12 Days of Christmas – Santa – Scrappinthread by Beverly Tiemann

Lolli & Grace Spellbinders Collaboration

With Halloween just around the corner, we are in the main crafting season. This means the holiday frenzy to get things done is not very far away. One way to make things faster is to use dies to cut out decorations. The fun part is decorating them, and I don’t want to spend a bajillion hours tracing and cutting shapes. Spellbinders comes to the rescue with their new Lolli & Grace collaboration. Look for the cute Snowlady, Snowman, Stocking, and Santa in the Festive Christmas collection, all of which are located here.

Full disclosure, I am an affiliate influencer for Spellbinders and was provided the dies and wool to create these projects. I have been a long-time customer of Spellbinders, so it was an amazing opportunity for me when they asked me to do some guest blog posts using products that I love. By shopping through these links, it does not cost you anything extra – but it does help to support my ability to share free tutorials and tips.

Festive Santa

When I saw this wonderful Santa, I knew that he would be ideal to make using a variety of materials and techniques. This is one of the most versatile dies I’ve come across in a long time. Spellbinders provides a good diagram showing the proposed colors and stitching guide using wool felt. They also have an assembly guide to help keep the pieces organized.

Getting Organized

After printing the assembly guide, I lay out all the dies to determine colors and quantity to cut. Then the wool die-cut pieces are placed on the assembly guide to keep track of everything. As you can see, I write notes on the printouts.

It can still be helpful to use the guide when cutting everything out of one color of cardstock or watercolor paper, such as pictured below.

Choosing Materials

This die set is very versatile! Anne Oliver designs the Lolli & Grace projects. Her creations are made from wool felt with decorative embroidery stitches. The designs lend themselves to using a lot or a little color and a lot or a little embellishment.

Spellbinders Wool Felt Festive Santa

Using Wool Felt

Spellbinders’ felt is 100% Merino wool. The material cuts easily with a die-cutting machine and uses the same set-up as when cutting cardstock. It is lovely to stitch and sturdy enough to make gorgeous ornaments. Mark it with a pencil or fabric pen. This Santa was made with the Kaleidoscope Collection. However, the new Festive Collection has many of the same vibrant colors.

Paper

Santa has a base and a foundation layer. I cut two base layers and one (smaller) foundation for most of the ornaments. When gluing them together, it is easy to tuck a ribbon or baker’s twine for a hanging loop between the two base layers. This also offers extra strength to the ornament. Bonus idea: Cut out the Santa shapes and let children decorate them with crayons or markers.

A very simple decoration can be made with decorative scrapbook paper glued onto the base layer. This would make a great gift tag by stringing twine or ribbon through a punched hole and writing on the backside.

Shaker Card

To make a shaker card, cut two foundation layers out of cardstock, one out of a clear acetate sheet, one out of decorative paper, and an outline of decorative paper by placing the two Santa dies together.

Assemble with very thin dimensional foam tape and wet glue.

Add sequins, beads, and other very small embellishments to ‘shake’. The example shown below has a beard cut from vellum paper.

Festive Shaker Santa

Vintage Collage

Cut sheet music, book pages, or any printed material and ink-distress with brown ink and a sponge for an aged look. Assemble pieces and embellish.

Festive Collage Santa

Festive Scrapbook Paper Santa

Festive Glitter Cardstock/Foam Santa

Festive Tissue Paper Santa

Hang in front of a Christmas tree light or in the window.

Festive Metallic Cardstock Santa

Festive Color Block Santa

Festive Cotton Fabric Santa

The cotton fabric was stabilized with Pellon 906F – Fusible Sheerweight Interfacing, prior to die-cutting.

Festive Watercolor Santa

Heavyweight (300gsm) watercolor paper die-cut, then watercolored and dried prior to assembling.

Festive Gingerbread House Inspired Santa

Lots of enamel dots and other bling affixed to this Santa!

Festive Frosty Santa

Shades of white and off-white make this monochromatic, wintry Santa stand out.

12 Plus Santas

It is easy to get carried away and make even more than intended! I would love to see what you create. Tag me on Instagram or leave a comment if you make a Festive Santa.

Scrapbook.com links: