Handmade Holiday Cards: Snowman, Gingerbread Man, Reindeer

Materials:

5" x 7" watercolor cards with deckle edge
acrylic and/or watercolor paint
watercolor paper (140 lb cold press, hot press or handmade)
acid-free card stock (any weight)
acid-free tissue paper
deckle-edged ruler
credit card or palette knife
sewing machine and seasonal-colored thread (or hand-sew)
red and white dimensional paint
ultra thin slices of plastic foam or Japanese rice paper
glue (super heavy gel medium)
stencil of gingerbread man
white sticky-backed foam sheets
materials to emboss greeting: embossing stylus and brass stencil with greeting, silver embossing powder, embossing heat gun and embossing stamp pad (colorless)
needle and thread
hand writing, calligraphy, or dimensional paint

1. Tear watercolor paper into two pieces against deckle-edged ruler: make one 5" x 3-7/8"and another 1/2" x 4"strip. To create the background, scrape red, blue, green and a touch of yellow acrylic paint with the side of a credit card or palette knife over the surface of the watercolor paper. Create an interesting pattern like plaid. Allow to dry. Paint the very thin sliver of plastic foam (approximately 2-1/2" x 2" shape, tear by hand) and the 1/2" x 4" strip of paper green. Let dry. Machine sew with green thread across the bottom one-inch using a decorative stitch or, if preferred, sew by hand (figure A).

2. Using watercolors, paint a 4" x 5" piece of watercolor paper using shades of red-brown (gingerbread color) or use ready colored paper. Let dry. Draw gingerbread man on the back of the reddish brown colored paper using a stencil or by hand. Cut it out. Fix 1/8-inch thick sticky-backed foam to the back of the gingerbread man to give him a 3-D effect on the card.

3. Attach the green painted plastic foam sliver just off center of the plaid background with super heavy gel medium. Attach the 1/2-inch strip of green paper across the bottom three quarters of the plaid background just above the machine stitching. Glue the gingerbread man at an angle so one foot is standing on the green strip.

4. Decorate the gingerbread man is if he were a real cookie using red and white dimensional puffy paint. Allow 24 hours to dry (figure B).

5. Emboss the base of the card on a light box with a seasonal greeting, use calligraphy or leave blank. Glue the background with gingerbread man onto card, autograph and draw a thin line border around this using a deckle-edged ruler.