assembly line originality… it is possible

The other night I took on a quick challenge to help out a friend and managed in just a few hours to turn out 12 individual and related cards in a series… and I did it by starting assembly line style.

It is entirely possible to make a number of related items individual with little differences along the way. I will explain, with pictures.

custom envelopes colored with sharpie, glossy gel pens and glitter… I drew one and then printed the envelopes before coloring them in. (those are lyrics to O Tannenbaum)

drew 18 trees with stars all a little different because they're hand drawn. then painted the backgrounds swirling changing amounts of blue and purple with water color and pearl water color paints. 

painted each tree in stages depending on color… very simple water color with pearlized accents and wash shading.

fussy cut out the trees and mounted the cards… something on my mat was causing glue smears on the black paper and so some cards have an added layer of interest in the form of silver swirl stamps.

a little closer so you can see how the trees are cut with just a little border. 

and how using a water color wash effect makes each one more unique in every way. 

and how just changing the text direction can real alter the card.

And all this because someone invented the assembly line and I thought it was a clever idea!

peace… and if not peaceful then well organized so that you walk away feeling very proud of yourself!