Hand crafted

Sometimes, as I make cards to sell, I try to make them as efficiently as possible, trying to keep the costs down for the customer.  However, sometimes, it just takes time to make something.  

This week I have been making hand stamped, painted and decorated cards, and they take more time than some other designs because they are so time consuming.  The nice thing though is I really do enjoy making them.  Again, Christmas in October for you readers may not be ideal, but when you sell seasonally, I cannot make Christmas cards in December, people have already bought them!  And believe me, I have tried.  One year I was making cards up until  Christmas eve, and it wasn't' so much fun.

So if you will humour me, I will share my hand crafted little cards :)

I'm not sure which my favourite it!

[The stamps are all Dovecraft, and the inks are Versa Colour]

And so it begins ...

And so it begins .... Christmas has arrived in the workshop this week.  I have begun to start thinking of the festive season, and as the weather here in Margate has taken somewhat of a nosedive, it has not been too difficult to imagine!

So I thought for today I would show you my creativity from yesterday ....

The paper is Very Merry from October Afternoon and I just can't get enough!  I love that the quality of the paper is almost like a thin card, and the designs available are just so beautiful!  This whole pile of cards used just one 12x12 sheet; that's sixteen cards from one sheet.

For embellishments I used Very Merry stickers from the range, which I made into little tags and banners.  For the few that didn't have text on, I stamped Happy Christmas from a Dovecraft mini stamp set using bright red chalk ink.

All in all, a limited amount of materials has yielded a fair amount of cards, and cards that I am really happy with.  Reasonably priced for sale, yet with a really high quality finish.

All in a days work, as they say!