December Shenanigans {and a tutorial thrown in}

All bets are off, friends.

It's December and time for some Christmas blogging.

And photography.

♥

Santa with mascara.

Shocking, right?

I can explain...

One of the perks of being me is that I'm unemployed at the moment which means I have time to devote to a free-12-day-online-photography-class offered by CJ. {Not that being unemployed is a perk, but I'm dealing with it...} Assignment #1 was to post a festive self-portrait. I originally just took a photo of myself wearing a Santa hat {see profile picture} but when I saw what some others were posting {over-the-top-clever-and-funny} I knew I had to step it up.

I searched the internet for a Santa beard pattern, and the rest is history...

The whole DebSanta thing was a little weird, so I called on Doug for some help. {I know, I know, poooorrrr Doug...}. As soon as I put the Santa beard on him I started laughing. Oh my gosh. I'm laughing just typing this. His body language was screaming "I DON'T LIKE THIS..."  Ok... ok.... his voice was saying he wasn't real crazy about it either, but he's a good sport and he accommodated me.

I could go on about the quality of the photos not being what I'd like it to be, but these are some really fun photos so I'm going to post them anyway...  {BTW, I uploaded them to Picnik and did some basic editing and they are much better. Thanks, Carrie!}

This next picture totally cracks me up. It's like I'm all excited and giddy because I'm next to... well... SANTA!!!

Ah! Just couldn't help myself...

♥ !!!!! 

Ok, so here's the tutorial part. I got the pattern here and changed it up just a little - made it about an inch longer and added some curves around the bottom edge.

I used two layers of white felt, traced the pattern using a disappearing ink pen, sewed around the lines and then trimmed the pieces out cutting close to the stitching. Carrie will argue about pinning every time {she hates it}, but it really makes a difference in your finished project.

I hand-stitched the moustache in place, and used a 9" piece of elastic to complete the beard.

Even if you just print the pattern and cut it out of paper, this is a really fun piece to have around. I made a couple extra for some little people in my life, but I'm keeping this one:

♥

Weird.

Santa with girl eyes again.

But this is the one I used for my photo

assignment self-portrait so I had to include it.
:o)

Get your jolly on - apparently I have.
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Also linking to Vintage Gwen - "A Special Christmas Soiree"
:o)