'Tis The Season For Gift Giving

How to give a gift and a card at the same time - that little gift bag is the perfect size for a voucher or money or even something small like jewellery.

Hi Everyone! A couple of weeks ago, I started to enter some card making challenges - just to test myself in a lot of ways. It took me weeks to get the courage to enter one and now  I am utterly hooked of course!

I am hoping at this point that it is not possible to overdo things at Christmas!

It was just something that I wanted to do for a bit of self development and a bit of sharing - honestly, you would not believe the lovely friends that I have made doing this. And  I am constantly blown away be the talent around me.

I love the idea of layering and texture!

So imagine my surprise when I won a challenge! I still cannot believe it actually. I famously do not win anything. Ever. I am still checking to make sure that I have it right and I would like to thank the Design Team for making my century with their lovely comments.

The star of the show is the gift bag right at centre stage in the middle of the card.

I was the winning entry in the Frilly and Funky Haunted Halloween challenge and if you would like some more details, you can find the post for that one here. 

I like the pine cones with some of the bits left in them.

The challenge at the moment over at Frilly and Funkie is 'Tis the Season for Gift Giving and I urge you to join in the fun by entering something. It is the most fun and you really don't know where it will take you!

The bag is (naturally) the perfect size for a gift card.

I wanted to make a card but I wanted it to reflect the changing climate of gift giving - one where the recipient may live some distance from the giver. My card had to be a card and gift in one. A card that could take a gift card, voucher, money or even a small actual gift like jewellery. I have lived across the globe from my family for most of my life and the postage can be horrendous. I wanted to make a way to send a card and a gift at the same time.

I have lived away from family and friends my whole life - a way to send a gift and a card at the same time through (usually quite expensive) post is a bonus! 

So here is what I came up with. I do hope that you like it and that it will get the creativity flowing! I have used almost exclusively Tim Holtz products and I will let you know what you need as we go along.

This is a floral riot of a card!

To begin with, I chose an 8 1/4" x 6" card blank and I cut a piece of plain white card stock about the same size for the front. This will become the background. I like to mat my cards so I cut a piece of black linen textured paper the same size and rubbed the edges with Picket Fence Distress Ink.

Black might seem an odd choice for Christmas but nothing adds more drama and you can always soften it as I have done here.

The background itself needs a lot of texture. With something like this, I almost always start with Distress Oxides in Old Paper and Antique Linen just to get rid of the white!

It doesn't look like much to begin with but bear with me....

Sometimes I go in again too - and a top tip is to have another piece of card ready and mop up the excess ink. You don't waste any that way. You can put the second piece aside and you are ready to go for another make.

These two colours are a great place to start on any background. They go with everything!

Next I added Pumice Stone and Hickory Smoke Oxides and kept the layers going. Don't forget to dry in between coats either to avoid mud.

That moodiness could become anything depending on what you do next!

Dry between each addition....

Wet on dry equals layers, wet on wet equals mud - Tim says so! Dry in between each layer!

Believe it or not, the surprise ingredient is Frayed Burlap Oxide! It warms the greys up and marries beautifully with the first colours.

It is a shame to cover up actually!

You could leave the background there of course but I never know when to stop and cannot leave anything alone so I usually do something with stamps at this point. 

Don't use the block for this, just randomly add print.

I also like to splatter with white acrylic paint (DecoArt Americana Snow). I love the fact that if I concentrate this in one spot, it can cover any bloopers caused by the stamp!

I keep a toothbrush for this job.

The background is starting to take shape now...

Lovely old sheet music. In a snowstorm! It's Christmas, give me this one!

Finally for the background, I inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. This frames everything beautifully. 

You can darken more with ground espresso if it is not dark enough.

Then I stitched it to the black background with black thread going around twice and not being too neat.

I literally cannot make a card without stitching something on it!

And I love to curl the edges over the stitching to add dimension. Just do that here and there...

I did this once by accident and I loved it! It reminds me of old pirate maps.

This card is all about gift giving so we need somewhere to hold the gift. I have decided on the Sizzix die Gift Card Bag (#662687) for this job and I cut a bag out of black Kraft-Core card stock. And, me, being me, I sanded it!

Sanding is another thing that I cannot leave alone.

The front is the main bit so I concentrated on that. The next thing was to fold it and press the creases in. I love the Clover Roll and Press for this job. it is actually for sewing but....

Never be afraid to shamelessly steal tools from one part of your craft room to use in another!

Let's back up the truck a bit. As you can see, this has the 'right side' showing on the top curved bit even though this paper is single sided? I cheated and cut a second bit to put on there....

There is nothing technically wrong with seeing the kraft side of the paper when you fold it into a bag. It is just that this is not what I had in my imagination so it had to go!

You can do it too - I won't tell anyone! The next thing it needed was a message. I went with Ranger Superfine Embossing powder in white for this.

This stamp is becoming a favourite and it makes a really grungy emboss.

It is just rustic enough and has a sorta vintage chalkboard effect.
Well we have a really brown card at the moment (Tim would be proud I am sure) but we need to 'Christmas' this up a bit. That is a thing I promise!

I placed this one at an angle with some foam squares for dimension (I wanted to tuck the greens underneath)...

Adding the foam squares allowed for some space underneath for the foliage. This tends to look more natural that putting the foliage down first.

So enter the greenery. I sanded some kraft core paper and I cut a whole lot of random greens. 

I find that sanding the kraft core paper first is easiest.

My favourite dies are Holiday Greens Mini (#661597) and I have chosen the pine and holly and tucked them around the gift tag bag....

There is just enough clearance on the envelope.

Keep adding!

Allow some of the greenery to overlap the edges of the card here and there. not too much because it has to go into an envelope but a little bit adds to the layers.

Because there are pine needles, there must be pine cones and they had to be gold (I am sorry, I think that it is the law or something)....

Allow some of the pieces to remain in the die when you cut the pine cones. It adds texture.

You can separate the pine cones too to put them where they are most needed...

Allow these to go over the stitching and layering lines too.

Then there needed to be some red so I made some little flowers from sanded kraft core (red this time) and gave them gold centres (a bit about them later). I love the Small Tattered Florals die (#661806). I glued the flowers around the greenery....

Probably more of a summer flower by design but they take on a Christmas quality in this context. Always explore your dies and try them out of season.

And finally (!) a gold bow and some holly berries. 

The bow is grounding and gives a place for the eye to rest as a focal point.

I made the berries and flower centres from Nuvo drops but I like to make them on a non stick craft mat first and then when they dry, I use them. This stops them from running together and spoiling. You are very welcome!