Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

... especially with all the snow recently!  I hope everyone is keeping warm.

On the plus side, this is the perfect weather for staying indoors, hiding out in your craft room & getting creative, whether its making pieces to decorate the home, hand made gifts for loved ones or simply crafting for crafting sake!

For those of you with children or grandchildren, there is also the countdown to reindeer-led sleighs & a man in a big red suit & white beard bringing presents.  He goes by many names around the world - Father Christmas, Santa Claus, Saint Nicolas, Pere Noel, Weihnachtsmann & Kanakaloka (to name a few), but wherever you are in the world & whatever you call him, this is the inspiration for my make this month.

So to make a Santa inspired decoration, you will need

a Styrofoam cone, Powertex Red, Powertex Ivory (or White), Stone Art, Powertex Transparent, Paperdeco White, Easy Varnish, Powercolor Red, Powercolor Black & Colortricx Powerpearl

I started by giving the cone an initial coat of Powertex Red.  Powertex loves to stick to Powertex, so this forms a great base to work off.

While this was drying, I mixed up a quantity of Stone Art clay using the Powertex Ivory, & another larger batch of clay using the Powertex Red & Stone Art.  Wrap both batches separately in cling film to stop them from drying out.

Form the face using the Ivory Stone Art Clay.  I positioned the face about 2/3rds of the way up the cone, forming the nose from a ball of clay.  TIP: The clay can be smoothed by using a little water on your finger tip & rubbing it across the surface to blend the pieces of clay together.  Form the eyes using the end of a paint brush handle/your finger or similar.

The cone was then covered using the red clay.  Roll the clay out flat & apply to the cone, smoothing & blending the pieces together using a little water.

The Paperdeco White was perfect to add details like his beard, eyebrows & 'fur' trim on his hat & body.  I used Powertex Transparent for this to avoid colour transfer onto the red stone art clay, which would have happened if using the Ivory or White Powertex.  

Allow to dry.

The final stage was to add the details to his face - rosy cheeks/nose using Easy Varnish & Powercolor Red, eyes using the Powercolour Black & then a light overbrush with the Colortricx Powerpearl to add a frosty shimmer.

And here he is - all ready to deliver presents on Christmas Eve.....