How To: Hand Printed Holiday Cards

Last week I shared some of my favorite holiday cards from around the web, but I'm trying to keep my holidays handmade this year.  Instead of purchasing my cards, I decided to make a few in this festive snowflake motif.



You Will Need...

Blank Cards
Speedball Easy Carve
Cutting Tools
Waterbased Printing Ink
Brayer

Getting Ready...

I always always always start with some sketches.  This is the third page of snowflake sketches drew in my notebook.  The more I sketch, the more refined my idea becomes, and the better results I get in my end product.  Once I had my design all worked out, I followed the steps above to transfer my sketch onto my easy carve.

Carving the Stamp...

After I had my design transferred, I was ready to carve my stamp.  I start with my smallest blade for outlining and the detailed bits of the design.  Notice how I always carving away from the center of the design and out toward the edge, this will minimize the damage should my hand slip and the blade get away from me.  When I was finished carving the design, I trimmed away the excess material around the edge of the stamp.  This will prevent that area from accidentally picking up ink and marring the finished product.

Printing...

The printing is my favorite part of this kind of project.  You could use ink pads to stamp your designs.  However, I prefer to use printing inks and my trusty brayer to do it the old fashioned way.  This gives me more flexibility since I am not restricted by the size and colors of ink pads available.  If you choose to use printing inks for your stamps, be aware that easy carve is intended for water based inks only.  I used a mix of white and light blue inks for my cards.  Once my cards were fully dry, I used a gold paint marker to write my holiday message.  It took me an afternoon to make enough cards for all of the family and friends on my list.  Now let's see how long it takes me to send them off at the post office.  Happy holidays!