All Aboard the Santa Express!
A #PaperCraft Project
December has arrived, ’tis the season! I’m delighted to share a brand-new project now available on the Brother Creative Center, free for everyone to download and make. The Santa Express is a joyful paper playset, complete with characters, carriages, and a charming steam engine to print, cut out, and assemble. Ho ho ho!
The project began with a chat with the Brother International Creative Center team. I suggested that a Santa Express might make a fun festive build, and they agreed. I sketched out the idea and sent over this page from my sketchbook as the starting point.
With their approval in hand, I set about building the first draft of the train. At this stage I used different coloured card, focusing mainly on the shape and scale of the design. My original plan was to include rotating wheels and axles, but with ten sets of wheels that would have meant cutting twenty circular holes, an ambitious task even for a seasoned paper modeller! In the end I fixed the wheels in place instead. Don’t worry, the Santa Express runs perfectly well with static wheels.
I made several adjustments to the draft model: shortening the cab, narrowing the sleigh, and redesigning the windows in the rear carriage, along with a few other fine‑tuning tweaks. After assembling another version in coloured card, I moved to the computer to add colour and festive decorations to the final parts layout. I’m really pleased with how the finished design came together, I feel it captures the cheerful spirit I’d hoped for and feels ready to roll out for the season.
The final stage was photographing a complete step‑by‑step build and adding the instructions to the file. Because Brother is an international company, the instructions are purely visual, pictures with numbered parts. You can visit their site, download the file, and give it a try. Does this picture‑led approach feel clear and easy to follow? I hope so! If you try it, I’d love to hear what worked and what could be clearer.
As mentioned, the complete Santa Express project is available to download from the Brother website, free for everyone. I hope you’ll give it a go!
Also on the Brother site (and I admit this one comes a little late for this year), I created an Advent chest of drawers.
Each drawer in the Christmas countdown is just the right size to hide a festive treat. Perhaps you could make one now and have it ready for next December?
Thank you so much for reading and for joining me on this festive journey. If you’ve enjoyed following along, I’d love for you to become part of the newsletter community, sign up to receive future projects, stories, and seasonal makes straight to your inbox. It’s a gentle way to stay connected and keep the creativity rolling all year round.
What fun!