Santa's Beard - Ho, Ho, Ho!

Hey ya'll! I'm popping in here this morning to share one of the cards we made at WoW! Christmas Cards class last month. I was so excited to see the idea for Santa's beard on our demonstrator only site - Stampin' Connection. It was originally posted by Kris Lynch. SU! has so many super talented demos out there, it's really a fantastic perk to have access to this site for great, out of the box ideas like this one. I don't know Kris personally, so without this great resource, I probably wouldn't have seen her great idea!

So, here is my version of Santa's Beard:

If you are a demonstrator, you can see the original version that I cased at this link here.

To create my beard, I used a piece of Naturals White cardstock and ran it through my Big Shot with the Perfect Details Texturz plate. Next, I used Sahara Sand ink and sponged it lightly to bring out the swirls a bit so it would give the beard depth. Then I used my Full Heart punch and punched out 7 hearts. The swirls were dabbed with a bit of 2 Way Glue pen and I added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

My card base is simply Whisper White and I layered it with a piece of Real Red. To create the look of texture or furry warmth, I took my Real Red ink pad and simply dragged it lightly across the cardstock several times to bring out the natural texture in the cardstock itself. It's called 'direct to paper' and is a super easy, but awesome effect!

The white center of Santa's suit was made with a piece of 5/8" Whisper White Satin ribbon and Santa's belt was made with a piece of 5/8" Basic Black Grosgrain Ribbon. Both pieces were wrapped around the Real Red cardstock piece before it was adhered to the white card base. The buckle on Santa's belt is a piece of Brushed Silver cardstock punched out with the Decorative Label Punch. I added two Silver Brads and a Real Red button from Candy Cane Lane Big Buttons in the Mini Catalog. Once I had his suit all constructed, I simply added his beard pieces with SNAIL adhesive, starting at the bottom and working my way up to the top of the card. The top pieces overhung the top edge a little bit, so I used my Paper Snips to trim them off even.

To do the greeting on the inside, I briefly considered purchasing a personalized stamp that said what I wanted, but, with a little help from my Stamp-a-ma-jig and some sticky notes, I was able to use the greeting from Many Merry Messages!
I love how it turned out!
The little Santa suit tag comes from the Tags Til' Christmas stamp set. I added it to the envelope too for a little accent.

I think this was one of the favorites from our card class those two days - it's just fun!
So, how are your Christmas cards coming along? Have you even started yet?!! I have a lot made because of classes and camps, but not any in bulk yet. But, really, we still have lots of time! I'll be posting my class schedule for the rest of the holiday season today - and I do have one more card class headed your way, so be sure to look out for it, ok?

Have a great day stampers and go stamp something fun!
~~Robin