Whiff of Joy meets Verve

I was so excited to receive my Whiff of Joy guest designer kit in the mail yesterday with NINE new stamps!!! YAY!! When I was ordering my stamps, I had to resist the urge to order all Christmas sets - I knew they were coming from Europe and might take quite awhile to reach me in Hawaii - leaving me very little time before Christmas to play with new Christmas stamps. (although I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't take long at all - only about a week!!). However, I absolutely could NOT resist Santa Charlie!! Isn't he just the cutest little guy EVER!?!?I colored Santa Charlie with watercolor pencils and used my SU blender pen to blend. He was stamped in black Stazon on my new Pure Luxury Brilliant White cardstock from GinaK (LOVE this stuff!!). The sentiment is from Verve's Ornamental Christmas - I used my SU markers to ink only the "Season's" first, stamped it, then inked the "greetings" separately and stamped it below so I could punch it out with my circle punches. Worked out nicely I think! The card base is some textured dark brown cardstock from American Crafts and the DP is from SU's Ski Slope. I added some Baja Breeze ribbon and some silver cording to the sentiment for some "faux hangage". I wanted to use some liquid applique or white puff paint on the trim of Santa's suit, but the stuff is non-existant on Maui and it's not worth the exorbitant shipping costs for such a small purchase. I'll have to wait until I'm placing a larger order with one of the big companies and pick some up...

So what do you think? I'm still fairly new to the world of coloring and am experimenting with different techniques. I definitely find watercolors easier to control than Copics, but the colors aren't as rich. (but I do have to mention that this photo doesn't do my coloring justice if I can toot my own horn for a moment!! - the colors are much richer in real life). I'll be doing lots more experimenting with my new Whiff of Joy stamps in the coming weeks and would love some feedback as to which method you prefer...thanks!