Christmas Card Making in November: There's Still Plenty of Time!

Hi crafters,

Right — it's November. If you have a drawer full of good intentions and not one finished card, this is for you, and I am certainly not going to tell you off, because I have been in this exact position more years than I care to remember!

The good news is there is plenty of time. Four weeks of evenings will turn out a very respectable batch of cards, as long as you work in the right order — and working in the right order is the whole trick. Here's how I do it now, and it genuinely takes less time than the last minute panic option.

Step one: separate the Christmas stash out

This is the single most useful thing and it takes an evening. Go through all your papers and pull out everything Christmassy — the reds, the greens, the golds, the snowflakes, the holly, the tartans. Put them in their own box.

I use a green A4 box for Christmas papers and a red one for Christmas embellishments and toppers, purely so I can see at a glance which is which. The rest of the year they sit on the shelf and I don't have to plough through them looking for a birthday paper.

Same with 12x12 if that's your size — a dedicated 12x12 box just for the festive pads.

Step two: make in batches, not in cards

This is what changed everything for me. Don't make one complete card at a time. Do one job across ten cards. Work out your designs and stick to it!

An evening of nothing but cutting card bases - if you don't have any pre-made shop bought cards that is. Another evening of nothing but cutting backing papers. Another die cutting sentiments. Another matting and layering. Then a final couple of sessions putting them together and adding the fiddly bits.

You'll be amazed how much faster it is. You're not changing tools every three minutes and you get into a proper rhythm.

Step three: box each stage

The catch with batching is that you end up with piles of half-finished components all over the table for weeks, and then the cat gets on the table.

So each stage goes in a box. I use A5 boxes for this — one for cut bases, one for backing layers, one for sentiments and die cuts, one for embellishments for this year's design. Lids on, stack them up, table clear. Next session, get them out and carry on exactly where you were.

If you'd rather not stack, a Box Stak holds five A5 boxes in a frame so you can pull out whichever stage you're working on. Mine sits under the desk from the first chilly evenings right through to Christmas and it is by far its busiest time of year.

Small bits — gems, pearls, snowflake sequins, glitter — go in a Crafty Tool Box with its moulded compartments, and the deep lid turns upside down into a little work tray. That's my whole Christmas embellishment kit in one box.

Step four: store the finished cards properly

A card finished this week has to survive a few more weeks before it goes anywhere, and being left in a pile on the sideboard is not recomended. Dust, curl and somebody putting a coffee cup down on them are a few of the likely dangers!

Mine go into A6 boxes, standing upright with their envelopes behind them so I can flick through and pick one. Lid on, dust kept out. If your cards have a lot of height on them — big bows, layered domes, chunky die cuts — lay them flat instead with a bit of space above, or move up to an A5 or A4 box so nothing gets pressed.

Step five: think about the post before you decorate

Learn from my mistakes. If a card is going in the post, the depth of what you stick on the front matters enormously.

For posting, TOUGH slim boxes are a sensible option — a rigid box protects a card far better than a padded envelope, because a padded envelope still bends. Do check the current Royal Mail size and thickness rules at the counter before you commit, mind you, because those have changed over the years and I'd hate to have you caught out at the last minute.

And keep a couple of your deepest, flashiest designs for people you're handing the card to in person. That's what I do now, and my sister in Yorkshire gets a flatter but structurally sound one.

A timetable that still works from here

• This week — sort the Christmas stash, settle on two or three designs, cut all the bases
• Next week — batch the backing layers and the die cuts
• Mid November — assemble, embellish, box them up
• End of November — write and post, in daylight, with a cup of tea and no swearing!

That last line is the whole reason for all of it.

Do check the last posting dates and get anything going overseas away earlier than you think — that is the one deadline that catches me out most years.

And if you'd rather not do this to yourself again next year, start in September. Same five steps, just spread across three leisurely months instead of four busy weeks.

If you're starting this year, do send me a picture of what you make. The staff here always end up admiring the ones on my desk and I always have to make it clear they're not up for grabs.

Bye for now, and happy crafting.

Sandra.