Hi there!!
Let's face it.....the summer months are busy! But that doesn't mean that we don't want to spend some time enjoying this card-making hobby that we love! And that doesn't mean that card occasions stop happening, simply because we're busy! What it DOES mean, is that our time to make cards for fun or for the afore-mentioned occasions, is likely somewhat limited for a lot of us. We can still get some cards made quickly and have a little fun while we're at it! That's where today's cards come in to play. I've got some tips for how to speed up your process, while still keeping things fun and interesting!
I told you I was smitten with the Life is Beautiful stamp set and dies, and that crush hasn't ended yet! Today, I decided to use the dies in conjunction with some vintage book print and pretty patterned papers to create some colorful butterflies. Pair them with a fun background pattern (I chose Background Basics: Art Deco) and the sentiment of your choosing and you've got quick cards whipped up in a snap -- perfect for these busy summer months, and yet still tons of fun to make!
A few tips for keeping things fast and easy....
- Use the assembly line method! Die cut all your pieces first. Assemble your die cuts next. Cut and score all your card stock. Stamp all your sentiments. Stamp all your backgrounds. Pop the die cuts on the card fronts.
- Use the same ink colors on every card. This means you'll need to choose your inks wisely! You might need to test the ink on each color of card stock to make sure it's going to look ok. I'm a firm believer that not every ink color looks good stamped on every card stock color! Haha. Keep this in mind when choosing colors.
- Use Versamark ink! This ink DOES work on every color of card stock because it is colorless -- it essentially leaves a watermark of whatever you stamped. It's a great choice for quick card sets like these.
- Pull all your sentiments at once. If you're using different sentiments, make sure they're all basically the same size and shape, so that they won't interfere with the card design you've chosen. Choosing sentiments that are all from the same set or series, such as the Boutique Borders series like I did here, makes this process super fast and easy!
- Stamp your background pattern on only one small portion of the card! This is a huge time saver (instead of stamping the whole card front), but still gives your card tons of interest and added detail!
- Work some vintage book print into your design! You don't have to worry about colors when choosing book print -- it goes with everything!
I find that by changing the overall color scheme for each card, it still keeps things fun and interesting for me, even though I'm essentially making the same card 5 times. I like the challenge of making the same card in a variety of colors, but still making sure that the overall group of colors totally goes together.
By using vintage book print and patterned papers for my die cuts, I was able to run them thru my Vagabond two at a time (because they're thinner paper), saving me some time on the die-cutting process!
I used smokey shadow ink for all of the sentiments. Each of the 'rainbow' strips from Background Basics: Art Deco was stamped in versamark ink and the 'raindrop' strips were stamped with soft stone ink. Soft stone worked so well on each of the colors -- almost creating a bit darker watermark effect, than the versamark. I was super happy with how it looked!
That's it for me today, but I hope I've inspired you to get crafty and hopefully I've given you an idea or two, for how to make quick work of checking some of those summertime cards off your to-do list!
much love,
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{Butterfly Set supplies -- click on thumbnails}
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