Clean and Simple (CAS) Christmas Santa

Hi everyone, I'm back with a Clean and Simple (CAS) card for Christmas! This sort of design is so useful because you can mix it up really easily to use other products if you don't have exactly the same ones and it will still look really crisp and CAS!

I cut a slightly over-sized panel of heavyweight card stock with my guillotine. Using the My Favorite Things Chevron Grid Stencil I spread a layer of white embossing paste in a small, uneven area at the top right. This one from Finnabair for Prima would work well and can be coloured with your favourite inks or sprays.

The panel was then set aside to dry naturally. If you heat set the embossing paste, you can get really interesting bubbles and texture, but I wanted a smooth look.

While the panel dried, I stamped the Santa and a present from My Favorite Things Merry Everything stamp set onto watercolour card and coloured them in using Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. When they were dry, I die cut them using the co-ordinating My Favorite Things Merry Everything Dienamics. 

By now, the embossing paste on the panel was dry so I die cut it down to the right size using the largest of the Lawn Fawn Large Stitched Rectangle Stackables. 

I added a twist of silver metallic thread over the embossing, then positioned Santa and his prezzie on top with foam pads which also holds the thread in place.

Finally, I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set, glued it down and added an offset strip of silver glitter card. The whole thing was then mounted on a heavyweight card stock base.

So how can you adapt this design to other supplies?

• Use a different stencil.
• Use ink through the stencil instead of embossing paste.
• Use a stamp instead of a stencil, and either leave it 'as is' or heat emboss. (Tip: if you use a large background stamp, ink it lightly and then press down unevenly in just one small area of your card panel using your fingers instead of an acrylic block or stamp press. This gives a small area of coverage and beautifully uneven, faded edges).
• Instead of thread, use a small die cut circle over the background embossing. Glitter card would look fantastic.
• Use a different stamp set! This layout could easily become an autumn card (try Lawn Fawn Jump for Joy), a birthday card (try My Favorite Things Beary Special Birthday) or a wedding/anniversary card (try Altenew Vintage Roses for a pretty, formal look or Wild Hibiscus for a loose, sketched feel).

I hope this gives you some ideas for using this layout with different supplies and for different occasions. Thanks for stopping by!

If you want to Pin this card, here's a Pinterest-ready graphic you can use.