Here to inspire you to get-a-movin' with your holiday card-making is special guest Vicki Harper, the scrapbooking coordinator at our Indianapolis (Nora) location. Vicki teaches a variety of both scrapbooking and card-making classes and is a wonderful asset to our creative team! Thanks for sharing your tips, Vicki!
Many of you LOVE to make cards--including Christmas Cards for those special friends and family members on your holiday card list! I have some suggestions and tips for this annual Christmas card making event...especially if you are struggling with design, when to start, etc.
First, determine how many cards you plan to make. I made over 40 cards last year! Not only cards ... but Copic -colored cards and yes--I colored all 40! Call me crazy but it was fun, and I plan on doing it again this year!
After you determine the amount, then decide whether to want to make them all the same or make several different designs? Do you want to keep them simple or do you want to take them over the top?
Choosing to make all 40 of my cards the same last year did get a little boring at times, but I approached it as a assembly line, which made things SO MUCH easier! Here's a quick look at my process...
1. Choose a design. This part may be the most difficult task for you, so here's a tip--USE SKETCHES! Nowadays, many blogs have [free] sketches such as: Tuesday Morning Sketches, CPS (Card Positioning Systems) or for those who prefer to have something in print, there are several Sketch books which you can purchase at your local Cord Scrapbook Studio, like those from Scrapbook Generation! In addition to what's already out there, you can always create your own sketch!
2. Next, choose your paper. There is a wide variety of Christmas papers out there! You can go with something elegant, whimsical, traditional--just look at your sketch and see how many pieces you may need and go from there! Personally, I like to choose a pattern, a stripe, and a circle with patterned paper with a couple sheets of cardstock to accent.
3. Now, choose your embellishments and sentiments. Are you going to stamp? Are you going to color with Copics? Will you need any additional embellishments like ribbon, twine, and/or bling?
4. With your plan in place, it's time to get started! Gather up all of your supplies: cards, adhesive, foam adhesive, glue dots, patterened papers and accent papers, and last but least your paper trimmer. After all supplies are gathered, cut all the pieces you need--for example: 40 of the card topper, 40 mats, 40 strips, etc. Make one demo card and then assemble all the rest in order! I have found that is goes quicker this way than doing one card at a time.
Here's a few additional tips & suggestions:
**Make this a family event! Have family members help with the assembly! This could become a new "Family Christmas Tradition"!
**Depending on how many layers you have or the embellishments you add your postage rate may increase. I always take mine to the postoffice and have them weighed. Depending on the embellishments you may have to have the cards hand stamped!
**Depending again on the design sometimes I make my card slightly smaller than the envelope so all my wonderful embellishments will fit easily into the envelope!
**I like to start making my cards at the beginning of November so I will have a month or so to complete my cards, but it's never too late to get started! Just stick with your plan!
Most of all have fun!!!
Whelp, that's Christmas Card-making in a nutshell! Now, time for us procrastinators to finalize our plan, put in a holiday flick and get to work on the ol' assembly line! Happy Scrappin'!
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