Ready, Set, Christmas!
A My Favorite Things Challenge
Good day, fellow crafters. The holiday season is a time of warmth, togetherness, and heartfelt gestures. While many people wait until the last minute to send out their Christmas cards, there is something magical about creating and preparing them early. By embracing the spirit of early Christmas card creation, we not only ease the stress of the holiday rush but also embark on a delightful journey of creativity and connection. Each month MFT sponsors this contest which gives me the added incentive to do some cards early and practice and polish my skills at the same time. I hope you are inspired to get to work on your Christmas card list creation as well.
Although I take pride in my own creativity, I must acknowledge that this particular card design drew inspiration from a couple of older MFT die sets in my collection. The primary element utilized was the Peaceful Dove (MFT-2412) die set, positioned on the left, accompanied by the Peace die set (MFT-2406) below. It's worth noting that at the time of writing this blog post, the Peace die set was unfortunately unavailable on MFT's website. However, alternative sources still offer it for purchase.
As you can see the Dove die is very simple to use, though your recipient need never know. It has markings on it that make placement a breeze. I first cut the Dove body and wing out of white cardstock, then the olive branch out of green cardstock, and finally the beak out of orange-hued cardstock. *Editors note: I thought about this after I created the card but if you cut the wing out twice and slightly fan them out like you would playing cards, you could simulate a more 3D appearance. I adhered the pieces together, the olive branch going between the beak cut out and the body cut out so it appeared to be holding it.
The next step was to choose a background for the dove. I decided on a non-traditional, desaturated dark blue. My design idea was to evoke a wintry feel, reminiscent of the clear night skies. This color also goes exceptionally well with gold or silver which I had planned to incorporate. Before I adhered anything to it I used some Hero Arts ink in Unicorn to lighten the center of the card as a natural focal point for the viewer’s eye.
The next step was to use the Peace Die and cut out the letters for my sentiment. A tip for you if you did not happen to think about it, whenever my sentiment, sentiment tag, or any other of the various components of my card are going to be the same color as the mat I use, I will cut those elements from the center of the mat so I am not wasting any materials. This is what I did here but the real reason I mention it is that once cut out you can use the piece that now how the holes align the cutout pieces on the card, just like inlaying tiles they go right in and are perfectly spaced. With that completed I adhered the dove, trimmed the background and the gold mat to their final dimension, and mounted them all to a pre-cut A2 white card base.
To give the card its final touches I blacked the eye in with a black gel pen and then added a small white pupil. I also used some Weather Wood colored Distress Oxide to give the dove a bit more definition.
