My Mixed Media Santa and Elf From The "Beyond The Imaginarium" Class

In Session 2 of Artful Gathering this year I decided to take "Beyond the Imaginarium: A Compendium of Holiday Merriment" Class which was being taught by Mary Jane Chadbourne.

We were to learn how to make mixed media holiday art dolls.  Well, for me, all you have to do is whisper holiday and art dolls and my ears perk up. Plus, I had taken two of Mary Jane's classes before and knew they would be a lot of fun.

I had decided to buy two of Mary Jane's art doll wood kits that were available for this class as I didn't want to have to cut the wood myself.  One of the wood kits had the unfinished wood pieces to make the Santa and Elf Doll and the other had the unfinished wood pieces needed to make the three "Deerly Yours" dolls.

The doll pictured above is the Santa mixed media art doll that I made. He took a long time to make as I had to find a graphic face that would be suitable for his size and had to re-size it several times until I was happy with the size.

After that I needed to decide on the different papers I would use for his outfit and what other embellishments I was going to add. I knew I wanted to make a festive but somewhat Victorian type of Santa..... now why would that be!

As a result my Santa ended up with some fancy lace trim on the bottom of his motif fabric vest and hem of his sleeves. I also added a flowery shirt.  All in all definitely Victorian.....

He also ended up with sponge painted arms to match his sponge painted back.  What would one of my creations be without some sponge painting.....lol

The wood glasses came with the wood kit and I painted them with a gold metallic paint.  I wanted to differentiate between the white of his beard, hair, hat trim and pom-pom so I applied streaks of gold and white metallic paint.

As you know I just love creating holiday dolls and crafts utilizing the word "Joy."  Well, close to ten years while shopping at BJ's I found a set of adorable 3D type paper Christmas gift tags.  One of those was a paper wreath with the word "joy" suspended in the middle of the wreath.

Instead of using this set as gift tags I had decided to save them and use them for my craft purposes.  They were really adorable and you just never know what you are going to use when crafting.  So, I've been holding on to them and the "joy" wreath seemed perfect for my Santa to hold in his arms.

I wanted him to appear to be holding the wreath in his clay arms and hands and to also make it seem like it was suspended away from his body.  So, I added holes to my Santa's clay hands so I could affix the back of the wreath to a piece of wire.  To keep the wreath away from his body I glued flat wood green circles 1/4" thick to the back of the wreath and then glued them to his body.

I decided to emboss two wood signs, "peace and be jolly" I had bought and glued them to the bottom of his body and added Christmas floral embellishments and paper banner to his base.

I laughed my way through creating my Santa and find myself laughing every time look at him.  I don't have to be reminded to "be jolly" as he provides all the "jolly" anyone needs.

My 2nd doll took a long time to make for the same reason the Santa did.  I had to find a graphic face that would be suitable for his size and had to re-size it several times until I was happy with the size.

I love fiber embellishments and wanted to add these type of embellishments to my elf.  So, I added fibers to his hat, alpaca hair, and a cheery fiber filled scarf.  I painted wood square glasses I had with gold paint and glued them to his face.  I also had a pair of paper leaves that I thought would look cute on his hat so I added them and painted them with a teal green paint.

He also ended up with sponge painted arms to match his sponge painted back. You know I can't resist creating something without some sponge painting.....lol

The set of adorable 3D type paper Christmas gift tags set that I found years ago while shopping at BJ's also had a paper wreath with sequins.  Instead of using this set as gift tags I had decided to save them and use them for my craft purposes.  They were really adorable and you just never know what you are going to use when crafting.  So, I've been holding on to them and the sequin wreath seemed perfect for my Elf to hold in his arms.

I wanted him to appear to be reluctantly holding the sequin wreath in his clay arms and hands and to also make it seem like it was suspended away from his body.  So, I added holes to my Elf's clay hands so I could affix the back of the wreath to a piece of wire.  I didn't want to see the wire across the center of the wreath so I added a paper "believe" sign I had created to the center and glued the wire across the back of it.  For the back and front of the areas of the wire that would be showing I added Christmas decorative fiber ribbon.  I added enough wire to the sides of the wreath so it looked like it was suspended away from his body, albeit reluctantly, but suspended none the less.

Multiple miniature Christmas decorations were added to his base as well as a "Believe In The Magic Of Christmas" paper sign.

I laughed my way through creating my Elf and find myself laughing every time look at him.  I just love the look on his face.  He doesn't know whether to be happy or overwhelmed by the amount of work he has to do at the holidays.  He certainly is tired of holding up his sign...  Maybe he needs to be reminded to "believe" himself.  Shall we ask him?