Retro Santa Free Printable and Tutorial

I made up a few of these Christmas prints for my retail booth. They are super easy to make, and they've sold well. 

 

I promised a tutorial for making your own and a free printable. So here we go.

My first stop for graphics is almost always the Graphics Fairy, she has a huge collection of graphics free for you to use. For this project I chose a retro Santa graphic, you can download it here.

I also used this sheet music image. This is a scan of vintage Santa Claus is Coming to Town sheet music that I have in my collection.

{Right click on the sheet music and save it to your computer.}

 

I used Photoshop Elements 9 to create a brush to use with this project. If you aren't familiar with using brushes, they really work more like a stamp than a brush. And are super fun to use.

 

Disclaimer ~ I work on a PC and I don't know much of anything about working on a Mac. So my directions will be based on PC commands, but this is a simple enough project and I'm sure Mac users can follow along.

 

 

If you just drag the Santa graphic onto the sheet music it will look like the above image. Not the look I was going for. I wanted a transparent graphic to overlay on the sheet music.

Not to worry, in just a few clicks you can create a brush from a graphic to re-size as necessary and use again and again.

 

 

I like to begin by clicking on the Brush tool, and making sure I'm in the file folder with my collection of brushes, not the default PSE brushes. (see above) That way, when I create a new brush, it will be in my folder and easy for me to find.

With the Santa image in your workspace, go to Edit>Define Brush.
Once you click on Define Brush, you will be asked to name the new brush, and your brush tool will become the Santa image.

Now to create the image with the sheet music. I begin by creating a new document.
File>New>Blank File, choose Photo in the drop down menu next to Preset.
Then I choose 5 x 7 size.
It's a good not too big, not too small size, but you can choose the size you want. I find it's easiest to begin with the finished size you want, instead of trying to resize it when you print. That way the image isn't too large or too small from resizing.

Once you have your new 5x7 size workspace, drag the sheet music onto the background layer.
Then flatten the image.
Now choose the Brush tool, make sure your Santa brush is loaded and chosen.
Making sure black is the active color (or what color you prefer) hover the Santa brush over the sheet music and using the left/right brackets, resize the brush as necessary to fit your page size. Then click your mouse.
Ta-Da.
You have a Santa. It should look something like the image above.
If it's not the right size, or not centered the way you want, click the undo arrow and try again.
Once you have your image the way you wish, print it out. I use HP Everyday Matte Photo Paper (I have an HP photo printer). You could also print onto cardstock.

Whew. I hope all that makes sense to you, I think that is my first PSE tutorial, and I'm no pro at PSE. Not by a long shot.

However, if all of that's about to make your head explode, and you just want to print the image, frame it and move on, then here you go.

{right click on the above image and save to your computer}

 

This process can be used for all sorts of images, of course. I've created some for spring and for Halloween, you're only limited by your imagination and the graphics you can find. If you can't find an image you like at the Graphic's Fairy, I'd be surprised.

And that's about all of the Christmas decorations I have up at my house so far. *sigh*

If you make a printable using this process, I'd love to see see it, leave us a link in the comments to your project.

 

Linking up at I Gotta Create! Check out the party there for more fun holiday ideas.

Thanks for stopping by,

Maureen