A card and gift combined!

I love to make cards that include a gift or decoration....that way the recipient has something to keep :) With the festive season right around the corner this seemed like the perfect time to make one and I decided to use our December Take 3 challenge prompts as my inspiration.

Let me show you how I made this card with a detachable bird decoration:

Our Take 3 Challenge is a monthly challenge in the Fun with Funky Fossil FB group - each month we pick 3 inspiration prompts and use them to create our projects. The prompts and colours for December are:

I like to gather supplies that I think will work for a challenge before I start so that I can focus on making rather than hunting down bits and pieces as I go. The process of gathering the supplies can also spark inspiration too....invariably I find things that I had forgotten that I had! Firstly I try to find inks, paints, papers etc that are close to the colour palette. These are the items that I pulled together to start with:

I started with the background and blended Shaded Lilac, Bundled Sage and Weathered Wood Distress Oxides on to a panel of cardstock. I kept the colours light for this stage so that I could stamp over the top. Once blended I splattered the background with water to lift some of the colour.

I stamped around the edge of the background using our A5 Festive Greenery stamp set. The stamping is tone on tone in greens and lilacs. I overlapped the stamps and stamped twice in places to get the lighter 'second generation' print. My aim was to build up a frame for the focal point.

The layered stamping creates visual depth but the card is still one layer so I added our Snow is Falling stencil with Starlight paste to add a subtle touch of sparkle on the background. I then set the background aside to dry.

Next I wanted to create the focal point and I decided to make a folk bird tag/decoration which would be removable from the card base. To create a base for the bird I brayered some acrylic paints on to a sheet of cardstock in the same shades as the challenge colour palette. If you want to see more ways to use acrylic paints to create backgrounds watch my YouTube video.

I used darker shades of acrylic paint through our Knitted Background stencil over the top of the brayered background. I applied the paint with a cosmetic sponge.

To create the bird tag I drew around one of our MDF scandi birds. As I wanted the decoration to have a front and back I did this twice, making sure to place the bird in opposite directions. I then cut the shapes out:

I simply adhered the 2 sides together and punched a hole through the shape for the ribbon. I inked round the edge with black ink and I sewed round the edge of the bird shape as a further decorative touch. I taped the ribbon to the back of the stamped panel before adhering the panel to the mats and layers. The bird is temporarily held in place by some rolled up washi tape so that it won't move about but will be easy to detach when required. I added a sentiment from our Sentimental Sticker Stack to complete the card.

I am pleased with how this turned out! It is a non traditional colour palette for a Christmas card and not a palette that I would usually use - that is one of the joys of trying challenges as they push you out of your comfort zone. I also hope that it has given you another idea for using the mdf scandi bird decorations. If you use it as a template you can keep making these decorations. Alternatively you could decorate each of the mdf bird layers separately and add them to cards....the layered mdf bird might be a bit heavy for a cardfront but the individual mdf birds should be fine!

I hope that this has inspired you to look at ways of adding a gift/decoration/removable keepsake to your cards. I would love it if you participate in this month's Take 3 Challenge too! If you want to have a go at this project I have put together a bundle of products that I have used at a fab price :)

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Tell me about the ways that you have incorporated gifts in to your cards - do you add bookmarks, decorations, magnets? I would love to hear your ideas....

Thanks for reading!