Handmade Holiday Cards: Snowman, Gingerbread Man, Reindeer

Materials:

5" x 7" watercolor cards with deckle edge
watercolor paper (140 lb cold press, hot press or handmade)
acid-free card stock (any weight)
acrylic and/or watercolor paint
glue
small snowman figurine, no thicker than 1/4"
materials to make paper: paper for recycling, cotton linters, blender, water, dishpan, bucket, small sponge, paper towels and small sieve
materials to make paper cast: air-drying clay, gesso, mineral oil (baby oil), old soft paint brush, microwave and rolling pin
small hole punch
materials to emboss greeting: embossing stylus and brass stencil with greeting, silver embossing powder, embossing heat
deckle-edged ruler
rubber stamp with holiday greeting

1. Roll out air-drying clay to approximately 1/2-inch thick with a rolling pin to create the snowman mold. Press the object to be cast into the clay. Immediately remove object if possible or allow clay to dry a little and remove (figure A). The object should be approximately 1/4-inch thick or less so the resulting cast paper will be thin enough to send in the regular mail. Air dry the mold for several days or in a 150 degree oven overnight.

2. Prime the surface of the mold with a thin coat of primer or gesso using a soft paintbrush. Do not allow the paint to puddle in the low areas of the mold. Allow to dry.

3. Tear paper for recycling into postage stamp sized pieces and soak overnight in a small bucket of water. Refrigerate, if it needs to stand longer.

4. Add approximately one cup of soggy torn paper into a blender and fill two-thirds full with water. Blend full speed for 30 seconds. Pour paper pulp into a dishpan and repeat as many times as necessary to create enough pulp for casting.

5. Lightly coat the entire primed surface of the mold with mineral oil or baby oil and a soft paintbrush. Retrieve a small amount of paper pulp using a small sieve and plop it onto mold. Press the pulp into the lowest areas of the mold. Soak up excess water with a sponge. Repeat until the mold is full and the entire surface is covered with pulp. Soak up excess water with paper towels. Let it air dry for three to four days or place in microwave on one or two power for one minute intervals until the paper is dry. The dried paper will separate from the mold (figure B).

6. Prepare backgrounds for the cast paper ornament as above for the gingerbread man. Need background papers: 3-1/2" x 4-1/2" and 1/2" x 3-3/4" (pocket for ornament to sit in) plus 4" x 5" plain deep red paper for border around background (figure C).

7. Stamp the base of the card with a greeting or calligraphy or leave blank. Punch small hole in snowman's hat for thread to hang ornament.

8. Paint snowman as desired with watercolor or acrylic paint, sign and date the back of the ornament (figure D). Let dry. Glue either side and along the bottom of the strip and place it 3/4-inch from the bottom of the background to form the pocket for the ornament. When dry, place snowman ornament in the pocket and then loosely put a stitch through the hole punched (for the thread) to hold it onto the background. Glue background and ornament pocket to the card (figure E). Sign and create a deckled border around this with fine point pen against the deckle edged ruler.