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.