All set to spread the light!

I'm so pleased with myself right now, ask me why...I finished making my Deepavali cards, rummaged through my stuff for everyone's addresses, wrote out the cards and am all set to mail them, yay! Last year I was kind of annoyed with myself. First, I started making the cards very late, when there were only a few days left for the actual festival and there was no way my cards would've made it in time. Then, to make a bad situation worse, I delayed mailing them. So then I thought I'd send them anyways and still didn't! By then, the whole point of it was lost, so...and that's why I'm so happy this year - mission accomplished, well almost!

I had to make lots of cards, so I wanted to settle for a design that was simple. I went for an elegant pattern as the highlight of my cards and added some shimmer to it with rhinestones, after all festivals are all about colour and shimmer. I printed out the sentiment and the message inside. The other patterns are stamped and I hand wrote the 'Om' in the middle. I had to make the envelopes myself, which turned out quite well I thought. And they did not take very long, I just had to figure out the measurements, make a template and work off it. I stamped the envelopes to match the cards. I stuck to three base colours for my cards and made five of each :)

I have a couple of tips for all those who want to make several cards in one go -

• Stick to a simple design. Anything complicated will be quite a task to reproduce several times.
• Try out your design on a 'draft' card first. I simply used plain A4 sheets cut to my card size. That way you can play with the elements of your card until you're happy with the design. This is especially helpful when you're figuring out which way to feed the paper into the printer so you get the words in the right place! This may sound obvious, but it will save your pretty CS from being the guinea pig (hehe).
• Work through your cards in stages. For example - first cut your CS to desired size, then feed them into the printer for the sentiments, next round the corners of all cards, then stamp the main images, etc. (rather than completing one card and then moving to the next.) That way your workspace will be more organised and finishing your cards will be a breeze.

For now, my job is done. I hope I'm able to spread smiles and joy on the occasion of this beautiful festival of lights!

Speaking of spreading smiles, see Jennifer's blog to read more about the wonderful card drives she's been organising. I'm planning to send one soon.