Beautiful results!

Perfect for this contest, RIGHT ON TARGET

Beautiful !! Having in mind that is night time, shadow that girl is casting is too strong IMO

Thank you all for your nice comments. The remark on the shadow could be right, although knowing how bright a night is with a full moon shining on snow covered land I'm not sure.

PS: sorry, wanted to give you the gold thumps up and clicked the wrong color. So please accept two more points from my heart.

I definitely agree about the strength of the shadow, but then again with surreal lighting, surreal shadows are to be expected :P

Really nice fantasy scene

You should remove the shadow with clone or simply soften it. Very nicely done.

thank you all. Had to replace Santa as he was an illustration which is not allowed to use. So now there are doves that come with Photoshop. Also changed the title as "I saw Santa Claus" now does not fit anymore. Also worked on the shadows as you recommended. Hope the mods now approve and you still like it.

Appologies to the mods for using an illustration, I was not aware of that rule. Surely enough I could not find a PHOTO of Santa.

You Mods do a great job here and I truly thank you for that.

oh wow! This is sooo beautiful! Nice work

I like this idea very much. I liked the sleigh w/Santa so I searched on flickr and found this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/borrowed/2071281749/sizes/l/ Should be easy to mask the shape, a little clean up and it should work and you'll keep your original idea! Couldn't hurt to try.

The rule regarding use of illustration has been changed slightly. See http://www.pxleyes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2956&p=39727#p39727 for details.

Like the creation. A bit of shadow angle and blur. Like the idea and choice of source.

The doves just don't work as a substitute, since doves don't fly at night...Maybe some bats or owls or a jet in the sky...

right, thank you spaceranger! I used the image of mammadepants and now the image is back to the original idea and title. Sorry for all this back and forth, but my idea at first I liked best and so I'm very happy to be able to show it to you again the way I did at first.

The shadow is about 10 degrees off from the light source...just draw a line and see. Not bad otherwise.

i love this picture. however acording to the rules ""Basic rules: -You cannot use complete night skies -"" this is the perfect image for a Christmas card. i love this

thank you, CMYK46. You are right, I am aware that the shadows are a bit off, since the sun was not in the same place as the moon. Tried to move it but didn't like the outcome. I wanted to express a dreamy Christmas feeling and I hope the 10 degrees off shadow do not hurt that.

@ Dragonside: Thank you! But I did not use "complete night sky", did I? I integrated the clouds as part of the night sky and placed a shining full moon there, see it?

yeah im agree with Dragoncide , You cannot use complete night sky , cuz u placed the night sky on the original sky ,IMO , but this good entry , Good luck

text is unnecessary!!! you have a box called TITLE!!!

Thanks everyone! I updated the entry using screen mode on the sky and I also put another step in the sbs with a print screen on it. I hope this helps now. The sky is now slightly brighter, which actually I like better. The entry follows completely the rules as far as I can judge that.

@ ShiZa: why are you yelling at me? The title of the image is: I saw Santa Claus, I do not want to change that. Read the description: "I turned an image taken on a sunny afternoon into a Christmas Greeting Card." So the text is just fine where it is. O.k.?

Author nice job imo and you should send this to friends and family next Christmas
They will love it and the fact you made it for them.

The theme states "-You cannot use complete night skies -You can use moons, stars and clouds cut from night shots - some of what you use can be shot at night but only minimally -" This entry fits this description, only parts allowed are used.
@ShiZa, normally I don't like text on entries either however this is a greeting card and I agree with cabldawg71, it's a very nice one!

Very very good job author...I love how u created dark here...and the great thing about your entry is your bright night feel...Its hard thing to achieve great result like u did...best of luck

Nice job Would be nice Christmas card

Great work and wonderful Christmas card ... IMO spaceranger is right ... image complies with the guidelines. I like the shadows as well ... the whole image has a great night mood!

as nice as the photo is, in a manipulation contest we tend to look for more than just adding a filter and frame.... you might want to have another go at it

Some additional color might help this. It's a bit too yellowy to really say "Christmas..."

Thank you very much for taking time and for viewing my piece and leaving you thoughts.
But I have to say I like it the way it is.
First I just didn't take 5 - 10 minutes to complete this. spent a lot of time taking
the original pictures with yellow in mind and with the hopes I'd get around to working it into a manipulated watercolor for a framed picture later. It did take quite a while adjusting everything from dab sizes to edge work of the brush strokes.
What you see is old Key West Christmas, mellow,laid back,easy going,soft and warm life style, as apposed to bright, white, bold colors,, santa clauses etc, some areas down there are different.. It's gently saying Christmas.
The whole ideadof the post card was to present the idea of an old style postcard of an era that is passing away.
Regards

Geexman is right.

bugger me, if thats mellow don't come visit my house....... makes me look as mellow as they come (or just to lazy to waste power and time putting it all up lol)

Have to agree though that this doesn't really feel like a manipulation entry, more a photography entry with editing.

i've seen something like this..

The tree looks like it's popping out of the card. If this was your goal, it would have been nice to raise the tree up so it's higher than the left fold of the card. Good luck!

Thx for the tip secretsather, the tree is raised now.

Be sure to credit the tutorial you used to create this image.

Very cute, I like it.

Sums up Halloween ... GL

Lovely and kids friendly!

i love this , and i hope you win !
i would get a card if it looks like this !