I don't need many special Christmas cards for my own use, but each year since we have lived in this small country town, I have made cards to give to the local Community Care group for the staff to distribute to socially isolated folk at this time of year. While I do not mean to imply for a moment that making cards for anonymous recipients should be regarded in any way as an exercise in economy, speed, or other limitations, the reality is that these folk are completely unknown to me..therefore the cards I make for passing on to the community care group are as gender, belief and age non-specific as I can make them. This implies blandness and uniformity...avoiding this by making groups of different cards helps to ensure there is something for eeryone. I then simply have to rely on the care staff simply to allocate the cards according to their knowledge of the tastes of recipient.
In order to make as many as I can in the weeks leading up to Christmas, I tend to make them in batches, and that is where I get lots of inspiration from Therese.
Last evening it was the "cutsie" theme...I made six cards using an older Penny Black stamp set (most of my stamp sets are in this category now, as I cannot simply impulse buy any longer;). I used a Kaisercraft 6.5" paper pack, Christmas Wishes, (lovely soft teal greens, pinks and gold), using those papers exclusively. Also, for the first time ever, using the little sentiment tags in the back section on all but two of the cards.
This consistency did speed up the process for me as it stopped most of my endless dithering over the card stock bins, choosing colours, patterns, textures etc.
(Chris has been in the kitchen making toasted cheese sandwiches and the aromas are making my stomach rumble...)
Bye now,
Di xx