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Tuesday, November 12, 2019

How to Make Greeting Cards with Your Paintings



'Daisy Delight'           18x24          pastel          ©Karen Margulis.      sold
 


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 my Photo program.   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. 
  • 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.

1 comment:

Sea Dean - Paint a Masterpiece said...

I do much the same thing, although in Canada even with sales the cost is closer to $1 for each card. The only thing I would add is that I purchased a hand stamp with all my contact information and stamp the back of the cards. Stamps can be custom made through Vistaprint or almost any printer or stationer. You can even stamp with your favourite colour ink, even gold and silver, although they’re not as legible.Thank you for your blog, I’m not a pastel list, and with breathing challenges I probably won’t take it up, but I love all your colour and background tips.