Dancing Santa Tag by Dori Mendiola

 Happy Thursday AI Friends!

Have you seen the new Art Impressions Christmas release?  Wow, what a bundle!  Two cute stamp sets, a die set and two beautiful paper packs.  I decided to play with the #5931 Santa Puppet die set and boy, did I have fun making several versions of this Santa.  I have several more that aren't christmas so I'll save those for another post.  Stay tuned.

For my first Santa, I made him a dancing tag.  His body and legs move.  Check out the video below.

I partial die cut the pants (cut up to top of pant and then hand cut to make pant waist higher - see Pic 1).  I die cut all of the other pieces as well as an extra jacket and hands and decorated accordingly (see Pic 1 below).  The oval white piece on the right is a rough cut of the back of the head as you will need a base piece.  I then punched a hole in the three pieces as seen in Pic 1.  To put them together so that Santa dances, hold the leg piece where you want it to fall under the finished jacket.  Turn this over and adhere a foam dot into the hole (Pic 2).  Layer the extra jacket behind the back of the other jacket and adhere with the foam dot (see Pic 3).  Next hold the face over the front of the jacket, turn over and place another foam dot into the hole on the back of the jacket (see Pic 4).  Adhere the head base piece onto the foam dot in the jacket.   Your dancing Santa is ready for decorating with a pompom on the hat and a string to hang from the tree or present.

       Pic 1                                                                                      Pic 2

    Pic 3                                                                                           Pic 4

     Pic 5

     

My other variations using the 5931 Santa Puppet die set:

Cut my Santa in half and made two tags, one of which using the 5132 Tag Stitched Die.  I popped up the chimney and placed the body of Santa upside down into the chimney.   The second tag, I scored the arms before putting the cuffs on and folded them in half, then put the cuffs on the outer side so he was wrapping his arms around the star.  I also added google eyes to him for fun.  I cut several snowflakes from the 4804 Snowflake dies and the icicles on the chimney are from the 5407 Birthday Cake gift card die.  The sentiment is from 5350 Animal Nativity set and the candy canes are from 5457 Christmas Truck cubbies and the 5187 Gingerbread cubbies.

For the following tag I decided to make him a gnome santa.  I shortened his arms and legs and placed the hat lower on his face.  For his beard, I cut two but I cut one differently, by cutting half and then moved the die to stretch his beard and make it wider.  Another thought, you could use the 5223 Bookmark die and cut the top tab off to make a smooth beard.  He actually fits perfectly, but I wanted a fuller beard.  The die used for the santa sack is included in the 5931 Santa Puppet die set.  I believe it is actually to be used as the santa face base, however, I saw someone suggest a possible santa sack so I borrowed her great idea.  I wish I could remember who it was, so I could give her a shout out.   The candy canes are from the 5178 Gingerbread Cubbies and the banner is from 5722 Birthday Journal die set.  The sentiment is from 5192 Penguin Cheer set.