Stress Free Christmas Card Making Tips

I love Christmas and all the traditions that go with it. Making my Christmas cards is an annual pleasure and one that I have found much easier and less stressful by following a few simple rules. A little bit of forward planning makes such a difference and makes sure that you don’t have a nightmare before Christmas. 

1. Start with a list of Christmas card recipients, split the list into three sections 

a. National post

b. International post 

c. Hand delivery

2. Make sure that you have up to date address details for all your postal cards well in advance, so that you have time to find out any missing information. 

3. Check and make a note of last posting dates for national and international deliveries and plan your work to be completed in time for these deadlines. 

4. Buy postage stamps early to avoid standing in long queues at the post office. 

5. Make a note of any special cards that you want to make such as husband, mother, best friend etc. 

6. Plan your card designs and make a list of the items required to make them. 

7. For the bulk of your cards stick to one or two designs, this will speed up production and also allow you to purchase materials in larger quantities. It often helps to choose a colour scheme of 2 or 3 colours and design your cards around that. Don’t be too ambitious with your designs, there are a lot of other things to do at Christmas and you may run out of time. 

8. Always make a few extra cards for anyone that you have overlooked or last minute additions to your list; if you don’t use them you can put them away for next year. 

9. Buy your materials in good time, many suppliers have limited stocks of specific Christmas items so don’t miss out on the things that you want. If you are ordering items from the Internet allow time for their delivery. 

10. Make sure you have plenty of glue, adhesive foam pads, double sided tape etc. 

11. If you are making batches of cards of the same design, break the design down into stages and complete the same stage on each card before moving on to the next stage. This will be more efficient than completing each card individually. 

12. If you have children let them help where possible, they love to stick stamps on envelopes or punch out shapes or attach foam pads to cut shapes. Leave the tricky jobs until they are at school or in bed!