5 Tips for Making a Stack of Holiday Cards Quickly

If you'd like to make your own holiday cards this year and you haven't yet started, it's still possible! Today, I have tips for creating a stack of holiday cards quickly. It's surprisingly quicker to mass produce cards than to create individual cards. So, on y go! Let's get stamping.

1. Choose your stamps wisely

There are so many amazing holiday stamps! But, if you're making lots of cards, it's better to choose bold stamps instead of outline stamps that need to be colored.

2. Make a prototype

Create a prototype of the card you think you'd like to create. You want to start by creating one, so that you can figure out how to best create 25, 50, or 100. This is the prototype I created using the Tree Angle stamp set in Magenta Madness and Granny Apple Green.

3. Evaluate & Simplify

I really like my prototype, but it's a little complicated to create in multiples. So, I simplified and came up with this second idea. It has the same colors and uses the same stamp set. 

3A. rEPLACE tEXTURE WITH pATTERNED pAPER

Patterned paper can do some of the same things artistically that texture does. It adds interest to the background. But, it's quicker to make. 

My second idea would definitely be easier to make, but it was a little too simple for my tastes. So, I tried a third card. This card also uses the same colors and the texture is replaced with patterned paper.

3b. Replace bows with flat ribbon

Bows are pretty, but they definitely are more time-consuming to tie than a simple strip of flat ribbon or a knot. It can also save postage to use flat ribbons instead of bows. On my 3rd prototype, I used a flat ribbon instead of a bow.

3b. Replace die-cuts with punched shapes

Instead of the die-cut Christmas trees and greeting, I stamped the trees on the background and the greeting on a circle punched with the 2" circle punch. Much faster than die-cutting!

4. Use Assembly-line Techniques

Now that you have your prototype, determine the steps to complete your card. Then complete each step for all of the cards before moving on to the next step. In other words, start by cutting all of your cardstock. For my card, I cut all of the Granny Apple Green, then all of the Magenta Madness, and then pieces of the Whisper White. Then, move on to stamping. Stamp all of your Christmas Trees, then stamp all of your greetings, etc. 

5. Use a Stamparatus

A stamping platform like the Stamparatus can really speed up your stamping! The Stamparatus is particularly wonderful because it has 2 moveable doors. I cut pieces of Whisper White cardstock so that they were 7" x 4 3/4" which accommodates 6 circles. Then, I set up my greeting stamps on my Stamparatus and inked the first one in Granny Apple Green. I moved the door down two spaces and stamped a second time. Then, moved my door down two more spaces and stamped again. Once the green "Greetings" was stamped, I put the other two stamps on the second door, inked it with Magenta Madness, then stamped again three times. When the first three were done, I rotated my piece of Whisper White cardstock and did the same thing on the other side. Finally, I punched the six circles with my 2" circle punch.

When the stamping was done, I assembled the cards step by step. You can see exactly how I quickly put together 6 cards in the video. I hope this has inspired and helped you in creating your own stack of holiday cards whether you want to make 10, 50, 100, or more!

Supply list for these bright Holiday Cards

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Dimensions for the Sample Card Design

Granny Apple Green: 3 1/2" x 4 3/4"
Granny Apple Green: 8 1/2" x 5 1/2", scored at 4 1/4"
Magenta Madness: 3 11/16" x 4 15/16"
Whisper White: 2" x 2" (or 7" x 4 3/4" to create 6)
2020-2022 In Color 6" x 6" Designer Series Paper: 1 1/2" x 3 1/2"