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Saturday, November 23, 2013

A Quick and Easy Way to Make Greeting Cards of your Paintings

'A Happy Summer Day'             18x24            pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available here $450

5x7 photo greeting card featuring my work
$5 in my etsy shop
I like to keep it simple. I look for ideas that are low cost and low tech.  When I decided to make greeting cards of my paintings I didn't want to spend a lot of money or time making them.  I tried printing them on my own printer but my printer goes through color ink like water and eats more paper than it prints. (yes I need a new printer)  Printing my own cards didn't work for me.

I considered using a third party printer such as Zazzle , Fine Art America and Cafe Press. But I wanted to have the cards on hand and not worry about placing orders for cards. 

 I decided to make my own cards using photos of my paintings. I love the way they turned out!

a card rack I found at a thrift store

Each card cost less than 15 cents including the photo, card, envelope and clear bag. Here is what I do:

  • I order glossy 4x6 prints of my favorite paintings. I take photos of my paintings using a point and shoot camera and crop it in iPhoto. I have had very good luck with Walgreens. I upload my photos to them online and pick them up at my convenience. I always wait for a sale on prints.
  • I use Strathmore blank greeting cards. I have used both the blank cards with deckled edge and the photo mount cards which comes with the adhesive. I use a glue stick for the regular cards. You can get a box of 100 cards with envelopes on sale at Jerrys Artarama for about $25. here is a link
  • I sign each card under the photo for a personal touch.
  • I slip the card and envelope into a clearbag for protection. I get my bags at www.clearbags.com
  • The only drawback of not printing your card is that you don't have contact information on the back of each card. I will sometimes hand write my email and website or I include a business card in the bag.


I have a few of my cards available in my Etsy shop. Next week I will be adding my annual snow people cards to the store so stay tuned.




6 comments:

Margretta S. Perry said...

I had a stamp of my web address made and stamp the back of my cards. It works well. I also write the name of the painting under the photo on the left and sign on the right.

Karen said...

Great tips! Thanks for sharing Margretta!

Susan Vaughn said...

This is a great suggestion, Karen! I really appreciate you sharing your tips and ideas with your artist friends. I think I might do the same thing now that I see how wonderful your cards look! Just a question, where did you get the blank cards that have the raised design around the edges? I couldn't find them at Jerry's or Dick Blick and looked online. Thanks!

Karen said...

Thanks! I got them at Jerrys but last year so maybe they don't carry them?? Try looking under blank photo cards.

Anonymous said...

I think these tips are great, but I think you've got your math a bit wrong. If blank cards are $25 for 100, that's at least 25 cents right there. Clear bags another $7-ish? Prints maybe 10 cents on a good day? Add in cost of glue and at best it's 50 cents per card, and probably rather more if you can't get a bargain at the right time. Still think its a really good way to do it, especially if (like me) everything has to be done on a tight budget.

Jo Castillo said...

Thanks, Karen. I made the cards. Before I glued on the photos, I printed my logo and website on the back. I also printed the return label on the envelopes and will address them by hand. I bought cheaper cards since I won't be selling them and it will cost me more to mail them than I paid for them. I really appreciate all your help, advice and friendship.