Dry spell produces Christmas art

I've been in an art slump. Every time I want to create something, my brain turns to mush. So it was fortunate that I saved the free Dover images from last week. There among the offerings was an image of two little sleeping girls. Today I decided, if nothing else, I'd finish the layout I started in December, where the left page was entitled "I'll be home for Christmas."
I started with the image that I printed on beige paper. I decided to use my new oil pastels I got when Kathy, Theresa, Dana, and I went shopping last week. I've never worked with oil pastels before, but keep reading that people use them. Unfortunately, I don't think I know how to use them, and I probably used them in the wrong format, but it was a fun learning experience.

I had already gessoed the background when I created the left spread. The background is the same as on the left, minus the alcohol ink which is obviously not the proper medium for the page.
These are the oil pastels before I removed the wrapping. I even got them at 30% off. I thought they were a real bargain.

The second spread I created and added included several techniques. First, I used a Clorox bleach pen to "alter" the guy into a Santa. I first did the hair and beard, neither of which he had, and left it on until the emulsion was nearly gone. Then I used the pen to make a Santa hat, but didn't leave the bleach on as long, thus producing the red hat. I learned this technique in Karen Michael's "Altered Imagery." After the photograph was dry, I gessoed the bottom.

Next I turned the gal into a Zetti-ish image using a 1" punched circle and a puzzle piece cut from a dollar bill. When I was removing the bleach, I accidentally put a hole in the upper left corner. I couldn't find my Christmas images, because they are packed away in my basement. So, I found the first thing I could and placed the sticker over the hole.

I tried to do calligraphy using a highlighter. I read somewhere the chiseled point is the same as a calligraphy pen. Unfortunately, the light green didn't show up on the gesso, so I stitched over the calligraphy using my green Zig pen. Since I had only written "Secret" with the highlighter, I just wrote "Santa" with the Zig pen and called it a wrap.

I'm not sure I like either of these pieces, but at least I'm creating. Incidentally, I bought a ton of frames at a garage sale one year. The photo was in one of the frames. I pulled it out and knew I would use it in my book at some point. Well, today was the day.