I pass The Hat Shop window every morning when I get my coffee and pastry and many times Ive stopped to snap a photo, and Ive taken many of this particular head with her many different hats. Ive always seen her as a happy creature, but recently on this particular morning I saw a silent scream and it resonated with me.

There are so many beautiful holiday pages in the gallery I admire very much, but this isnt one of them. It is the Nightmare Before Christmas. I will be documenting it in my Project 2016, so I wont go into details here, but we in the retail world are a dead piece of meat by the time Christmas rolls around. Scrapping isnt always about the pretty stuff, sometimes its about the other side of things. I live and work in a hugely popular resort town and we do Christmas like nobodys business, but it comes at a high cost to the people who work it and for their families. I tip my hat to all of them. They are the front line soldiers that make visiting this town a happy experience for thousands of people.

ArtPlay Palette AuriferousArtPlayPaletteAuriferous
ArtsyTransfers AuriferousArtsyTransfersAuriferous
Christmas Trees No. 2ChristmasTreesNo.2
ArtsyPaint No. 8ArtsyPaintNo.8
Santa Christmas No. 1SantaChristmasNo.1
Different Strokes No. 5 (Retired)
Photo: Mine
Font: Hello Sunshine

Process Notes: I brought in my photo to a new 12 x 12 file and using a layer mask, I brushed away the edges of the photo then chose artsy paper 4 for the background.

At the top and bottom of the photo I placed two different artsy paints, recolored them using a color from the paper and gave them a bevel and emboss which created a vortex for her to scream from. Adding the Santa and Christmas tree brushes below the photo in the layers panel and recolored them using the green from her hat. I blended those to Linear Burn.

I brought in the artsy transfers and placed bits and pieces above and below the photo and left them as is. I placed the title below the artsy paint layers.

As a final step I used the jingle bells from the palette, placing them on both ears of her hat.