Fifteen Minute Cards

Hello everyone, it is time for our monthly selection of quick projects brought to you by the Design Team as a whole. This month, we are looking at mostly Christmas cards, as we are sharing some of the projects that we created for last month's TV shows on Hochanda, featuring some of our brand new stamps, and some older, much loved favourites as well.

If you are starting to think about making your Christmas cards, then this post will be perfect for you, as we have created lots of quick cards, perfect for batch making. You can create a production line for your cards, and have lots of the same design made in next to no time, saving lots of time and effort. By varying the colours, your cards can have a unique feel, making the recipients feel as if you have taken lots of time to make their cards feel very individual.

So, grab a cuppa, sit back and enjoy the blog post. We hope that you will enjoy our designs and time-saving ideas, and that you can find something to inspire you along the way.

Our first card comes from Anne, she has used a piece of Crafty Individuals background paper, and roughed up the edges. She stamped the Bearing Gifts image onto a piece of white card, colouring with watercolour pens in the darker areas. The colour was brushed out with either a water brush or sparkle pen to give the shading. The image was cut out and added to the background with foam pads. The sentiment was added with white embossing powder.

For her next card, Anne used a background created with ink sprays and Brusho powders from her stash. She stamped the scene from Winter Edges across the centre using Versafine Onyx Black ink, and stamped again without re-inking just above and to the left slightly, to create distance. The stamp was turned upside down and stamped along the base. Trees were then stamped randomly, inking only parts of the stamp. The reflection was created by stamping onto acetate and pressing this down onto the card to transfer the ink.

The scene was edged with black alcohol marker to frame, and mounted onto red and white card.

A simple, elegant black and white card by Marga next. This card could be created in any colour choice, and would be perfect for batch cards. Marga has chosen one of the foliage stamps from the Robin the Spruce stamp set to create a background, then used the robin on a branch image for the focal part of the card. Black matting lifts the design, and separates the layers.

I have created some quick and easy batch cards for you. The first four are all based on the same layout, using images from the Winter Edges stamp set and using sentiments from the Let's Get Festive stamp set.

I trimmed some offcuts of scrap card, scrapbook paper, and left over coloured pieces of paper from previous projects, all lurking in my stash box, so that they would fit to one side of a 7" x 7" card blank, leaving room for a sentiment.  The first two cards are exactly the same layout, just different colour options:

You could add white highlights to the kraft card option, giving it a Scandinavian feel. The second background is a gelli plate background, using bubble wrap to create the pattern.

My next card is stamp onto a Brusho background, with Stickles for highlights:

Finally, white embossing onto some scrapbook paper:

A smaller, simple card with stamping onto ribbon, and clear embossing over red stamping for the tree, you could add a few red gems in the corners if you do not like too much space:

Rachel has created a lovely wreath using foliage from the Robin the Spruce stamp set. She stamped the foliage in different colours, building up the depth. She added the sentiment and bird to finish, using black ink.

To create the following card, she masked the top and bottom of the card, and applied Distress Ink. She stamped the trees and added pen marks inbetween the trees.

For her next card, she stamped and masked a bauble, then masked an area on the card. She applied Distress Ink, and flicked water over the ink. Once she had removed the masks, she applied some red to the bauble.

Rachel created a Brusho tag for her final piece, and added white embossing for the wow factor.

Two cards from Penny next, using a similar layout for both cards, but showing how using different colours can change the look of a card completely. The first card is using textured card and green glitter embossing powder.

 The second card using white embossing powder, and has the addition of glitter glue.

We have a lovely selection of cards from Brenda next. Her first card uses second generation stamping to create the background, and she has added the robin on the branch in a deep blue to create a delightful monochrome card. It just goes to show that robins do not always need to be red! These silhouette stamps can be any colour that you like.

She has created a wreath by stamping with water based markers, spritzed with water. She then added the sentiment using a brown Versafine Ink.

The mistletoe was stamped with brown Versafine ink, and she added liquid pearls for the berries. Red bows and a red matting layer finish off the card perfectly.

Brenda's final two cards this month are simply stamped using black ink, and then she added some gems to the trees.

Pat has created two cards for us this month. She has used white embossing for the images, then added several shades of Distress Inks for the background. She has added some stars with a white gel pen. The sentiment was added using silver embossing powder.

For her second card, she has used red glitter embossing powder on red card for a tone on tone effect. The background was created by stamping one of the foliage stamps onto kraft card using Versamark and adding clear embossing powder.

We have a huge selection of projects from Magda this month, she is definitely gearing up for Christmas! For her first four cards, she has stencilled the backgrounds, stamped the images, and then added Stickles to embellish:

She has created some super gift tags, firstly using some baubles:

She has used Distress Inks to create a background, and stamped images from the Winter Edges stamp set over the top to create the following gift tags:

Next a banner for the tree:

Finally, we are taking a step away from Christmas, and looking at one or two other projects. Magda has created a set of Diwali cards. She has used warm tones for the backgrounds, adding stencils to build up texture and a bold silhouette image for the stamping. She has added a computer generated sentiment.

She has been busy with her Birthday cards as well, the first has a textured background, great crackle effect, and a lovely sentiment:

The next, a bit of colour coordinated splattering to tone with the simple colouring of the focal image:

Finally, who does not love butterflies? She has added some subtle stencilling to add interest to the background:

Our final card is from Carole, She has stamped the scene and words with Versafine Onyx Black Ink. The sun rays are extended through a stencil using Distress Inks and the blue added lightly around the edges. The sentiment is overstamped with a red Versafine inkpad.

Well, that brings our selection for this month to a close. We hope that you have enjoyed what we have shared with you this time around. We will be back next month with another bumper selection of cards and projects to inspire you. In the meantime, do keep visiting the blog for a daily dose of inspiration from the regular Design Team posts.

Thanks for stopping by,