Sew a 2020 Christmas Ornament: Santa in a Facemask Tutorial

Sew a silly felt ornament to commemorate this deeply weird year!

I made my masked Father Christmas decorations using my Santa Bauble pattern, but you could easily adapt other festive felt ornament tutorials to make 2020 versions!

To make the masked Santa, follow steps one and two to cut out and assemble all the felt pieces.

Then cut a face mask shape from pale blue felt. You can use the template included at the bottom of the post or just measure a rectangle of felt large enough to cover where Santa's nose and mouth would be, then cut the top and bottom edges to be curved to give a 3D effect.

Position the mask and sew along the straight edges with backstitch and matching pale blue sewing thread.

Then sew along the curved edges with more backstitch.

Add two more curved lines of backstitch to represent the folds of the mask - aim for curves similar to those pictured but don't worry if you end up with uneven spacing or unbalanced curves, the mask will still look like a mask!

For the elastic straps of the mask, sew one stitch with white embroidery thread (floss) coming from each of the four corners. 

I used the whole thickness of my embroidery thread but it's easier to sew with fewer strands! I positioned my stitches so it looks like Santas has the elastic loops tucked behind his ears. 

If the character you're adding a felt mask to doesn't have ears (or, in the case of an animal, maybe has ears on the top of its head) positon your stitches so it looks like the elastic is stretching around the back of the head.

Then give your Santa some eyes! I used black seed beads for my 2020 baubles but you could use black embroidery thread instead (sew a large French knot or just sew a few very small stitches on top of each other to create the eye). 

For the background you could sew on some seed beads (see step four of the original tutorial), or add embroidery. I've been making baubles that say XMAS 2020 or 2020 2020 but you could add any short text you fancy! You'll find the templates I used at the bottom of this post.

When I'm adding a bit of embroidery to felt, I like to use a bit of tissue paper. Write the text you want to stitch onto the tissue paper, tack the paper to the felt with a few stitches of sewing thread, embroider the design with backstitch (I used half the strands of my white embroidery thread), then remove the tacking stitches and carefully tear away the paper to reveal the stitching. 

You can see photos of this technique in my pocket hugs tutorial. 

Finish your bauble by following steps five, six, and seven in the Santa bauble tutorial (I skipped the stuffing for my 2020 baubles to make them easier to post!).

Want to buy one of these ornaments instead of making one? You'll find them in my Etsy shop. 

After I'd sewn some Santas, I couldn't resist making a masked gingerbread man as well! Come back tomorrow for the templates and how to...

 

 

This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it to stitch as many ornaments as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a couple of photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to this page on my blog, and do not reproduce my entire  post on your site. Thanks!

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Click here to open the template sheet in a new window, make sure you're viewing it full size then print it at 100%.

Easy DIY Christmas Card Ideas #5: Baubles!

Friday already! Where has this week gone?

For the final project in my crafty Christmas cards series, instead of Christmas trees how about topping your cards with pretty baubles?

Psst - follow the links to find all DIY Christmas card ideas in this series:

1. Washi Tape.
2. Simple Shapes and Crafty Scraps.
3. Simple Lettering.
4. Christmas Trees.
5. And today's tutorial, Baubles.
 
This tutorial originally appeared on The Village Haberdashery's blog - visit their shop for lots of crafty goodness!

Click here to view and download the template sheets for this series, including the bauble shape.

I’ve kept my baubles pretty simple but you could decorate yours however you like! (This would be another great way to use up crafty scraps!) 

For this design I used a fir branch stamp to decorate the blank card, placing the card on some scrap paper so I could stamp over the edges without making a mess.

I wrote “Merry Christmas” on a bit of white card and cut it out, then cut out a bauble from patterned paper and added a bit of gold washi tape for the bauble cap.

Finally I framed both the bauble and the text with contrasting rectangles of paper then stuck them in place on the card.

I did more stamping for this card, covering a piece of brown paper with gold acorns. I layered this over two strips of gold washi tape to create the background for my bauble.

Instead of adding tape to the bauble cap, this time I added a decorative stripe across the middle of the bauble. I cut a small bit of ribbon and tore a piece of washi tape to attach the ribbon near the top of the card, then glued the bauble on top – holding the ribbon firmly in position, and making the bauble look as if it’s hanging from it.

If you’d like your bauble to actually hang from the card make the bauble from patterned card, punch a hole in the cap then thread it with a piece of yarn, baker’s twine or embroidery thread.

I decorated my final card with a symmetrical design of stripes (like the fancy stripey Christmas tree card I shared yesterday) – I just can’t get enough of lovely washi tape!

I decorated the bauble with a bit of gold washi tape on the cap, and a patterned strip of tape across the middle then glued it to a piece of white card. I then cut the bauble out again, leaving a border of white around the shape, and stuck it in position on the card.

Tip: if you’re doing vertical stripes like this, start in the centre and work outwards. I started at one side and ended up with a slightly lopsided pattern!

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Easy DIY Christmas Card Ideas #4: Christmas Trees!

Hello again! For today's entry in my DIY Christmas card series I'm sharing ideas for making crafty Christmas tree cards using washi tape, patterned paper, and festive stamps.

(Missed posts 1-3? Follow the links to make stripey washi tape cards, cards decorated with simple shapes and crafty scraps, and cards full of festive JOY).

 

UPDATE: follow the links to find all DIY Christmas card ideas in this series!

1. Washi Tape.
2. Simple Shapes and Crafty Scraps.
3. Simple Lettering.
4. Today's tutorial, Christmas Trees.
5. Baubles.

This tutorial originally appeared on The Village Haberdashery's blog - visit their shop for lots of crafty goodness, including Christmas paper pads and washi tape sets.

To make these easy Christmas tree cards, use my Christmas tree templates (click here to view and download the template sheets!) to cut out lots of tree shapes then use them as the focal feature your designs. There are three different templates to choose from: simple trees, mini trees for small cards, and fancy trees.

The minimal shape of the simple tree means you can go bold with the patterns:

Instead of using a blank card for this design, I used half a sheet of fancy festive card – cutting it then folding it in half, and pairing it with a brown kraft paper envelope.

I used the tree template to cut out a patterned green tree then glued it to a piece of white paper. I then carefully cut around the tree, leaving a border of white to frame it and help it stand out from the background pattern, and then stuck it to the card.

For this card I used two Christmassy stamps and a white ink pad to print a pattern on a blank card – the white ink stands out really well against the red! Then I added the tree shape and a handwritten “Merry Christmas” on a small strip of white paper.

To make this stripy tree, I cut out a tree shape from white card and covered it in washi tape stripes. I used gold tape for the tree’s trunk then used pretty festive tapes to cover the tree.

I then cut a piece of brown paper as a simple frame for the design and positioned the tree leaving space to write “Merry Christmas” underneath.

For small Christmas tree cards, use the mini tree template provided.

These are so quick and easy to make! I decorated one card with a stamp and silver ink, one with three strips of washi tape, and made the third from a sheet of patterned card... then added a little tree to all of them.

The fancy tree shape is a little more time consuming to cut out, but it’s totally worth it!

The first card shows off the tree’s shape, with a simple bit of paper to frame it – I chose a pale pink to make the dark tree really stand out. You could add a festive message at the bottom of the card, but I quite like the design as it is.

This is another simple design: I used four pieces of washi tape to make a frame, added a small piece of gold tape to the tree’s trunk then stuck the tree in the centre of the card.

 

You need a bit of patience to make this stripy card but the end result has a lot of wow factor.

Decorate a white card with stripes of Christmas washi tape designs, leaving a small gap between the tape. Start in one corner and work your way across the card, trimming the excess tape as you go.

Glue one of the fancy tree shapes to a piece of white paper or card and cut it out, leaving a narrow white border to frame the tree. Then glue the tree to the centre of the card.

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Easy DIY Christmas Card Ideas #3: Joyfully Simple Lettering

Time for the third part of my Christmas card craft series!

UPDATE:  follow the links to find all DIY Christmas card ideas in this series!

1. Washi Tape.
2. Simple Shapes and Crafty Scraps.
3. Today's tutorial, Simple Lettering.
4. Christmas Trees.
5. Baubles.



This tutorial originally appeared on The Village Haberdashery's blog - visit their shop for lots of crafty goodness!


On Monday I shared cards decorated with stripes of washi tape, then yesterday's cards were decorated with simple shapes and crafty scraps... and today I'm looking at how easy it is to make bold cards with simple lettering.

Festive words cut from patterned paper look great!

I opted for a large JOY but you could cut out smaller letters to spell words like XMAS or MERRY or YULE. Draw your own letter templates print out large letters from your favourite font or use alphabet stickers.

Click here to download my Christmas card template sheet, including the JOY templates.

To cut out the letters, turn some patterned paper over and place the template face down on the back. Trace the shape with a pencil then cut it out and turn the paper over to reveal the finished letter.

For this card I just added a single strip of gold tape to “support” the lettering, sticking the tape on first then sticking the word in place with a glue stick.

For this design I created a background with overlapping paper and tape, positioning the lettering in the centre of the card. See the previous tutorials in the series for tips on adding neat lines of paper and tape to your cards.

 

See? Easy peasy!

More crafty Christmas craft ideas tomorrow...

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