Detachable tag Christmas card

I have been reading a book called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I might have mentioned it some previous blog posts. It's quite interesting, and as opposed to many other books that talk more about the mindset and very elusive and abstract, this book has a lot of very practical and hands on ideas of increasing happiness in your life. One of the ones I have really taken to is reducing clutter and "stuff" in general. I have been going through my wardrobes, my random cupboards and trying to let go of things. Another idea I have read about in blogs relating to the same line of thinking is that we hold on to a lot of things just because we think we ought to. I'm not saying we shouldn't hold on to things that truly have sentimental value, of course we should, but I'm questioning whether we need to hold onto every single card we get sent for example. I have it in the back of my mind that it's somehow an obligation to hang on to them, and I have gone through a lot of my old birthday and Christmas cards, hanging on to those that I really find I have a sentimental connection to but getting rid of those that I feel I only keep "because I'm supposed to". This is such an interesting idea, I could go on about it for pages and pages. Particularly as this house is inhabited by another person who is very sentimentally attached to even the smallest things. It's quite interesting that my Mum is very minimalist, and she works hard to get rid of clutter, whereas the family of my dearest are very much sentimentally attached to a lot of things, so I think our attitude to how to connect with material possessions is strongly linked to the behaviour of our parents.

Anyhow, this got me thinking of my Christmas cards. Are people hanging onto them just because they feel they have to? Is there anything I can do to help them enjoy the thought that I have put into the cards, but then let go of them? Maybe there would be a way to get people to recycle the cards? And then the current, very ingenious sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch gave me an idea (I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of this, but I can't point to any specific inspiration where I would have seen this done). What if I make the tag detachable, and encourage people to use it for a gift. Then the remains are much easier to dispose of, as it's no longer a "proper" card. Plus there is the added benefit of recycling some of the materials, and hopefully bringing some joy to yet another person as well. 

The card without the tag and the reverse side of the tag.

For this card, I started by die cutting the tag using a die from Lawn Fawn Tag You're It from the purple paper from Let's Polka in the Dark. I stamped the matching tag onto red paper from the same collection, and fussy cut it to match the tag. Then I stamped the adorable little reindeer from Party Animal and added the gingerbread man and christmas hat from Holiday Party Animal, die cut with the matching dies and coloured with Copics. I die cut the Merry using the Merry Christmas border die from gold mirri card and stamped the smallest "Christmas" I could find in my stamp stash (it's from Stampin' Up Endless Wishes). I also stamped a greeting and some small images on the back of the tag in case the recipient of the card chooses to use it as intended.

I think next time I will edit the text to start "I would love it if
you wanted to recycle the tag" instead.

For the background, I brushed water onto watercolour cardstock I had cut using the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies. Then I added Tim Holtz Festive Berries and Seedless Preserves ink and blended them together. I also flicked some colour splotches using my watercolour brush. I really love playing with these watercolour backgrounds lately. I also heat embossed some gold speckles onto the background, although unfortunately it doesn't show very well in the picture. Then all that was needed was to attach the tag using a few small glue dots which I had "de-stickyfied" between my fingers so that the tag will pop off easily. I also added some twine, again it's detachable so it can be used to tie the tag to a present. I absolutely love this idea, and feel a bit bummed I have already created more cards than I need for Christmas. Oh well, next Christmas everyone is getting a detachable tag card from me, be pre-warned!

In addition to linking up with CAS(E) This Sketch, I would like to enter the Christmas Challenge over at Happy Little Stampers where the theme is Tag. I'm also playing along over at Time Out where the theme is Christmas Card with purple or pink. Last but not least there are a few Christmas themed blogs that inspired today's card, so I would like to link up with Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge where the theme is Bright Colours, the lovely Jingle Belles where the theme is Holiday food (talking about Gingerbread as it's my chosen Christmas food... did I tell you I got an alpaca cookie cutter when we went to the alpaca show last weekend? Can anyone say alpaca gingerbread for Christmas? Yaaay!!! To be honest, I really like reindeer as well, although given the cute fellow on the card, that's probably a bit morbid. If you haven't tried it, I would warmly recommend if you ever get a chance, but maybe not at Christmas...) and ABC Christmas Challenges where the theme is V is for Very Cute.  

Card: 300 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Whisper White card, gold mirri card

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka in the Dark

Stamps: Lawn Faw Party Animal, Holiday Party Animal, Thank You Tags, (&matching dies for all Lawn Fawn stamp sets), Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge and Endless Wishes

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark and Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz distress inks Seedless Preserves, Festive Berries

Colouring: Copics

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Merry Christmas border die, Tag You're It dies, red and white bakers twine from my stash