Spectacular Santa Christmas Card Tutorial with Spellbinders Etched Dies

Hello there, Michelle Short here to share a step-by-step tutorial with you using the new Spectacular Santa Etched Dies. This wonderful die creates a large-sized Santa that can take centre stage on a card. I kept to a traditional colour palette today for Santa, adding in a little pink for the background, but you can definitely experiment with different colour combinations!

DIE CUTTING SANTA

PLEASE NOTE: The dies are shown in the photo facing upwards, so that you can see which die is cut from which cardstock. When die cutting, you need to have the cut side facing down onto the cardstock. Die-cut Spectacular Santa Etched Dies from cardstock. Cut cardstock to be slightly larger than the size of the dies:

1. Place Santa’s body and hat dies onto Pomegranate ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
2. Place the trim and beard dies onto Classic White ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
3. Place the belt and back of eyes dies onto Raven ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
4. Place the sack die onto Fawn ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
5. Place the mouth die onto Poppy ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
6. Place Santa’s face die onto Alabaster ColorWheel Cardstock and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.

TIP: 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.

7. Run through Platinum Six Die Cutting Machine using the following sandwich (bottom to top):

• A Platform Base
• B Platform Top
• C Cutting Plate
• Cardstock with die on top
• C Cutting Plate

8. Repeat the process to cut:

• The gloves from Raven ColorWheel Cardstock.
• The nose and cheeks from Chiffon ColorWheel Cardstock.
• The bell and buckle from Brushed Metallic Gold Treasured Cardstock.

ASSEMBLING SANTA

1. Flip over the body of Santa, as well as the sack. Overlap the sack at the back of Santa’s body and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.

2. Flip over both and, holding them apart slightly, apply Bearly Art Glue in between. Press and hold in place.
3. Repeat the process to glue the handle down.

4. Apply glue to the back of the gloves.
5. Adhere in place.

The body of Santa has indentation lines on it, so you know where everything needs to be placed.

6. Adhere trim.

7. Adhere belt.

8. Add small dabs of glue onto back of buckle.
9. Adhere on top of belt.

TIP: If you get too much glue on the back of small die cuts, dab off excess onto scrap paper.

10. Flip face over and add Bearly Art Glue to the back of the die-cut around the eyes.
11. Adhere black die cut on top.
12. Flip face back over to the front.

13. Add small dabs of glue to the cheek areas. Adhere cheeks on top.
14. Add small dabs of glue to the eyebrow areas. Adhere eyebrows on top.

TIP: Using tweezers or a Pick Up Tool is really helpful when adhering small die cuts. I switch between the two as to what feels comfortable for which die cut.

15. Add glue around the sides and bottom of the face.
16. Adhere beard on top.

17. Add glue to the top of the mouth die cut.
18. Adhere moustache on top.

19. Adhere to face.
20. Adhere nose on top.

21. Adhere hat to the top of the face.
22. Flip over and add Best Ever Craft Tape to the back.

TIP: Adding tape to the back of die cuts not only helps to keep the die cuts in place while the glue dries, it also gives some stability to them when there is only a small area of overlap.

23. Adhere trim and bobble to hat.

24. Adhere lip to the bell.

STAMPING THE SENTIMENT

1. Place piece of Classic White ColorWheel Cardstock inside Mini MISTI.
2. Place sentiment from Spectacular Holiday Sentiments Stamp & Die Set on top, impression side down.
3. Close door of MISTI to pick up the stamp.

4. Ink up stamp using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink.

5. Close door of MISTI to transfer ink onto cardstock.
6. Remove cardstock from MISTI and let it sit to dry for a few minutes.

7. Place coordinating die over the sentiment, cut side down, and hold in place with Best Ever Craft Tape.
8. Run through Platinum SIX Die Cutting Machine.

9. Die-cut the die two more times from the same cardstock.
10. Adhere the two white layers one on top of the other, using Bearly Art Glue.
11. Adhere the stamped one on top.

CARD ASSEMBLY

1. Adhere panel of Chiffon ColorWheel Cardstock onto 4” x 5.5” white card base using tape runner adhesive.

2. Add foam squares onto the back of Santa’s body.
3. Remove backings from foam squares.

4. Adhere to card.

5. Add foam squares to the top of Santa’s head and remove backings.
6. Apply glue to the bottom of Santa’s head (behind the beard part).
7. Adhere to card overlapping beard with top of body.

8. Flip bell over. Add a small foam square to the top part of the bell.
9. Apply glue to the handle.
10. Adhere to hand.

11. Apply glue on the back of the sentiment.
12. Adhere sentiment to the card.

13. To finish, embellish with Pink Color Essentials Gems.

Isn’t Santa just the cutest? I love that he is large in size, so he can take centre stage on the card. I made the card 4” wide instead of the usual 4.25”, so that I could have the hand hanging off the edge slightly but still fit in a standard A2 envelope. Thank you so much for stopping by today. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Other Supplies

Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink