Let’s go to Mexico

February 4, 2023

Hi all!! Sylvia here with my very first post on the Elizabeth Craft Designs blog. I am so happy to be a member of the talented design team at Elizabeth Craft Designs! You might know me from the ECD family page where I regularly show new characters by mixing and matching my dies. Today I’d like to show you how I build my characters, mixing and matching dies from various die sets from Joset’s collections.
We are creating a male and female Mexican character, so let’s get started. (Photo)

Step 1: Die cutting

Die cut all parts needed from Soft finish cardstock, using mrs. Claus for the Mexican girl (photo 2), some flowers for her hair from Adventure Edges 2 and parts of the farmer set, prince, gnomes, holiday stocking and the guitar from the safari accessories set for the male (Photo 3), see full supply list below. Note: die cut Mrs. Claus’ neck/body 2x (1 for the male, 1 for the female).

Step 2: Coloring

Use distress ink, oxide ink and markers to color all parts. (Photo). Use Tea dye Distress Ink for all skin tone body parts (head, neck, arms, hands, legs), Black soot oxide for hair, moustache, dress, pants, shoes, Lumberjack plaid for red trims, Mustard seed for sombrero rim and top and yellow trims, markers in yellow, red and orange for the poncho and orange trims. (Photo)

Step 3: Drawing

Draw a pattern on the poncho as shown in the photo using a black fineliner and use the markers for coloring. Cut off the rounded corners (use photo as reference). Draw the eyes, brows, nose and mouth with a fineliner, following the embossed lines. I gave the female an extra mole. (Photo)

Step 4: assemble the female

I wanted the dress to be off shoulder, so I glued it a bit lower than normal on the body. Her hands are behind her back. Decorate the dress to your liking with yellow, red and orange trims and add flowers to her hair. (Photo)

Step 5: assemble the male

First cut a slot in the rim of the sombrero, wide enough to fit the head (photo).

Glue the hair, moustache and neck on to the head. Slide the sombrero rim over the hair and glue it down. Stick the top on the sombrero. (Photo)

Stick the pants on the body and the shoes under the pants. Stick the poncho on top of the body. Stick one hand to a straight sleeve and the other hand to the bend sleeve. Glue the guitar in place, position both arms and stick them down. (Photo)

Now you have 2 Mexican characters to use on a card or in your planner. (Photos). Hope you enjoyed my tutorial. If you have any questions, please ask. Note: the characters on the card below are slightly different than the ones we created today (that’s because I created them a few months ago)

Happy crafting!!

Sylvia