Good morning everyone
I hope you are well and if you are in the UK, you will probably be enjoying a wonderful little heatwave. And of course, what else should you do in a heatwave but make more Christmas cards!
Today I am sharing my process of mass producing a stencilled Christmas card. When I say mass producing, I am talking only 5 cards here – anything more than one card is mass production, right?
Warning! This is quite a long post, get a cup of tea or something stronger and get ready 🙂
Here is my card:
Now, I warn you, this was not quick, but it was quicker than if I had made 5 bespoke cards. The whole set probably took me about 2-3 hours, and the most important thing to remember in the whole process is that the more you do ahead of time, the easier it is.
I am going to do this post slightly differently, in steps. First of all, this was how I prepared for the project.
- Get all products you need out and ready – including tools and cleaning stuff. It is SO much quicker if you do this. Jumping up and down to the cupboard wastes valuable time!
- Go to the toilet before you start
- As you are in this for the long haul, get a cup of tea and be REALLY careful where you put it
- Put on some Christmas music
- Cut all panels to size (here I was very resourceful as I had loads of strips of 4″ cardstock left from other projects, so I made my panels 4″ x 5.5″)
- Prepare all card bases (4.25″ x 5.50″)
- Stamp and emboss all the greetings – and here I stamped the greeeting 5 times, added the powder 5 times, and then heat set one after the other – it doesn’t sound like it would save time, but it does.
- Cut the silver glitter strips to cover that little 0.5″ at the bottom of the card that your panel won’t cover as you have been ever so resourceful with your 4″ strips!
- Breathe
- Drink your tea which is now cold
- Go to the toilet again
That covers your preparation! Now for the compilation of the card….
- Take your stencil and ink blend all the images in that lovely blue colour in one go – here I did the snow mounds and the two block turquoise trees. Either heat dry or let the ink dry (I let it dry overnight because I had to go and make dinner – *sigh* – so annoying to have to break from the production line just to eat)
- I got up extra early to do the next bits before breakfast – does anyone else wake up thinking about their cards? Stencil the two stripey silver trees using Versamark ink. This is where the first problem occurred – because of the size of the stencil, I was not able to do them both in one go, I had to do them separately, which took extra time. I can’t think of a fix for that yet other than chopping up the stencil which I didn’t fancy doing. Remember to use your anti static tool before applying the ink….
- Stencil the little turquoise tree using Versamark ink and then add your gorgeous WOW teal glitter embossing powder and heat set. I actually stencilled and embossed each individual card but in hindsight I should have stencilled and heat embossed all 5 and then heat set in one go.
- When everything is set, get your snowfall stencil and start pasting! You need to secure your stencilled panel down to a craft mat first and then the stencil over the top. Add the paste using a palette knife – and always clean your knife and craft mat straight away (trust me it sticks and can be hard to get off, particularly on clothes if you drop it down you – ask me how I know). I also cleaned the stencil every two panels to make sure that the paste did not stick on the stencil, nor ruin the next card that was about to be done! You have to change your masking tape every few panels too as this gets mucky, so it’s a little fiddly but not too bad :). Then wait for the paste to dry. I had my breakfast (English breakfast muffins if you are interested, and you guessed it, a cup of tea) and looked at Instagram whilst waiting.
- Trim the completed dried stencilled panels (the snow scene stencil is slightly smaller than the actual panel so didn’t completely fill the width as you can see in the picture above)
- Adhere the silver strip to the bottom of the base card
- Adhere your completed pretty stencilled panel over the top
- Add foam adhesive to your sentiment and then pop it on top of the card.
- Voila!
I would love to hear your thoughts on my card and any other hints and tips you know of for mass production. If I am honest, I don’t like to mass produce as I like making individual cards but there are many plus points to mass producing, especially for Christmas. It is more time efficient, it’s great not to have to think of a new design every single time you create, you get good use out of all those lovely products you buy and you get to practice a technique over and over!
I hope you all have a great week, enjoy the sunshine while it lasts if you have it. Bye for now….
Supplies used:
Snowfall – Memory Box Tiny Dots Stencil; Dreamweaver White Embossing Paste; Ateco palette knife
Sentiment – Mama Elephant Winter Wonderland; Hero Arts Silver Embossing Powder
Card panel/base – 300gsm white cardstock
Stencilled panel – Simon Says Stamp Christmas Scene Stencil; Broken China Distress Ink; Papermania Tinsel Silver Embossing Powder; Wow Totally Teal Embossing Glitter
General – Versamark Ink; Silver glitter paper; Foam Adhesive; Double sided adhesive tape;
Steph Made It For You says
First of all, steps 2 and 4 really made me laugh!! I found myself singing Silent Night while making xmas cards this afternoon so i’m a 100 % with you here! lol
When you said ” I actually stencilled and embossed each individual card but in hindsight I should have stencilled and heat embossed all 5 and then heat set in one go.” I think the way you did for me would be the best, particularly when using a stencil, i think its more likely to touch the other stencilled images which if they haven’t been embossed will “move” then you have to reapply powder and then it get all messy … so although it’s time consuming i feel that it is safer.
The embossing powder you used are gorgeous! I havent invested in many (and I love the one you sent me which I try to use as often as possible) cause I haven’t had the need for it yet but your card really made me want to buy some 😉
All in all i think you got all the great bits for massproduction, a stencil that helps you reproduce the same design (or at least it seems I haven’t seen your stencil lol), a really nice design, a good way to use left over cardstock, so all I have to say is don’t forget to send me one haha 😉
xxx
lisa says
You should check out the WOW embossing powder site – it is a UK company and the powders are really good value. I need a few more glittery ones :). I think with the “blue glittery” tree I could have done them all in one go as all the others were done and dried by that stage, but I didn’t try it and I could have messed it up certainly. There is one silver glittery tree that is messed up a bit as the stencil shifted when I was applying ink, and I tried to lay it down again unsuccessfully, so it’s a bit blotchy. I got cocky and wasn’t securing my stencil down as much as I should towards the end!!! And, yes, you may be getting one in the post for Christmas lol!!!! xxx
Toni says
Your cards were beautiful. I have never used embossing powder with stencils and appreciate the instructions. I make my Christmas cards every year and do more CAS styles for keeping my sanity. I concur with you to have all supplies gathered before starting. I also do a process a day, again for sanity. I also decorate the envelopes and insides of the cards.
lisa says
Thank you so much Toni – sometimes I feel like I am teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, but it’s always important to try and remember that not everyone out there has tried all techniques! So I am very happy you found it useful. I love the mix of ink and embossing powder – and I think it worked really well on this card as the only image is the trees/snow mounds so you need to add a bit of variety. I am also going to try a CAS stamped card using my MISTI as a way of mass producing – stencilling is definitely time consuming but I do love the end effect. Thanks for taking time to read the post and for your comments.
Ruth G says
Lisa, your card is lovely and I found your tutorial quite entertaining. I enjoy mass producing cards. Many times, I will switch up the colors I am using, or reverse an image, just to make the cards look different. Because I generally clean a stencil or a stamp frequently, this doesn’t impede my process. Thank you for the inspiration. I love the clean lines of your card.
lisa says
Hi Ruth, thank you for your comments, I am so glad you found time to read the post and leave a message. Funnily enough, I did look through my powders to see if I had some others that I could use if I changed the colour up… but need to have a better look as nothing immediately jumped out. And a really good idea to reverse the image to make it a little different. I shall bear these in mind for my next mass production, thank you.
Ruth says
Brilliant! Absolutely gorgeous cards and they turned out beautifully. I agree with all of your points, in particular going to the loo. I also got a cup of tea and it went cold….. Lol! Preparing all your panels and sticking to your design – I find that the hardest part – is exactly what you have to do. I also check everything about 5 times before I start to make sure it is all there and I can easily access it on my desk. With my mass production this year, I’ve gone even further and just purchased card blanks with their own envelopes and am sticking to one layer and an easy embellishment. It’s minimalist for sure, but I have no time to muck about. I’m learning every year when to start and what to do with Christmas cards. Last year I did too much colouring and left it far too late. It’s all about super CAS and no colouring this year – and I started in March! Thank you for taking the time to share 🙂 xx
lisa says
Ha ha I am not surprised it went cold reading my LONG post lol. Sticking to the design definitely helped, the most time consuming bit was that it was a stencil and not stamps as it would have been really quick with stamps – with a stencil it does impede how much you can do in one go because of the size and you don’t want it touching other parts of the panel that have not been embossed etc at that point. I actually have card bases and envelopes in my cupboard that I have had for ages – and used to use all the time. But now I am veering more towards A2 because of the die/stencil/stamp sizes etc – they tend to be set for A2 cards. I have bought A2 envelopes in the UK but have never seen A2 pre-scored base cards – did you get yours here?
Thank you for all your lovely comments and for persevering with the post!! I am going to try mass stamping with the MISTI next :).
xx