Severnista

August 28, 2024

Beginning a Christmas card mass production party in July is a new trend for me but has been around in the crafting world for some time. Starting cards in July after all the summer holiday plans have past, allows you greater time and flexibility for completing this very large card making project. I make a minimum of fifty cards so it’s helpful to be able to spread out my crafting supplies in my craft room on an extra table so that I can easily cut pieces for cards, set up arrangements and even fold card bases by the dozens.

I feel like once we reach October, the fall holidays seem to quickly barrel in and the last thing I want is to be struggling to make a bunch of cards by the end of November for mailing in December. The end of July and before school starts in August is a great time to focus on Christmas card ideas, gathering supplies and putting a plan in order.

This year I bought a new stamp and die set from Simon Says Stamp (SSS). Released in 2023 this set is called Making Spirits Bright. I mostly used the chunky sentiments that have a stamp and outline die to match. I also used the very classy ‘Merry Christmas’ sentiment that I heat embossed in various colors on vellum. This idea and style come directly from Debby Hughes’ blog found here. She is incredibly talented and such an inspiration of mine in the card crafting world.

I used Ellen Hutson’s Mondo Holly by Julie Ebersole for my heat embossed stamped image to water color around. I used hot pressed water color paper which tends to be a bit smoother to stamp upon and for my water color I used Ranger Distress Inks which I smashed gently onto my glass mat, added light water spritzing then mushed the stamped, embossed image though to pick up the colors. I did this several times letting the paper dry in between. I also used a watercolor paint brush to fill in more color in areas like the leaves of the holly with Iced Spruce in the top left photo.

I also used two stencil backgrounds on a couple of the designs. One is Berries and Leaves by SSS and the other Winter Floral also from SSS. I experimented with both Distress inks and dye Inks with these stencils. I had fun playing with colors and using the chunky holiday sentiments from Making Spirits Bright set added to the ease of bringing the card together with minimal work. I did layer the sentiment with a couple extra pieces of die cut white cardstock to give it a little bit of ‘mailable’ dimension.

When you mass produces cards simplicity is helpful and also having a design that can be slightly modified to give a bit of interest. As a card maker it gets very boring creating too many of one thing! Having several design ideas going into your project is a good way to start then you can customize based on the supplies you may have or the amount of time you really want to spend on any one card. Some designs will just work best for you. I had time to also experiment with different colors of embossing powders (white to silver, to champagne and gold) and how they might work better with different ‘water colored’ backgrounds.