oliver in burgundy and Oliver in green :) Which do you prefer ?

 I used my illuminate ink pad to stamp some shiny snowflakes in the background, to make it a bit more festive. The atc actually opens up like a card and there is a personalised message inside. 

 So off the little atc's go in the mail, to France and the UK. Hope the girls like them x