Altenew's Majestic Mistletoe

Welcome everyone! Today's post will have lots of pictures because I did several variations of the same card. Today's card is for the CAS(e) This Sketch Challenge and the Addicted to CAS Challenge for this week. I have made so many Christmas cards in the past week that I think I have nearly enough for all of mine and plenty to share with my Sisters-In-Law as well. We'll be gathering at the Finger Family Farm Thanksgiving Weekend so I'll let them go through my stash of cards then to see what they want.  They always seem to enjoy this very much so it's a tradition I'm planning to continue as long as I make cards!

I've been enjoying the sketch challenges a lot lately so I am trying to participate in those more often than I used to.  This week's Sketch at CAS(e) This Sketch. This sketch is a clean and simple style as usual, but I used it to make quite a few cards - Christmas and a couple of thank you cards as well.  The overall design sweeps from left to right and is what my brain automatically sees when I start a card.  That's because we read the same way -- left to right. I also used the same stamp set for all of these cards; Altenew's Majestic Mistletoe which was just released in September and is my current "favourite" as our Canadian friends say.  Since we are moving in about 6 months, I am trying to only buy products that I will absolutely use. It was love at first sight for this set and even though there are no dies yet, I still got it.  There is something so perfect about greenery, no matter what season it is so I took a lot of creative license and made cards with both, red and white berries.  I actually love the looks of both styles so I made about 15 cards this weekend using this set.

For all except the first card, I started with several panels of 4.25 x 5.5 inch Stampers Select White Cardstock from Papertrey.  The first card was stamped on Vintage Jadeite Cardstock. Stamper's Select White is my go to card stock and I take several packages to Kinkos to have it cut into 4.25 x 11 inch sheets and 8.5 x 5.5 inch sheets for cards a couple of times a year.  It is super smooth, heavy weight #110 cardstock and very reasonably priced at $6.00 for 40 sheets. I usually do three packages of the tall and skinny for top folding vertical cards and one for the top folding horizontal cards. I still always have a pack or two of full sheets in case I need them. Since I use watercolor paper for all of my watercolor or blended backgrounds, I just cut down a few of the Stamper's Select White card bases when I need the smaller panels to work on. I also buy the watercolor paper in the larger pads and have Kinko's cut them down as well.  I never stamp on an actual card base.  I always want that die cut front panel for the finished edge it gives my cards, even if that adds a layer.  I find that I don't have any trouble standing those cards up. To me that is part of being a clean and simple card.

While I'm on the subject of clean edges, I broke my second personal trimmer last week.  I broke the first one last year sometime so I went to my second one; both are from my time as a Creative Memories Consultant.  They were both the Personal Trimmer from Creative Memories. This was my small one that I keep on top of the cabinet I use for my inks.  I have a large and small Fiskars trimmers that use the cut line wire guide with titanium blades plus the large Fiskars Guillotine Trimmer, but I need something a little sturdier for the cardstock I cut.  I decided on the Tonic 8.5 inch Trimmer in large part because of Laura Bassen's raves about it.  Well, I am shocked at the difference in the quality of cuts it makes. Creative Memories trimmers were definitely not cheap. I had the newer versions of those with the cutting mat on the top.  I need a sturdy, lightweight, not too big size to be on my desk.  This thing is a dream!  So while I wasn't happy to break my other one, I do love this new one way more.  I didn't even know I needed it when I chose it.  You can find them at Simon Says Stamp or Amazon and probably in most arts and crafts stores as well. 

Anyway, on with the cards. I stamped the mistletoe in a variety of greens. On the Vintage Jadeite panel I had to stamp the bottom layer about three times to get the amount of color saturation I wanted but I am very pleased with the effect. There is a layer for the bottom portion of the greenery, the top portion, the berries, the berry highlights and the last one for the tiny little dots/stems on the berries.  So the 5 layers make up a single image. There is also one with no berries, but I like the berries. I just got my last set (that I have room for anyhow) of Altenew Ink Cubes which gives me twelve sets total for a 48 color selection. My most recent purchase was the Tropical Forest Collection when I got the stamp set. I stamped a couple of cards using that set, but I ultimately wanted to use the bluer based greens from Papertrey Ink to stamp my greens in. My favorite combination for greenery is Papertrey's Vintage Jadeite with New Leaf Ink. I would choose differently if I wanted more toned down colors such as Frayed Leaf with Forest Glades.

I also stamped the berries in a variety of colors. I did red berries, pink berries, coral berries, and white berries.  In the end, I covered all of those options either with Ranger Xmas Red Stickles or Tonic Ivory Seashell Crystal Drops.  I got so excited to add my jewel drops, that I forgot that I needed to die cut my panels before I added the drops so it smooshed the Jewel Drops I had added when I ran them through the die cut machine. Because I needed something to cover all of that up, I tried the Xmas Red Stickles first and love them but I also wanted a few in white.

Jennifer McGuire did some cards last week using this set and once her white pearls were completely dry, she added a tiny little comma shaped highlight with another color. I really liked that extra little touch so decided to do the same. In my case, I used Tonic Golden Sunset Nuvo Glitter Drops. I don't have any Gold Metallic Liquid Pearls or Tonic Drops, so you know I'm going to have to remedy that given my love for gold. I use both products equally (Tonic Nuvo Jewel or Glitter Drops and Ranger Liquid Pearls) although I think the Tonic products are a slightly thinner consistency.

You can also use a combination of the three different branches in the set for your card front. I combined mine with some other stamps from previous years.  The Simon Says Stamp Believe Stamp Set and coordinating Believe Die were my favorites from last year. The Believe die cut was cut from Glitter Paper while the rest of the sentiment was stamped with Versamark and heat set with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder. The die is already sold out this year so if you want it, be sure to sign up to get e-mail notification when it is back in stock or you will miss out.

The Peace and Joy Stamp is from Hero Arts and is available at Simon Says Stamp. The Large Thanks Die is one I got recently from Honey Bee Stamps. It is one of the nicest dies I own and includes a shadow mat for the word also.

As you can see, I went to town with the Majestic Mistletoe set and made cards for the holiday season and regular use.  I also think this would make a beautiful sympathy card with some of the toned down colors or even grays or browns with the pearl colored berries. My last card here uses my Brilliance Pearlescent Inks in Pearlescent Ivy and Pearlescent Thyme. Altenew came out with another leafy set at the same time called "Lovely Laurels" and it is on my wish list now for cards in a similar style to the "thanks" card and also for sympathy cards.  I know they will be just beautiful.

Thank you so much for stopping by and spending a few minutes here with me today.  If you want more inspiration using this set, you can find lots of it at the Altenew Store and Blog and probably on Pinterest as well.