Father's Day Cards

Since next weekend is Father's Day, I wanted to take the opportunity to reiterate the sentiment I expressed before Mother's Day - parents and grandparents love handmade cards. You can draw something yourself, craft a design out of scrapbook paper, use rubber stamps, or generate a design on the computer and print it out yourself. Even if you aren't artistic, chances are you can find some way to make a card extra special for the person you're making it for.

Remember - it's the thought that counts, and your dad will be able to see the thought and effort that went in to the creation of his one-of-a-kind Father's Day card. And the best part is, it really doesn't take more time to make an original card than it does to drive to a card store, go through all the option, select the best card, pay for it, and drive home. It just looks like it did. :)

Mother's Day Cards

When I was in sixth grade, I was the Michigan finalist in a nation-wide Mother's Day card contest. Since I wasn't the national winner, my design wasn't made into a card sold in stores, but I still won a gift certificate to KFC and a set of Encarta CDs which included a digital atlas and an encyclopedia (which would have been a much cooler prize had the internet not already been around for a few years). On top of those prizes, I was also featured in our local newspaper and the Detroit Free Press, and I was interviewed on our local Fox news channel.

Since then, I've created several other greeting card designs. I made personal cards for my friends and family's birthdays all through middle school and high school, which I designed on the computer using Publisher. More recently, I've designed cards in Illustrator - here are a few birthday, anniversary, and Hanukkah designs from last year - or made them by hand, using leftover pieces of scrapbook paper to cut out and glue designs onto cardstock, handwriting the message on the inside of the card.

In my experience, card-receivers always enjoy a handmade or personally designed card over a store-bought option. Even if you aren't very artistic, chances are you can make some kind of design - either by hand or on the computer - that means something special to the person you're making it for. Even if it doesn't look perfect, the fact that you took the time to make it warms their hearts. And here's the real secret - it doesn't really take more time to hand-make a card than it does to drive to a card store, go through all the options, try to find the best card, pay for it, and drive home. It just looks like it did. :)

So this Mother's Day, get in touch with your inner child and make your mom a card like you used to in elementary school. She'll like it, I promise. ;)

Holiday Cards - Sale!

Now that it's November, the holidays are just around the corner! Do you have your holiday cards yet? I'd be happy to design a custom holiday card just for you!

I already have a few designs for Hanukkah, and would be happy to create designs for Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year's, the Winter Solstice, or any other winter holiday you celebrate!

Now, for the really good part:

Normally I charge $100 for a custom design, plus about $1 printing per card (not including the cost of envelopes), but for this coming holiday season, a custom holiday card design would cost you only $25! Your design could include photographs of your family, as well as the artwork and text of your choosing!

That means that if, after searching through your address book, you decided you needed 50 holiday cards, it would only cost $75, plus the cost of envelopes and shipping. This offer expires on December 31, 2011. Please allow approximately two-three weeks after placing your order for designing, printing, and shipping.

Send me an email if you're interested! :)

Greeting Cards

Another project I worked on recently was designing greeting cards.

I'll admit it - I took some of the wording for these from cards I saw in Hallmark, but the designs are all mine! I designed and printed these greeting cards for a client who was looking for a year's supply of birthday cards, anniversary cards and Hanukkah cards to send out to her family members. It sure beats thirty separate trips to the store to purchase them!

The card designs were created for a variety of people - sons, grandsons, daughters, granddaughters, etc. - of all different ages. I made three Hanukkah designs (a menorah design, and two star of David designs), four birthday designs (a design for a woman, a man, a girl, and a boy), and two different anniversary designs - a bouquet of flowers, and a glass of wine. Within each design, I printed several out in different colors, with different text depending on who the card was intended for. It was a lot of work, but the end results were amazing!