3 Tips to Create More Cards in a Short Time

Hey everyone! I have a really fun and I think useful post for you today. Before I share with you all the card inspiration I have I wanted to share with you some tips for creating a bunch of cards in a relatively short amount of time. I sort of figured this out by accident, but I have seen it happen many times like back in January when I posted all of these thank you’s I created.

3 Tips to Create More Cards in a Short Time

1. Minimize your supplies.

(says the girl that has SO MANY supplies) Seriously, only pull a few supplies to your studio table and focus on those. Don’t let yourself get up for anything else. Force yourself to work with those supplies. Card Kits take out the guess work for this. I love Simon Says Stamp’s Card Kit and I find when I sit down with JUST that kit I can create SO many cards. I only end up pulling ink pads, or glitter. For the most part I use JUST WHATS IN THE KIT. This will also force you to be a bit creative. You won’t get distracted petting all your other pretty supplies you have 😉 Instead you will be creating!

2. Carve out a chunk of time to work.

This may be the hardest part and trust me I know. We are all SO busy, but the cards are not going to drop from the sky already created 🙂 I find that if I block off a 2-3 hour creative session where I am JUST working with the minimal supplies I get SO much done. You get into the flow of creating and as you are making one card more ideas will come. This could be something you do in the evening after dinner and maybe once the kids are in bed. If you do a shorter amount of time then 2 hours I find that your creativity gets interrupted and you don’t hit that point where the ideas are just free flowing.

3. Don’t Give Up

This sort of goes with the above. When you have done step 1 and 2 and you start creating I can pretty much guarantee you aren’t going to LOVE your first couple cards. Keep creating. You already have all your supplies pulled and have the time set aside… SO don’t give up! Did you know that most artists start with a warm-up of sketches? Or that writers start by just writing whatever comes to their mind first to get warmed up? I promise if you keep at it and keep creating you will be happy with the cards you create AND the ones that you didn’t LOVE… that friend or family member that you send it to- they are going to LOVE it! I bet you can’t guess which were the 1st cards I made in my creative session with the December Simon Says Stamp Card Kit below. See?

A suggestion of supplies to start with if you don’t get a card kit:

• 1-2 stamp sets.
• 1 coloring medium (decided how you are going to color your images copics, watercolor, colored pencils etc)
• 2-3 ink pads. One basic one for the outline of the images and a couple colored ones for backgrounds and sentiments.
• A small pinch of patterened papers. For example the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit usually gives a small variety of 6×6 patterned papers and its the perfect amount to get cards created, but to not drown in paper. Break up a 6×6 paper pad into half, yes HALF, and work with that. OR take a few sheets of 12 x 12 papers from your stash and cut them down to 6×6.
• 4-5 solid sheets of colored cardstock OR 10 pre-made notecards
• A few embellishments. FEW. A few sequins, glitter, ribbon, enamel dots, bling etc. Not all that I listed, just a FEW.

Simon Says Stamp Card Kit

• If you are interested in looking into the Simon Says Stamp Card Kit you can find more details here. The great thing about this kit is it is month-to-month. You don’t need to sign up for a 6 or 12 month commitment and you can choose to skip a month when needed.
• You can see all of my posts where I have created something with a card kit here

Ok, as promised here is some inspiring eye-candy. Which card is your favorite?

Below each card I will also share the supplies I used that weren’t included in the December Simon Says Stamp Card Kit. This way you can see how I keep my supplies to a minimum 🙂

Extra Supplies Used:

• Lawn Fawn Ink, Lobster
• Lawn Fawn Ink, Mermaid
• Simon Says Stamp Ink, Smoke Gray
• Quickie Glue Pen
• Ultrafine Crystal Glitter

Extra Supplies Used:

• Simon Says Stamp Ink, Smoke Gray
• Simon Says Stamp Ink, Hot Lips
• Simon Says Stamp Ink, Melon
• Simon Says Stamp Ink, Jellybean
• Simon Says Stamp Ink, Scuba
• Lawn Fawn Ink, Juice Box
• Simon Says Stamp Ink, Duckling
• Stickles, Champagne

No Extra Supplies Used

Extra Supplies Used:

• Watercolor Pencils
• Tim Holtz Detailer Waterbrush
• Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders
• Simon Says Stamp Ink, Smoke Gray

Extra Supplies Used:

• Distress Ink, Hickory Smoke
• Distress Ink, Cracked Pistachio
• Distress Ink, Evergreen Bough
• Distress Sprayer
• Distress Watercolor Cardstock
• Lawn Fawn Scalloped Circle Stackables

Extra Supplies Used:

• Candy Cane Washi Tape
• Lawn Fawn Stitched Square Lawn Cuts

Extra Supplies Used:

• Lawn Fawn Ink, Mermaid
• Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher

Extra Supplies Used:

• Lawn Fawn Scalloped Circle Stackables

Extra Supplies Used:

• Lawn Fawn Ink, Mermaid
• Distress Ink, Twisted Citron
• Distress Ink, Peacock Feathers
• Distress Ink, Picked Raspberry
• Quickie Glue Pen
• Distress Glitter Dust, Vintage Platinum 

Hope these tips and card ideas have gotten your creative juices flowing! Happy Creating!

Edited to Add: Simon Says Stamp just revealed their January 2016 Card Kit, and I’m tell you- it is the CUTEST!!! This would be a great time to treat yourself! Be sure to order soon as I bet it is going to sell out SOON!