I found this Santa Head die at a sale - it used to belong to Jenni from Scrapbooking by Design - whose store has sadly shut down (but not their online store!)...and it was very well used, but that says a lot for Sizzix dies, because its perfectly functional!  I don't know if many of you out there have the original Sizzix's, but this one is red. I only normally know the ones I sell from Stampin' Up! which come in grey. 

Anyways, my point is that I ran Santa through my BIG SHOT and then I was sort of under-whelmed!  Yeah, I was....mmmm, not so much!  But then - I went to work on it!  I did the following....

- i) ran a piece of WHISPER WHITE paper first through an EMBOSSING FOLDER;

- ii) ran embossed paper back through with the SANTA HEAD DIE  to create a separate beard and TWO moustaches (add a second piece of scrap paper over moustache area to get 2 pieces).

- glittered the edges all around both pieces - very thickly to get a real sparkle!  

- paper pieced the white beard over his face and mounted the second moustache over Santa's face's first moustache with some foam mounts.

- cut and mounted a set of eyebrows in the Whisper White.

- coloured his face with chalks, blushed his cheeks, etc. 

.....................and all of a sudden, SANTA LOOKED GREAT!!!  So a boost was all the die needed IMO. 

Card Base =  measures 5-1/2 x 7inches,  Top Fold, Pacific Point cardstock.

Top Layer Mat - cut and emboss a Whisper White cardstock, 5 x 6-1/2 inches and set aside. 

- using a new wood pencil - or a used wood pencil still with a very nice erasure - shave down the size of the pencil to within the size of the card's top layer mat. 

- cut a "thin strip of blue paper ribbon " about 4 inches long and cut the ends in a pleasing fashion;  roll tightly around the pencil and secure the two sections together with a small brad and place and push through the white top mat cardstock which was set aside,...

- now attach the white mat/pencil to the card's front, centering. 

- layer a strip of Decorative Paper cardstock to the white mat, at about 2/3 rds down the front mat. I used red striped from our STAMPIN' UP'S CUTE CHRISTMAS DESIGNER PAPER

- create and mat some small sections of cardstock to create a background frame for a letter 'A' or 'A+' and attach to the right end of the decorative strip.

- attach SANTA with foam mounts (Stampin' Up's Stampin" Dimensionals)

AS A FUN THING for a young person....I used our JEWELLERY TAG PUNCH to make a little more of a statement on the back of the card, you know, we usually stamp "hand-made by....so'n'so", right?  Well, I thought IF you are a little person giving this to your teacher, wouldn't it be nice to acknowledge their action of choosing the card?  I thought a very young student would love this part, as they can 'write' their name down on the last tag which is why I left it empty!  

                                                                                 [giver can 'sign' back of card]

ok - so much for a quick post, lol! 

Hope you enjoyed this! Ta!

PS - if anyone wants a die cut of this Santa Head - just email me!