Making Multiples

Making Multiples

As we approach the holiday season, it’s time to start thinking about the cards we want to send to all our friends and family around the world.  If you’re like me you think, “I’m a card maker, so why not make the cards?” But as your greeting card list grows and grows, it looks like simply buying cards would be much easier because creating all those cards is a daunting task.  The reality is that with some pre planning, making multiple cards can be simple and quite enjoyable.

Whether you’re creating holiday or thank you cards, the process is the same.  Design the card that you want to replicate, cut and prep all the pieces in the quantity that you need, and assemble the cards.  Sounds simple, right?  Here are few tips that will help you from the very start to make this process work perfectly for you.

Designing a card

Start by designing a card that is easy to duplicate. you can create a card that incorporates a technique or an intricate design, just know that you will need to do that technique or assemble the design 25,50 or 100 times to provide enough cards for everyone on your list.  with that in mind, sometimes simple is better when making multiples.

To include a sentiment or not?  That is the question.

Another thing to consider when designing your card is whether or  not to include a sentiment on your card, either on the front or on the inside.  If you are die-cutting, stamping or printing that sentiment?  I’ve found that these three ways of creating sentiments work best if you need more than just a couple.  Using tools such as stamps and dies will allow you to create the same sentiment over and over again without running out of supplies. Premade die cuts or sentiments are difficult and expensive to use when creating for a crowd.

Variations 

While we are on the subject of prepping the different pieces of your card, consider variations of the original card. No one will know if you used the exact same green paper designer paper with holly leaves, cream silk ribbon or the same red buttons on all your cards, so if you can’t find a large enough quality of the exact papers or embellishments to complete a perfectly matched set, it’s OK.  Substitutes can look just as beautiful as the card that you first designed.

Create an assembly line

Now that you’ve cut, punched and stamped all the pieces for your cards, you can do a bit of preparation to make the assembly go quickly.  Create an assembly line by sorting all the pieces into piles or stacks in the order which they go on your card.  You can also place buttons on a strip of glue dots, dimensionals on the back of punched pieces and add adhesive sheets to the back of die cuts.  This makes everything ready to grab and go.  This is also a fun step to get the children involved  They can help by sorting shapes, placing buttons or embellishments on glue dots and dimensionals.

At this point everything can be placed in baggies and transported with you so you can start assembly almost anywhere – waiting in the carpool line, watching your favourite TV show or hanging with a a group of friends.  Find little pockets of time to place the patterned paper on the cardbase, another 30 minutes to wrap the ribbon around the around the cards, 15 minutes to add the sentiments on the cards, etc.  Anytime you can find 15-30 minutes, you can work on your holiday cards.

Final Note

With these tips, you will be surprised at how easy it is to make large numbers of multiple cards for any card making event.  Take some time today to get a few cards designed and work on them as you find moments in our busy life.  It really is a fun and simple way to have all the cards you need on hand at any given moment.