Altenew Educator - Last Minute Holiday Cards

Hello everyone!  I am back today with a few cards from my most recent class at Altenew - "Last Minute Holiday Cards" taught by Julia Alterman.  I have three different cards for you today!

One of the things Julia talked about the first day is how to go from very simple to very elegant by just making a few changes in your card.  She also talked about using Holiday images from your stamp sets to make other types of cards, thereby stretching your stamping dollars for more than just a single occasion.  I have a Christmas Card, a Thank You card and a more fun and festive card for you to send to a friend today.  The first two were from Day 1 of class and the last one happened to be from the bonus day of class.  I was enchanted with the way Julia used a Holiday Stamp for another type of card and knew that I wanted to try this.  All three of my cards use the Altenew Majestic Mistletoe Stamp Set.

As you probably know, I really enjoy cards with a lot of "white" space for the most part.  That also makes for quicker cards if you keep it very simple.  Majestic Mistletoe happens to be one of my favorites for Holiday Cards and is now one that I will reach for to create other occasion cards as well, like those Thank You notes for all the Holiday gifts you received?  I used just four  Altenew Crisp Inks for the first two cards of this post.  I chose the Green Meadows collection and I have to say I really love how vibrant these colors are.  The only color I did not use from this collection was Minty Mint but I brought in a cardstock that was a good color match it to use for a part of my background panel.  The colors I did use are Sweet Leaf, Just Green and Hunter Green.  I actually stamped 6 panels since I had everything lined up in my MISTI and a small stack of A2 Panels sitting right there.  For this, I used my Original MISTI and set the first layer up on the far bottom left corner, then set the next layer up using the far right bottom corner.  For the first panel, after I stamped the first two layers, I rotated my cardstock 180 degrees and did it again.  That way I could cut the piece on the diagonal to create two different cards.

I wanted to dress them up a little so I stamped the third layer of the greenery and then stamped the berries in Ruby Red Ink.  I could have gone ahead and stamped in the detail layers for the berries, but I knew that I wanted to use some Nuvo Drops for the berries, so stamping in the color was just a guide for where to place the Nuvo Drops.  I used Tonic Jewel Drops in the color Rosewater.  I let that dry overnight and then added just a touch of white to the top of each berry for a highlight.

Next, I took the panel and cut it diagonally then attached it to a piece of Mint Cardstock. I wanted to add a strip of glitter, so using Scor-Tape, I adhered that along the diagonal line. Once it was adhered, I die cut it with a stitched rectangle die.  This one happens to be a die that has been discontinued but it is 4 1/8th by 5 3/8th inches which leaves a very narrow border all the way around your front panel. I did this for both of the pieces.

After die cutting, I removed the release paper from the Scor-Tape and sprinkled gold glitter all along that diagonal line, then burnished it in with my bone folder.  This created instant elegance on my card.  Then because I wanted to create a card for two different occasions, I die cut a large word from Gold Cardstock - "believe" and "Thanks".  For the Believe card, I also added a smaller sentiment along the bottom of where that die cut would go.  It's important to do the heat embossing before you apply the die cut to eliminate the possibility of damage to your die cut.  The cardstock I used on these has a light layer of plastic film on the top to protect it.  This works great if you get a dab of glue where you don't want it because a tiny bit of alcohol on a Q-Tip will remove it.  But not so well if you melt the plastic coating during the heat embossing process.  Go ahead, ask me how I know this. *Ü*

Simply add the die cut word to your card front, attach that to a card base and voila, you have a clean and elegant single layer card that's easy to mail. I''m not sure if I have ever mentioned it before, but working on an A2 panel serves two purposes; 1) if you mess up during the stamping then you only destroyed a panel rather than a whole card, and 2) for some reason this makes the card stand up easier.  I like to do top folding Tent cards so they can be displayed if desired.  This is an important concept if you happen to be a card maker.

My third card for today used the Sea Shore Mini Ink Cube Collection although I only used three of the colors; Volcano Lake, Lagoon and Emerald.  If you look carefully, you can see that the stamp I used for this was the same all the way around and is also from the Majestic Mistletoe Stamp Set.  It is the top detail layer stamped all the way around using a mask to protect the center of the card.    Since I was planning to cover my circle area with the Teal Cardstock, I didn't have to use a mask, but if I had wanted to pop the circles up on foam tape, it would have been important to me for it to look cleanly stamped all the way around.

Julia did this card in a rainbow for the Bonus Lesson of this class and I just love it.  I'm planning to make a few larger cards for some upcoming birthdays that I will mail in a 5x7 envelope.  I learned a lot about looking at other ways to use a single stamp set in this class and really enjoyed it very much.

The sentiment for this last card is from the Gina K Designs All About You Stamp Set.  I stamped it with Versamark and heat set it with Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  The little hearts are from an older die from Simon Says Stamp called Mini Hearts.  There are three different hearts in three sizes each on this die and it's one I used to use a lot and will again now that it is back on my desk.

Thank you so much for stopping by today to see my projects.  I always appreciate it when you do.  I have just a few more classes now so I'll be back in a day or two with my next project for my next class.  Be sure to stop back by and check it out!

ETA:  I just had to try this last technique on a larger format card and share it with you as well!

And one more for your viewing pleasure.  Love these!