Monday 10 December 2012

A Production Line of Christmas Cards

As the days creep by in December and the last mailing day looms, the rush to finish creating handmade Christmas cards can send me crackers!  So here is a tip on how to set up a production line and create some simple clean designed cards to send.

First of all create a simple design that you can create multiple copies of; I find that images that require little or no colouring are best.  This is the design that I came up with for this project.

Christmas Snowman Red

Materials used: Christmas Cheer 30-140, Christmas Outdoors 30-125, Storm 01-001, Clear Skies 10-002 and Wow 40-114

So here is the step by step instructions that will allow you to create 10-15 cards an hour......or more if you are quicker!

* Take a piece of Storm 01-001 card fold in half lengthways and then cut into three equal card blanks.

* Emboss each blank using a Spellbinders long rectangle.

* Stamp and emboss with clear powder (this helps keep colouring in the lines and speeds the process)

* Colour with Faber Castell Design Memory Craft Big Brush Markers and Aquarelle pencils.

* Add twine and pearl to finish.

by completing one step at a time on all cards you will find the process much quicker than making the whole card in one go.  If you want to make the cards different you can change the colour or mount onto a coloured card blank. As I have done in the Examples below.

Christmas Snowman Green

Dreaming of Snowmen

If you are lucky enough to have finished making all your Christmas cards, why not hop on over to the Penny Black Blog and get some wonderful inspiration on Valentine Projects all this week on the blog.

Wishing you all a wonderful week and hope your Christmas Preparations are going smoothly.

Hugs Cathy
x

7 comments:

Paula (PEP) said...

Thanks for this - you're spot on with the fact that doing the same thing over & over umpteen times makes the whole lot go so much quicker. Not sure why that is but it certainly works. Helpful to have ideas too for the variations.
Paula (PEP)

Barb said...

I'm starting to think I'm going to be making cards for awhile yet, so thanks for the helpful tips, Cathy! Adorable cards! :)

Virginia L. said...

SWEET cards!! Thanks for sharing your awesome tips on mass producing this cute Christmas cards, Cathy!

kiwimeskreations said...

Thanks for the tips Cathy - I always do mass produced Christmas cards, and have learnt that to do them all at the same time , step by step is the best way.
Blessings
Maxine

joy said...

Great tips, Cathy! Love the idea of folding the large cardstock sheet in half and then cutting three card bases from it!

Greta said...

Well, they wouldn't be that quick for me, but these are darling, Cathy! I do still have to make a few cards for work & I'm going to keep them simple.

Elizabeth Allan said...

Adorable greetings! Great tips for making many cards in an efficient production style way.