Yep, it was time I challenged myself to another Spoonflower Weekly Design Challenge, and this time I kept it Christmas themed, as 'tis the season!

Ditsy Mistletoe Design Challenge: Design a "ditsy" small scale surface pattern design incorporating that well known plant, the mistletoe, just in time for holiday projects! 

What the F*ck is a Ditsy Pattern?

Never fear, a definition is here...a ditsy print is quite small in scale, and the design motifs are usually scattered or random rather than being ordered in a definable pattern like rows or stripes. 

At a distance, a ditsy print looks almost like a solid colour, the scale is so small. We see them often with florals. Here are some examples:

Of course, the swatch of my final design below and on Spoonflower of the other designs will be scaled to the 8x8 inch square size to help show off the fab details. 

Now that you're a surface design expert, and before heading over to Spoonflower to vote for your favourites, here's the breakdown on how I created my design.

Concept

So I went to Google Mistletoe and found on Wiki that is was a hemiparasitic plant, wait, what?! Yep, it's kind of a parasite...

Mistletoes attach to and penetrate the branches of a tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they absorb water and nutrients from the host plant. Hey, this plant is a douche-bag...

Now, I didn't have all the time in the world to draw ravenous parasitic plants sucking face (maybe later)....I was also feeling kind of down about the state of world politics at the time of designing. 

So...I did start sketching and got to the place where I had a cute shape for doves that represented peace and mistletoe sprigs and berries that looked cute, and that brought back the HAPPY! Here are some of those first rough sketches:

And if you didn't know where the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe came from, here's some Google knowledge to nerd it up one more time:

"The custom of kissing under the mistletoe is referred to in late 18th century England:^[17] the serving class of Victorian England is credited with perpetuating the tradition.^[18]The tradition dictated that a man was allowed to kiss any woman standing underneath mistletoe, and that bad luck would befall any woman who refused the kiss.^[19][20] One variation on the tradition stated that with each kiss a berry was to be plucked from the mistletoe, and the kissing must stop after all the berries had been removed." 

And now you know-smooches, I guess?

Colour Scheme

I really liked looking at vintage colours and decided to pull from a few I've been storing away for awhile now. I ended up just keeping it to white, a few shades of grey and a blue/green teal. 

Final Design

I'm very pleased with how the design turned out! I see it as adding a spoonful of extra hope and love to troubled times with two sweet doves to represent peace sharing a kiss under the mistletoe as we all need that during the holidays!

I love the stylized kissing doves, they are just too cute under those hemiparisitic branches ;P

I've ordered this on gift wrap, and can't wait to see it this weekend! But I also think it would make great wedding decor or paper art as well as home decor or a cute kids outfit!

All of us designers appreciate each and every vote and favourite on our designs. It really does mean so much to us that the hours spent pondering colour, scale, placement and repeat go appreciated into cyberspace and into print on material, wallpaper and gift wrap someone will love!

Live long and prosper this holiday season!