The Saint Nick Express!

The most daunting thing about Christmas cards, at least for me, is that I need A LOT of them (60+) and obviously I need them all at the same time. For those of us who don't enjoy mass-producing cards, this can really add up to a lot of time spent. Fortunately, I've learned a few tricks. One is that I make holiday cards all year long with Stephanie at Jingle Belles. Another is to use pre-made products whenever possible. I love the pocket scrapbooking cards that come with so many paper collections. There are a million varieties, and give cards an automatic focal point. Oh, and did I mention that they are the perfect size to feature some of our brand new Eyelet Outlet holiday brads? When I adorn journal cards with brads and place them on top of a custom background of EO washi tape, I can make a lot of unique and individual cards, very quickly! Who doesn't like that?!

When I saw this "Ho Ho Ho" pocket card, I immediately thought of our new Santa Suit Brads which come with both coat and boots. They are exactly right with last year's Santa Hats, as well. I matted the card on some gingham paper and then popped it up on a background I made by filling a slightly smaller than A2-sized panel with Red Tree Tape.

Stickers are another great time saver. I like to look at the features and scale of the design, and think about where I could slip in a brad or two to add texture and interest. This fun holiday car just happened to have a wreath on its front grill, exactly the size of our brand new Wreath Brads! The wreath on the sticker featured a red bow which overhung slightly and looked a bit odd, so I added a Poinsettia Brad at the top to cover. Mounting them so closely, I had to turn the second brad's prongs both facing the same direction. They were pretty secure, but just to be extra safe, I added a small piece of double stick tape at the back, over the prongs. Trust me, they are not going to slip or slide anywhere! The car's headlights were just a smidge smaller than our 6mm Pearl Brads, the size and profile of which really do resemble a vintage car don't you think? Finally, there I added a Heart Brad over the one printed on the card. My background is this fun argyle Christmas Pattern tape, and I've added a few red and grey Skinny Tapes behind the car, as well.

At 4" square, the pocket card with this fun snowglobe on was just a little bit too big for a standard A2 card. I often "size up" to a five or six inch square card, but this time I wasn't crazy about the original background. So I decided to neatly trim the words and fussycut the snowglobe, whose little house was just the right size for our Santa and Mrs. Claus to stand in front of, with a couple of Snowflake Brads for authenticity. When making tape backgrounds, wide washi covers lots of area fast, and this Tree Tape is an old favorite of mine. A strip of Red Dots Tape grounds the sentiment and fills in the panel perfectly.

I bet you have LOTS of pocket cards and stickers already in your collection that you could "fancy up" with a few Eyelet Outlet brads, bling or enamel shapes to make super-fast, super-fun cards!