Invitations

Making Invitations or Cards in Bulk

Invitations and Bulk Card Making

At first, making invitations for your best friend's engagement party or baby shower sounds like an exciting project.

You head off to the craft store and pick up your supplies, go home and enjoy a little craft time putting together a prototype.

After running it by a few friends, including the guest of honor herself, you make a few minor changes and smile at your masterpiece and think "you really should consider doing this professionally".

Now it's time for the dirty work - producing a large number of handmade cards or invitations. Making one card is fun, but reproducing large quantities by hand can be a drag, and make you feel more like a one-person factory line than a creative crafter.

Plan Ahead

Simplicity is the key!

If your original design is relatively simple, it won't be overly time consuming to recreate again and again, and again.

If you have lots of small pieces that have to be trimmed, glued, or tied, then you're just making extra work for yourself.

Often, the simplest designs are the most beautiful anyway.

If you're really eager to be efficient, then try to develop a design that lends itself to color copying. That's a very fast way to generate a bunch of cards!

Work Faster and Smarter

Once you've worked out the original (and simple) design, get help!

A few friends around the craft table will make the job go a lot faster.

You can catch up on the latest gossip and get your work done in no time!

Give each worker bee a task - one can do the cutting, while another does the gluing, and yet another stuffs the envelopes.

Just make sure you use quick-drying inks and glues or to avoid traffic jams along the way.

Be an Assembly Line

If you can't get a little team together, be your own assembly line.

First, do all the cutting and trimming, placing your pieces in neat piles.

Then, move on to gluing, tying, or otherwise adhering the largest pieces to the cards.

Next, put together the smaller pieces, working your way down to the tiniest details.

Organize your work flow so that you're doing the same step on each card over and over. It will be tedious, but it will move along quickly.

Repeating the same action over and over is faster than switching gears every couple of minutes.

If it's an intricate project or you have a large number of cards to complete, consider spreading it out over several days.

Happy card making!