New 52 | Week 49: All Handmade Holiday Cards

This year was the first time ever that I handmade all our holiday cards… all 40 of them.  I thought it would be fun (and it was), but it took a LOT longer to make them than I had estimated!  In total, I probably spent a good 20 hours total on them, which averages to 30 minutes per card, although I did one step at a time to all of them, assembly line style.  I started them in early November and finally finished them this past weekend.

Here they are, all 40 of them in stacks.


I think my mistake was that I made each one of them different.  I had so many different designs going that it was hard to gain efficiencies in using the same stamps, and ink color, etc.

They are trifold cards, which means when you open them they look like this.

I used my Silhouette digital cutter to cut out the ornament with our name and year, then I tied the top with holiday twine.

I stamped the backs of the cards with a “Handmade Card” stamp and signed my name and stamped the year also.


Here were some of the other designs.  These were stamped with the “Star of Wonder” stamp set from Papertrey Ink.  These are for my Christian friends.


These were stamped with “Tremendous Treats: Christmas” stamps by Papertrey Ink. 



All in all, this new adventure of hand-making all my holiday cards was a worthwhile and fun experience.  I’m really glad that I started so early on them because they really took a long time to make.  One of my Facebook friends said they’ll probably end up in people’s trash cans.  I hope not.  Now I’m sort of paranoid and want to send the cards only to people who I think would be appreciative of a handmade card, LOL.  :p

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About This Project

New52 is a project started by Peppermint and I to encourage each other and others around us to try something new every week in 2011. The "new" each week doesn't have to be something big. It could be something as simple as ordering a new dish instead of old standbys at your favorite restaurant. It's simply opening your heart up to NEW possibilities.
Don't worry if you're late getting started on joining in. It's totally OK if you miss a week here or there. We encourage everyone to keep an open mind about trying something new. This is a life project, and a photography/blog and even scrap challenge if you wish. If you participate this week, please leave a link to your blog post in the comments of this post.