How to make 32 Christmas Cards in 2 hours
Bulk card making is awesome for when you need a lot of cards for a lot of people...this year I need 30 for the students in my homeroom class, and another 30 for the classmates in my two sons classes.
Over the years I've tried many things to streamline my card-making, but I have never tried using a formula from a papercrafting company. I have had this awesome book by CTMH for a while...
...and have made a few cards loosely based on the great sample shown inside it. A couple of weeks ago I was flipping through it looking for inspiration and came upon this workshop for making 16 cards (pgs 111-112):
The instructions said that this was a simple and economical workshop, requiring only the card bases themselves, 1 piece of 12 x 12 patterned paper, 1 coordinating piece of 12 x 12 solid cardstock and another portion of a piece of 12 x 12 solid cardstock to create the accents for 16 cards! The cutting diagrams and instructions seemed straightforward, and it looked like an easy recipe to create lots of cards quickly.
But I needed more than 16 cards, so I thought that just like other recipes, I could "double it" to get the amount that I needed. I found two pieces of pretty red and aqua Christmas patterned paper in my stash and knew that a card project like this was the perfect way to use them up. I had lots of red 12 x 12 cardstock, but no coordinating 12 x 12 aqua cardstock, so I used a few pieces of 8.5 x 11. I figured I could use the scraps from both to cut out some snowflake embellishments with the Accent Essentials Cricut cardtridge. I selected two sentiment stamps and a "Lagoon" ink pad from CTMH that I thought would work well with the patterned papers.
I started by doing all the cutting. I followed the guides, first stacking and cutting the patterned paper, then doing the same with the cardstock. That took about 25 minutes. (Tip: write the Number/Letter on the back of piece as you cut it out...it will save you time later when you are finding all the pieces for each card.)
Then I assembled each type of card..all the #1's, then #2's etc. That took about 45 minutes. Finally I figured out how many snowflakes in each size and color I needed and set the Cricut to work. I used the same snowflake for all, just changing the size and color. While my Cricut cut, I stamped all the the sentiments, then adhered the snowflakes as they finished cutting. The embellishing process took about 45/50 minutes all together. Not bad...two hours for 32 cards! Here's the finished batch...
And these four are my favorites of the bunch...
...but they are all cute and I love the red and aqua together! I still need about 28 more cards, so I might do another bulk workshop, or simply mass produce one of my favorites. Either way, it's nice to know that it won't take more than 2 hours to finish all the rest of my cards.
If you need a lot of cards and happen to know a CTMH consultant, ask them to see the Wishes book and give bulk card making a try!
Happy Card Making!
Over the years I've tried many things to streamline my card-making, but I have never tried using a formula from a papercrafting company. I have had this awesome book by CTMH for a while...
...and have made a few cards loosely based on the great sample shown inside it. A couple of weeks ago I was flipping through it looking for inspiration and came upon this workshop for making 16 cards (pgs 111-112):
The instructions said that this was a simple and economical workshop, requiring only the card bases themselves, 1 piece of 12 x 12 patterned paper, 1 coordinating piece of 12 x 12 solid cardstock and another portion of a piece of 12 x 12 solid cardstock to create the accents for 16 cards! The cutting diagrams and instructions seemed straightforward, and it looked like an easy recipe to create lots of cards quickly.
But I needed more than 16 cards, so I thought that just like other recipes, I could "double it" to get the amount that I needed. I found two pieces of pretty red and aqua Christmas patterned paper in my stash and knew that a card project like this was the perfect way to use them up. I had lots of red 12 x 12 cardstock, but no coordinating 12 x 12 aqua cardstock, so I used a few pieces of 8.5 x 11. I figured I could use the scraps from both to cut out some snowflake embellishments with the Accent Essentials Cricut cardtridge. I selected two sentiment stamps and a "Lagoon" ink pad from CTMH that I thought would work well with the patterned papers.
I started by doing all the cutting. I followed the guides, first stacking and cutting the patterned paper, then doing the same with the cardstock. That took about 25 minutes. (Tip: write the Number/Letter on the back of piece as you cut it out...it will save you time later when you are finding all the pieces for each card.)
Then I assembled each type of card..all the #1's, then #2's etc. That took about 45 minutes. Finally I figured out how many snowflakes in each size and color I needed and set the Cricut to work. I used the same snowflake for all, just changing the size and color. While my Cricut cut, I stamped all the the sentiments, then adhered the snowflakes as they finished cutting. The embellishing process took about 45/50 minutes all together. Not bad...two hours for 32 cards! Here's the finished batch...
And these four are my favorites of the bunch...
...but they are all cute and I love the red and aqua together! I still need about 28 more cards, so I might do another bulk workshop, or simply mass produce one of my favorites. Either way, it's nice to know that it won't take more than 2 hours to finish all the rest of my cards.
If you need a lot of cards and happen to know a CTMH consultant, ask them to see the Wishes book and give bulk card making a try!
Happy Card Making!
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