Ho Ho Ho! A Vintage Santa Christmas Card

Hello crafty friends!  With eight days to go until Christmas, I thought I'd make a card to share with you using Honey Bee Stamps totally amazing Lovely Layers: Vintage Santa Honey Cuts.  The details on this Santa's face are truly amazing and so life like!

First I worked on making the Lovely Layers: Vintage Santa.  I die cut red and brown cardstocks with the clothing dies.  All other die cut pieces are from white cardstock.

I used Copic markers to color each die cut of the facial details.  Here is a list of colors I used:

• skin tones: E11, E50, E51, E53
• cheeks, tongue: R20, R21, R30
• eyes: BG02, 100
• shading hair/beard and trim on clothes: B0000, C00, C00, C01

I also used a dark red and brown Copic maker to add some quick shading to the clothes and boots.

Using the Layering Guide (link to download is in product description) is so helpful when assembling the layers for the first time.  I used Bee Creative glue to adhere each layer.  Then I added details to Santa's cheeks, hat, and clothes with a white gel pen.

Next I die cut green cardstock with the Pine Trees Honey Cuts.  I used a blending brush to add dark green ink for shading.  Then I used my finger to add Snowfall Distress Grit Paste here and there on the trees.  I set them aside to dry.

Next I created a fun bokeh watercolor background.  Later today, I will have a reel on my Instagram where you can see exactly how I made this.  The basic steps are as follows.

• Trim watercolor paper to 5" x 7" and tape it down to your work surface with removable tape.
• Use a wide flat paintbrush to wet the entire panel.
• Starting at the top, brush on dark blue watercolor from side to side to create an ombre look.
• For the bokeh dots I took a small piece of clean paper towel and wrapped a few coins of different sizes with it.  If you panel is still wet, just dab the wrapped coin onto the panel to lift the paint.
• My panel was dry, so I misted just a bit of water onto the paper towel and pressed it onto the painted surface to lift off the paint.
• Next I diluted bleed-proof white paint with a bit of water and added splatters to the panel with a paint brush.

When the splatters were dry, I diluted more white paint and used a brush to paint the snowy ground and dried it with my heat tool.  Then  I used a pallet knife to smear Snowfall Distress Grit Paste over the white paint.  This Grit Paste gives a subtle sparkle for the snow.

I adhered the dry panel to a 5" x 7" card base.  Then I used glue and foam tape to adhere all of the elements to the card.

I'm still using the sentiments from the Simply Stated: Holiday stamp set.  I stamped this once a few weeks ago.  You get 14 sentiments on one stamp!  Then die cut them out all at once with the coordinating Simply Stated die.

I find creating backgrounds like this one so very relaxing!  Do you ever create inky backgrounds for your cards?  You should try it!  Just remember to have fun and don't worry about messing up--it's just paper!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I'll be back here on Christmas Eve to share one more holiday card!  Have a wonderful week until then!

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