Here Comes Santa Claus!

Here is an old Air Force award of mine made into a Santa decoration!

It made a lovely and well received Christmas present!

The project started with a few sketches.  I thought perhaps I was just going to make a Santa face, but I settled on the second sketch.

Sketch 1:

Sketch 2:

I then used strips of pages from a 1955 Standard Highway Mileage Guide to wrap the piece.  The guide was being thrown away by a local library.  Always be on the lookout for unique (and FREE) items that can be used in your art.  I figured Santa was a traveler, so old maps would be perfect!

I used a papier mache technique I first used in grade school:  strips of paper soaked in Elmer's Glue and water.  Simple, yet effective!

  Once the piece was wrapped completely I let it dry for a day.

I then used an ordinary #2 pencil to draw my Santa sketch onto the piece. 

Next came the paint!  I used Liquitex acrylic paint.  Once the paint was dry I decided to give Santa an old, antiqued look with some Fragile Crackle (follow the directions on the Fragile Crackle bottles).

To antique, I mixed Extender and Burnt Umber and brushed it over the piece.  I wiped off the excess with a paper towel.  I was careful not to wipe too much.  You want some of the dark paint to stay in the cracks.

The last step was to varnish the piece with Gloss Varnish. 

And voila!  You are done!