Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
I make the same card about 90 times for Christmas. Too hard to find a stamp (religious) that I like, so use it when I find one. I make about 15 Easter cards, also all alike. Just simpler that way, and with the Misti, much easier. For birthdays for women this past year, I bought the Penny Black Elegance In Motion floral stamp. Loved it, so every woman on my list all year got the same stamp on their card. I just colored them differently and used different colors for the card base. By doing a month at time, I didn't get bored with it. I also found a nice sympathy card idea for men which I have done a few times. Turns out very nicely and I'm happy to send it out. I do keep track of favorite stamps and who got the card as I also send out to some chronically ill people. Love being able to make someone's day!
I send many cards so always make them in multiples ( usually 12 at a time). I do always write a personal note appropriate to the receiver . I do not keep track of which card I send but by the time an anniversary or birthday comes around again that particular card will be long gone so not much chance of repeating .
Generally, if they're cards I'm mass-producing to sell, I do make multiples. But then, that is a requirement of the company I sell to. I do that assembly-line style, for sure. Thankfully, the most I've ever had to make of any one design for those is 40, and they're fairly simple, so no big deal. For cards I donate or give to friends or family, I generally do one-offs. Sometimes multiples, especially if I have a die (like a quilt square design) that I have to cut more than once to get all the pieces I need. Then I just puzzle-piece the die cut pieces together and make however many cards I die cut in total. (Hope that's at least as clear as mud! LOL) Even then, though, they come out different, with the patterns/colors in different places on each one. I also get bored easily (unless I'm being paid LOL). I did about 50 each of 2 designs the first Christmas I made cards, and was so sick of them way before I finished, that I vowed never to do that again! I will use the same design more than once, but mix up what images & greetings I use, just to keep it fresh.
Just yesterday I realized that I was engrossed in a week long "bee hive" of card creating, all because I had helped a friend create a bee themed masculine birthday card. I decided to make a couple of cards featuring dimensional flowers and a bee. Well, that morphed into bees and hexagons, which morphed into bees and honey, which morphed into bears and honey pots and bees...you get the idea. Well, now I have a dozen cards, no 2 alike, but all featuring bees as a design element. I'm having wa-a-ay too much paper crafting fun! No words...I'll stamp or write a personal message when the card gets used. I have friends that check in to see what's been added to my card inventory, often leading to card sales...nice! I've done identical multiples when I'm doing a full family and friends mailing...requires less thinking time. I try to keep a sample for myself...it's interesting to see how my skills have improved.
I sometimes do the one to keep, at least for awhile. Sometimes I plan on making more so it's easier to look at the dimensions and details. I have one that took forever to line up the cut out alphabet front and get the popped up shading layer behind it right so I'll keep it for a sample until I make another. I change up colors and sentiments. They all get sent eventually. I'm in the multiples are relaxing camp.
I scan cards I want to keep. The scan keeps the same size of the cards. When I get 4 in the same category -- like birthday, thank you, etc..., I create a new document, add the jpgs of the 4 cards and print. (This is easy to do on a Mac.) Then I put them in a notebook or file folder. I refer to the pages often for more ideas.
My crafty time is mostly limited to weekends (along with chores, yoga, etc.) and I make cards for church shut-ins and for nursing home residents. So this year I have started trying to make 2 or 3 cards before putting a set home. In some cases the cards are clones with the excepton of size. In other cases, I will "CASE" my first card to come up with some similar, but different cards for the other 1 or 2. For Christmas, I generally make sets of dups - a set for co-workers, a set for church shut-ins, a set for my step-dad to send, etc. Then individual cards for crafty friends.
I did some multiples the other day, just to play. Trying different types of medium, to see the results. But, I usually only do individual cards, UNLESS they are Christmas/Easter cards or some Holiday, or if I REALLY LIKE that card & want to keep one for myself! LOL Most everything is individual.
I make cards for a particular person/occasion..one at a time. For holidays, I will make multiple ones at the same time but altering the design, I also put them together assembly line fashion. (ex: Valentine's day, Christmas, Easter) I keep telling myself to make some extra thinking of you or sympathy cards to have on hand but, I don't seem to get to it.
__________________ Have a creative day, every day.
It's been interesting to read these responses. There is so much variety in this hobby.
My own answer would probably be "all of the above", LOL. Sometimes I fuss and fuss with a card, and it just never comes together right - and never gets repeated. Sometimes I fuss and fuss with a card, and I'm happy with the end result, but the effort was too much to try it again. Sometimes a beautiful card just comes together, and I decide to make a bunch of them while the supplies are still out. And some techniques just lend themselves to making multiples.
At Christmas, I tend to stick to one or two designs, assembly-line-style, because I make a lot, and it's much faster that way. Right now, I'm making lots and lots of similar cards, trying to use up some old supplies in order to make room for newer stuff.
And sometimes I make a one-of-a-kind, something special designed especially for the recipient.
As for boredom with multiples... I enjoy the relaxing repetition of making a design I'm familiar with, and I enjoy the excitement of creating something new. I just plain love to make cards. (I'm easy to please, LOL.)
__________________ ~ Kitty ~ "If you can dream it, you can do it." - Walt Disney
I like to make cards in multiples of 4 using full sheets of paper. And sometimes I mess up...okay...ALOT... and only end up with 2 usable cards. Oh well, stamping therapy is fun.
This week, I had ordered a new stamp and worked on my coloring of it. Colored one with pastel copics, one with brighter colored copics, one with water colors, and one with Prismas. Thinking today that I will color it with Distressed Inks. So many methods of coloring available and I'd like to get better at all of them. 
