Step By Step Tutorial: Santa Clause

Hello there, Michelle Short here to share a step-by-step tutorial with you using The Clauses Etched Dies from the North Pole Friends Collection by Simon Hurley. This set is fantastic as you can mix and match the different elements to create both Mrs Claus and Santa Claus with different accessories.

STEP 1 – DIE-CUTTING SANTA

Die cut Santa, sack and holly, and berries from The Clauses Etched Dies.

1. Cut pieces of ColorWheel Cardstock to be slightly larger than the size of the dies.
2. Place body, arms, legs, and berries onto Pomegranate ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
3. Place beard, moustache, and gloves onto Classic White ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
4. Place belt, shoes, and pieces to go behind face onto Raven ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
5. Place hat, glove trim, and body trim onto Antique White Glitter Treasured Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape (note: the tape will not stick very well to the glitter cardstock, so be careful not to shift it when running through die cutting machine).

6. Place sack onto Fawn ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
7. Place cheeks and nose die onto Chiffon ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
8. Place faces onto Alabaster ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
9. Place holly onto Peridot ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
10. Place belt buckle onto Brushed Metallic Gold Treasured Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.

Holding dies down with tape prevents them from shifting when going through the die-cutting machine. Use a low-tack tape like Best Ever Craft Tape so that it removes easily from the cardstock.

11. Create your die cutting plate sandwich – (bottom to top) A Platform Base, B Platform Top, C Cutting Plate, cardstock pieces with dies on top, C Cutting Plate.
12. Run through Platinum SIX Die Cutting Machine.
13. Remove dies from cardstock and pop out die cuts.
14. Repeat process to cut hat again from Pomegranate ColorWheel Cardstock and face from Classic White ColorWheel Cardstock.

STEP 2 – ASSEMBLE SANTA

1. Add Bearly Art Glue to the feet part on the legs of Santa.
2. Using an embellishment wand/picker, place the boots and trim on top.

3. Adhere belt to body.
4. Adhere buckle on top.

5. Turn face over and adhere the pieces that you cut from Raven cardstock to the back. This makes the eyes black and covers the back of the eyebrows.

6. Adhere white eyebrow pieces inside the openings on the face. Add glue first and then using an embellishment wand or tweezers, place eyebrows down.

TIP: If you did not want to inlay the eyebrows, you could simply cut the cardstock piece on the back from white cardstock and the colour would show through from the front, like it does with the eyes.

7. Adhere nose to top of moustache piece.
8. Add a small dab of Bearly Art Glue to the face where the cheeks are supposed to be and then place cheeks on top.

9. Adhere beard to face (there are indentation lines on the face to know where to line it up).
10. Adhere moustache and nose on top.

11. Adhere head to body using Bearly Art Glue.
12. Flip over and add Best Ever Craft Tape on the back to hold in place.
13. Repeat the same process to adhere legs to body.

TIP: Adding Best Ever Craft Tape on the back helps to hold the head in place while the glue dries and also adds stability to the die cuts.

14. Adhere trim and pompom to hat, followed by trim to the bottom of the body piece.

15. Adhere gloves and trim to arms.
16. Adhere arms to the back of the body and secure with Best Ever Craft Tape on the back.

17. Adhere sack behind Santa’s arm.

18. Adhere holly and berries to Santa’s hat.

STEP 3 – EMBOSSING THE BACKGROUND

1. Place a 4.25” x 5.5” panel of Classic White ColorWheel Cardstock inside Flurry of Snowflakes 3D Embossing Folder, but leave approx. 1” out the bottom of the folder.

2. Create your die cutting plate sandwich – (bottom to top) A Platform Base, embossing folder with cardstock inside, Adapter Plate D. Place the end of the Adapter Plate D at the end of the embossing folder.
3. Run through Platinum Six Die Cutting Machine and remove panel from folder.

TIP: You can spritz a light mist of water on the back of the cardstock before placing it inside of the folder. This helps to prevent cracking of the cardstock.

STEP 4 – STAMP SENTIMENT

1. Place panel inside Mini MISTI.
2. Take ‘Delivering Christmas Cheer’ sentiment from Dancin’ Christmas Sentiments Clear Stamp Set and place it face down onto the strip at the bottom of the panel with no embossing on.
3. Close door of Mini MISTI to pick up the stamp.
4. Ink up stamp using black ink.

5. Close Mini MISTI door to stamp the sentiment onto the panel.
6. Remove panel from Mini MISTI and adhere to the front of an A2 sized (4.25” x 5.5”) white card base.

STEP 5 – FINISH THE CARD

1. Add foam squares onto the back of Santa. Cut some of the foam squares to make them smaller using scissors.
2. Remove backings off of foam tape (I like to use tweezers for this).

3. Adhere Santa onto card, so that he is standing on the top of the strip where the sentiment is.

Embossing Folders are a great way to add interest onto a clean and simple card without adding any colour. I think the white card base helps Santa pop on the card, but you could easily change up the background colour if you wanted to. Thank you so much for stopping by today, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Spellbinders Supplies:

Other Supplies

Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink