Mother's Day {meets} Mass Production..

Edit: The size of my cards is A2, 4.25" x 5.5".......since my leaves hang over the card, I will be using my brown paper sacks for packaging. If I mail them, they'll go in a small bubble mailer. :)

Hi there friends. Around this time of year I have to do a lot of pre-planning due to our busy schedules with the girls. That's when mass production comes in to full swing for me. Today I'm using my mass production mode to create all of the Mother's Day cards I need this year. And can you believe I used seven different dies and 5 different stamp on my cards today? Seems like a lot of product but I don't think my finished cards looks overdone. Come take a look as I walk you through my process today.

First up, I spent the biggest portion of this card making session stamping and die cutting my images. Once this part was done, the assembling of my cards came together lickety split. The stamps and coordinating dies I used are as follows: Beautiful Blooms II + dies, Turning a New Leaf + dies, Label Basics + dies, and Polka Dot Basics + the medium scalloped die.
Using Vintage Cream felt, I die cut large flowers and then tried something new by tea staining the felt. It definitely gave a more vintage, shabby feel. The pink flowers were stamped, the polka dot flowers from Library Ledger paper were die cut + scrunched + edged with the tea dye ink, and the leaves were stamped with green ink.
All of the die cut elements from above were then layered together and tied with Rustic Cream Twine. These layered flowers take a little time to die cut and assemble but they sure pack a pretty punch. Love them.
Next I switched gears and worked on my card bases. I used Rustic White cardstock for the card bases, layered with some patterned paper from The Girls Paperie (from Scrapbooks, Etc in Topeka, Ks). The bottom strip is Fine Linen cardstock, die cut with the medium scalloped die and then stamped with polka dots in Fresh Snow ink. Tip: Leave die cut strips long, then adhere to the card, then trim off the excess. This helps to center the scallops on the card and makes sure the strips are wide enough to cover the card base.
And here are my card bases after I trimmed the scalloped strips and added Fine Linen Satin ribbon. Usually I don't tie on the ribbon til the very last but for these cards I needed to make sure that the bows didn't cover up my Mother's Day sentiment label.
Next, I took my small and large labels that I stamped and die cut and just placed them on my card front without adhering them. I layered on my flower embellishment and leaf die cut just to get a feel for the placement of all the card elements. I call this *staging*....just piddling around, moving elements here and there to make sure everything looks balanced. Tip: When you get all the elements just right on cards and scrapbook pages, snap a photo if you need help remembering the final arrangement. I do this all the time with my iPhone when there are a lot of little pieces to adhere.
When I thought my card layout looked good, I went to work adhering my flower embellishments to the large, die cut labels with Scor-Tape (those were inked with the Chamomile Vintage Touch Tea Dye Duo ink). Tip: No need to use scissors with Scor-Tape, it tears easily with your fingers.
Here's my embellishments, all layered + adhered and ready to add to my card fronts.
Here's all my cards, ready for the final adhering of the label pieces. Note: The Mother's Day sentiment is from Blooming Button Bits.
And one final step was to add a mini glue dot under each ribbon knot. This helps the ribbon from sliding around.
And here's my finished Mother's Day cards. I took a little extra time assembling all the pieces but these are very special cards for very special ladies in my life. I know many of you only create one card at a time but I really enjoy the mass production method when I have several of the same type of card to make. I hope you give it a try!
It's a great way to create use those hard earned supplies and in the end you'll save time by using one grouping of products that you've selected for your project. I think my cards came out pretty good....a little shabby, a little vintage....I know they'll be greatly appreciated.
Have a great day everyone and I hope you get some crafty time this weekend!